PTHW Ep. 10. Late Shift and Meat Flies

It was another warm day yesterday. I made my way the river late in the day, ready to throw nothing but big meaty flies in hopes of hooking into some of the large aggressive wild trout that live in this stream's many log jams and cut banks. Streamers were up first. I started out with Cheech's Mongrel Meat. No takers. I switched over to a yellow Heifer Groomer. It took a little while but eventually a nice wild brown came out of the cut bank and slammed it.

That was a decent wild trout for this water but it only made me more excited to stick something bigger. I worked my way upstream and moved a few smaller trout, nothing serious. Then I watched a rainbow just jump all over the bright yellow fly, them all over the run when I strip set. 

Right after I released that fish I ran into another angler. He was obviously new to fly fishing and asked a few questions. We chatted for a little while, I gave him a streamer and wished him luck. Hope it caught you a big one buddy!

I kept working upstream, moving small trout here and there. I got two takes from bigger fish before changing flies. The first I never got a hook into, the second was a high teens wild brown that the hook did not get good purchase on. That was a heart breaker. By this time the sun was right at the horizon and bugs were everywhere. Light cahill spinners, hatching tan caddis, and beatis were the primary bugs. Fish were rising, but I stuck with meat flies. I don't think the big fish in a river like this will ignore a streamer unless there is a really epic hatch in progress. I changed color but not size or pattern, now black to match the conditions. I missed two trout in one pool that I always have confidence in. One was large. At this point the sun was gone. I walked a few runs up and switched to a mouse. Hopefully these fish would be in nocturnal mode already. I worked through all those runs, nothing. Then I got to the pool where I missed two. Tried for the bigger one, no dice. The smaller one, however, came up and absolutely trashed my mouse. The hook stuck well and in moments I was holding a beautiful fat wild brown; my first wild trout on a mouse. 

Unfortunately in the next half hour I got nothing but a few misses from small fish. No toads tonight. I will get a big wild brown out of this river this year. It's just a matter of timing.