Effective Fishing: How Well Can You do in Two Hours?

I spent an hour today hunting for Gigundo, the big broodstock rainbow I lost on Saturday. When I decided that I wasn't going to find him I moved upstream and opted to make use of the two most quantity and quality effective methods I know: shortline nymphing and fishing caddis though steadily rising fish in the Big Bend Pool. In two hours I racked up some numbers. The fast water was loaded with rainbows, and with a red Zebra Midge I caught a lions share. There were two bait fisherman working the same water, neither of them caught fish while I was there. I even covered the water they worked through. On pocked gave up six fish. They were feisty and hard fighting. The more I use the 10' 5wt. for short lining, the more I love it. The strikes are so easy to detect, it handles hard fighting fish in fast water, and I can fish any seem on a smaller river with relative ease.

On the Big Bend Pool there are almost always fish rising, and the meal of choice is typically caddis. The Salmon is, after all, an exceptional caddis river. I have dialed this pool in well. It is very technical, requires long casts, stack mending and very long drifts. I can almost always catch fish on dry flies in this pool, and today was no exception. I caught a bunch of browns and a few more small rainbows, reaching the same number of fish I caught while nymphing. I saw a bald eagle while on that pool. I love those chance encounters. Osprey, bald eagles, and barred owls live in respectable numbers in the drainage.

There are a few simple rules if you want to fish effectively. Use proven flies. Use proven techniques. Cover water. Don't hold in one spot if there aren't fish taking there, but don't leave a spot when there are fish feeding or if you haven't covered all of the holding water at the depth the fish are most likely to be holding. If you can't figure out how to do the above rules, you need to spend more time fishing!