August 14

Last night at work was very slow, they put steel casing in the well and cemented it in place. So basically all last night we sat around waiting for the cement to set. Around 8 this morning the well site geologist told me that I really didn't need to be there and that I could leave as long as they could get a hold of me if they needed to, so I got a few extra hours off this morning and we don't actually have to be back until tomorrow at noon, which is when I'd be finishing my shift tomorrow. So I get tomorrow off too, but I still get paid for it. They are essentially paying me to go fly fishing is the way I see it!
Today's fishing was alright, not bad for my first time fly fishing this year. I caught a few rainbow trout, none very big (and the only one I got a picture of is down-right tiny) but I had a good time. The river is pretty open, no trees or anything. It just snakes across a high desert plateau. I wasted a bunch of time on a couple of fish that I could see, they were feeding but didn't want anything I threw at them. They were feeding on the surface and on the bottom but nothing worked! I tried terrestrials and dries and nymphs, the only things I didn't try were my wet flies and bass flies.
I got  a little sunburned because I completely forgot to put my sunscreen. As I was pulling up to park I saw a mountain lion. Not a very big one, but a wild cat none-the-less. My mind must've been focused on where the cat might have gone after it saw my car because I didn't think of my sunscreen again until I was heading back to the car. I'm glad to say that where-ever that mountain lion went, I didn't see it again. I enjoy seeing wildlife from my car, but have little interest is seeing it while I'm on foot. I tried to get a picture of it, but it was kind of far away for my camera.
Tomorrow I'll be back out on the river. I like working here at Mammoth.