Obey River, Clay County, Sunday 3:00 p.m., February 11, 2007. Generally, I fish in the early morning. Today, it was the afternoon, and I had two and a half hours until dark. The water was lower than I had ever seen. The rock bar at Keisling's Bottom was as large as a football field. The only flow was eight to ten feet wide running along the east bank. Past the rock bar, the water was generally six to eight inches deep for as far as one could walk. At different stages down the river there are landmarks. Downstream from the rock bar you first find the tire rim at one hundred yards and then the upside down double sink at about two hundred yards. Today I fished past the sink, down to the steel ladder (probably from the dam or its construction) submerged along the east bank. The ladder is located just short of the bend in the river. Each of these spots is reassuring to the fisherman; providing confirmation of an exact location in the river, much like a GPS. I began fishing down stream with a three fly set up: 10 elk hair on leader with eight inch trailer 18 salmon egg on 7x with a final 4 inch trailer 20 BH zebra midge. With each known landmark, nothing. At the new landmark, nothing. It took an hour to travel the 400 yards. I was 60 minutes into the trip. I crept, bent over, stayed out of the water where possible and created no ripples when I waded. Nothing. After such disappointment, I needed to take a break and collect my thoughts. Just like Jackie Gleason. I removed the salmon egg and decided to fish back upstream with a two fly rig: elk hair and zebra midge. I found no better luck. At 90 minutes into the trip I was passing the tire rim. Just downstream from the rock bar, the water came together at the leaning tree to make a fifteen foot run of current. Under that current was a deep channel. I floated the flies through the current ten or twelve times. Nothing. On the last pass my slack line caught on a rock and pulled the floating line onto the shallow bank. As I stripped it back in a large stock trout exploded from five to ten inches of water to take the elk hair and headed to the channel for deeper water. The hook was set good. I began stripping in my line while the trout played. It did not occur to me that I was standing out of the water on dry rock. I have landed all my fish waist deep in water. For lack of experience, I made the cardinal mistake. I allowed the trout to lay on the bottom in three inches of water. With the leverage gained from being on the bottom, he took one big jump and was off. What heartache and exhilaration, all at the same moment. Undaunted, I quickly cast again. Bam. Fish on. Two in less than two minutes. After a shorter fight, the second trout was off. Two strikes are as good as a catch to one who has been on a dry run for too many months. I had no other luck for the rest of the day. I finished at 130 minutes as the light went to black standing waist deep in water that was as smooth as glass.