Thursday, March 24, 2016

Dry or Die

Sometimes it just has to be dry flies. It's almost magical. Insects burst from the bottom of stream, floating to the surface or swimming to the shore. The ones that make it to the surface are at the mercy of the current for the short time it takes for their wings to dry. Trout see them and tip up there heads, effortlessly moving to grab the little helpless bugs. Fishing magic.

I love technical dry fly fishing. I love matching the hatch, presenting the fly, working the most difficult fish in the pool... any fly fisherman can take the fish sitting in evenly paced current taking mayflies consistently, but it is far more enjoyable for me to fish to and fool even a small brown rising for small caddis on the other side of a deep pool with a strong current and boiling water, in a spot with trees ten feet behind me. I made a number of attempts to get this fish from it's side of the pool but it would spook each time. I made the best of it. I find that doing a single spey cast on a long one handed rod can get a very accurate thirty foot roll cast in the wind. Having the means to get the fly to the fish I began to inspect the subtleties of the presentation. I could not for the life of me see a size 18 caddis at that distance, so I changed flies. I thought for a while about what I should use. I ended up tying on a size 12 light hendrickson. I could see it easily, control it's drift more readily, and I figured the fish wasn't going to be too picky. I timed the rise and made the cast and a quick mend. The drift was only a few feet. The fish did not take. I put the fly back a foot and it took. I made a long sweeping set and was in. It was a small stocked brown. But that wasn't the point. The point was simply that I caught the most difficult fish in the pool. That is probably the only fish of many today that I will remember in a month or two.





8 comments:

  1. Good Job!!! Nice scenic photos of the river and trout!

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    Replies
    1. Thanks,
      I can only be thankful that I live in such a beautiful place and can take these photos any day!

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  2. I love reading the details! It's all about the challenge and the adventure to get a catch. The water looks great. I could just imagine the trout coming to the surface to take the fly, YES!!! Thanks for that adventure.
    Tie, fish, write and photo on...

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    Replies
    1. Thanks,
      Of course we must all admit that the catch is a big part of it all....

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  3. Ah, the subtle blend of art and science....surely what Izaak Walton was all about. Thanks for the adventure.

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    1. Thanks,
      Walton would laugh at the mere idea of a fifty foot cast... oh how technology has changed.

      Delete
  4. Longish time reader, first time commenter. I love your posts and how they take us through the thought process, presentation challenges etc. You're spot on in my opinion - the draw of fly fishing is not the fish, but the reward of getting a fish to take a fly in difficult conditions. One of my favorite fish I've caught out West was one of the smallest - a small Cutt on the Yellowstone but it required a long cast across a ripping current, a big reach, all in a big wind - those are the ones your remember. Keep up the good work!

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    Replies
    1. Thanks George,
      If fishing isn't a challenge, it ceases to be entertaining. Sometimes, oftentimes actually, big fish are the most challenging. But when small fish are tricky that is almost as exciting.

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