Perfection (at last)

Many remember the classic image of Babe Ruth calling his shot - it's a fantastic little slice of Americana. 

Monday I was watching a fish rise up against the bank of the river while trying to figure out what he was eating.  After a few moments of observation, I tied on the magic little CDC down wing caddis that I had tied a few weeks earlier, pointed to the fish, and gave it a go. 

The results were better than expected - a perfect cast and a perfect take on the first attempt.  That's noteworthy, considering that typically this results in my fly landing in the weeds and the footage being deleted.  Oftentimes getting a perfect cast and a perfect drift to large bank feeders requires a good amount of patience and attention to detail - too much line and you'll be in the brush, too little and you'll be outside of the feeding and big trout do not like to move for small dry flies, or you'll have a drag in your drift.

To make things more difficult, even with the correct amount of line out, a cast that disturbes the surface of the water too much will send a large fish to the bottom of the river for some time - especially fish who have been fished too all year long.  However there are occasions like the one depicted below where it all comes together and appears effortless.  These are the moments that keep me coming back. They are only realized through experience, practice, patience, and above all else time spent on the river.    

Father and Son

It’s never too late and you’re never too old for a Father and Son fishing trip.  To prove it, I decided to take my Dad on a much needed fishing trip – for both of us. 

My parents recently re-located to Boise from Eastern Idaho, and I had just completed my annual training for the National Guard, so it was the perfect time for a break!   

I had taken my Dad to the Owyhee once before in the early spring, and we had a dreadful day in the pouring rain, so the intent was vindication.   

The day started with a bang as my dad hooked and landed his first Owyhee river brown – a real dandy!  Then we worked hard for several hours to find fish during an uncommonly slow morning.  Persistence, relocation, and a few cold beers later the PMD hatch was in full swing, and our rods were bent! What a good way to spend a day.

 

 

09 July 2012

Yesterday I went to what has become my favorite fishing spot: The Owyhee!  This river spoils a person to the point where fishing for small trout in streams loses a lot of its appeal, which I guess is depressing in a way.  It can be fished year round, has healthy aquatic insect life, and boasts tremendous amounts of large, wild brown trout.  As usual it did not disappoint, and several very nice fish were taken, some of which required a break in the action to deploy my trusty Polaroid tripod that hangs on my vest connected to my GoPro. 

It was an interesting day all around: The forecast called for 106 degrees, and it was certainly hot.  There was an interestingly orange hue to the air all day due to several fires in the area, as if someone was watching from above and fiddling around with their instagram settings.   It was also interesting because of the diversity of flies that caught fish:  it never ceases to amaze me that there can be such a wide range of insect hatches depending on where you are on the river: PMD’s and caddis can dominate the scene in one spot, and a few short miles up the canyon they are nowhere to be found.  I fished through yellow sally, caddis, pale morning dun, blue winged olive, and midge hatches all in the same day – and managed to sprinkle in some hopper action at midday just to keep things interesting (and was rewarded with several nice takes) simply by moving around the canyon. 

What I continue to find so interesting as I continue my endeavor into angling competence is the focused effort that is required.  The water has a seductive quality that is almost unparalleled.  The cacophony of sights and sounds blend together to form the most calming cocktail I’ve experienced: The blue herons and waterfowl flying overhead, the water gently flowing around your legs, the audible gulp of a large feeding fish, and the sound of the fly line as it gracefully soars overhead and hits its target are all the ingredients.  The ambiance lends itself to angling success from the get-go. 

Not once did I think about the workplace; not once did I think about my never ending “to do” list there; not once did I think about the ever-growing list of things that bother me. This is the great discovery of fly fishing - it's not a sport, but a retreat of the self.  

So I breath.  I cast.  I catch fish.  I repeat.  And yet somehow there are no “winners” or “losers” – there is only a river.

Enough of that - flies that caught fish (in no particular order):

Foam bullet hopper

Chernobyl Ant (my version)

CDC Griffith’s Gnat (#20)

Light Cahill (#16)

BWO Comparadun (#18)

“Trusty” Rusty Paraspinner (#16)

PMD last chance cripple

Trusty Rusty

I've been re-looking through Rene' Harrop's latest book "Learning from the Water" (If you fly fish you need to read this book), and honing my fly tying skills.  I fished the Owyhee a few weeks ago on a Monday and got schooled for a few hours, followed by a few hours of pure dynamite once I discovered that the fish were up taking mayfly scraps off the surface.  I put one of these rusty paraspinners on and held on tight!!  One of the best mayfly patterns I have in my box for sure......

