My brother, Andrew, floated Lyon's Bridge to Pallasades this afternoon with a wookie, I mean rookie (rod and oars). I skipped it in fear of the wind, heat, and less-than-stellar fishing I experienced last weekend. Apparently, my judgement is lacking (somehow I manage to continue reliving this 'epiphany'; see bias blind spot, pseudocertainty, anchoring, overconfidence, etc.).
Fish were routinely rising to smallish brown spotted foam hoppers. As previously mentioned, the oarsman lacked experience which inevitably leads to poor drifts in the middle of the river--not a problem this afternoon.
They did report a number of refusals, but suggested that short dead-drifts were to blame. I have a hunch that an ant or beetle hanging off the back of a hopper will kill it tomorrow, and I hope to find out.
Andrew took this photo of the virgin fly-fisher Nick (no offense meant by the link, it just seemed appropriate somehow):