It pays to persist

Tuesday night I decided it was time to go fishing, so I took off work an hour early and headed to the Owyhee for the evening.  It was a gorgeous 86 degree day with very light wind and I knew there would be a good amount of caddis activity.  As usual it did not disappoint and I took several fish.  There was one however that taunted me for a few hours – sticking his nose outta the water just  often enough to hold my attention.  I moved around several times to target and catch other fish, but somehow continued to find myself migrating back to his location. He was hanging underneath a noticeable snag under the bank that you can see in the video.  The first time I spotted him I almost immediately got him to take a new foam-backed caddis pattern that I had brainstormed at work on Monday (what else are Monday’s good for?) and tied that evening.  I missed and he stopped rising, so I moved.  Well, this happened a few more times before we finally connected towards the end of the night.  By a stroke of good luck (and battery life), I was able to capture all my failed attempts as well as my eventual triumph on the trusty GoPro.  While watching this video, notice the progression of daylight and note how it gets darker and darker before I finally was the victor.  Fish 3, Cody 1.  Remarkably, I did not lose any flies in the bushes while attempting to bust this guy…………

High and Dry

I re-learned a valuable lesson while fishing with a friend last Monday on the Owyhee - that is, the value of a very large dry fly fished with a dropper.  And while I did have one fish actually take the large dry fly that was suggestive of a large skwala stonefly that will occasionally hatch in the springtime in my part of the universe, I did quite a bit of business with a very small, unweighted mayfly nymph that I suspended underneath the big dry, which acts as an indicator.  This is definitely a preferred setup for fly fishing, and as usual I spend the winter and early spring forgetting it's advantages, simply because any dry fly that can realistically be fished in winter is just too small to drop another fly beneath.

Here's one of my favorite big dry's for use as a general stonefly/hopper, but particularly as a "hooked indicator".  It's called a Parachute Madam-X, or PMX.

The Cast (and the crowd) of the season

Last Friday I tried to beat the crowd and go fishing.  As I was driving the just-over-an-hour trip from my house in Meridian to Eastern Oregon through the vast stretches of farmland and wide open country, with the Owyhee range bearing witness in front of me (commonly referred to as "the reason I would never want to live anywhere east of Wyoming"), the thought occurred to me that I actually find it alarming that I should have to beat the crowd at all.  If you are reading this, I would encourage you to navigate all the way back to my first ever post on this blog for some background on the upcoming discussion.

It was 36 degrees and overcast, and the forecast was for a 60 degree day with a 30% chance of rain showers, mostly before noon.  Observations from the windshield of my Toyota indicated this was spot on.  My thoughts drifted from the frustration of the crowd to typical mental ramblings: "Will it rain all day?" "Maybe it will - hey, maybe the rain will keep people off the river", "I wonder if the Blue Wing Olive's will come off today?", "I wonder if I'm going to be a terrible T-ball coach............eh, hopefully not", "I wonder if anyone even remotely thinks I'm a good Commander" and before I knew it, I was entering the canyon stretch of the Owyhee river below the dam.  Self doubt was out the window.

I was instantly energized and began anticipating my arrival at the first of two spots that I have found to be over-productive and under-fished: It was 9:00 A.M.  Then came the shockwave: there were three campers spread out across the stretch of dirt-road generally vacant as I drove past the spot that I had intended to fish first.  I sped up, grab the volume knob, uttered a few "aww shits" and moved on.  I approach the location of my previous encounter with a remarkable fish (spot #2) to find three trucks parked there as well. " DAMN.  Keep moving".

More road, more vehicles, more campers, more people parked in prime spots and sitting in their vehicles to avoid the rain (they are about to embark on a journey that requires them to actually stand in running water mind you).   WTF? Finally, I find a spot to park that is not too close to anyone else.  "Finally - why on earth are so many people here on a rainy Friday morning?  I've never seen this place so crowded".

I suit up, load up my streamer rod since it's pouring rain at this point, and hit the water.  Then it hits me: "What the hell is that floating on that shallow gravel bar................oh, of course".  It's a very nice, very dead wild brown trout of about 22".  Now I'm pissed: I'm pissed because (regardless of what actually happened), I've "decided" that some clown got lucky blind-casting and hooked the fish of his life, kept it out of the water way too long so his buddy could take a few glory shots with his camera, and killed the fish.  I know this because the fish is only discolored in two spots - exactly where two grubby hands were holding him.  There is no evidence to point at anything except angler-induced mortality.  I lament this for several minutes, lament the crowd, bemoan the deplorable fact that these fish might just be over pressured, etc.

I fish in the rain, hook a few fish on the black leech from the previous post, actually land one, and head back to the truck to change rods and light a cheap cigar when the sun comes out.  I walk.  I walk some more.  I watch water. I watch more water.  I see and inadvertently spook countless fish in the low water.  I hook and release a decent fish.  Then I spot a fish holding in a highly improbably lie: he's in a very very shallow spot wedged between the bank and a little muddy/gravely mini-island about 2 feet from the bank, and his back is to me.  He's 50 feet away.  There is no current.  I know I can't move because he will spook like all the others.  I know that if I mess the cast up, I will either land the fly on dry land and break it off, or slap the water and spook the fish.  "I can't make that cast".  "It's too far with this breeze".  "There's no way to get a fly where he can see it without spooking him".  "Damn that fish is big".  "Why not".

I rip some line out, gently place the cast of a lifetime (a cast I could probably get right about 20% of the time on a great day) right on top of the fish's dorsal fin. Damn - too short.  Almost instantly, he moves forward, turns around, and absolutely crushes the tiny dry fly.  Game on!

The rest of my rant on Angler behavior that day, or on over pressured fish in general will have to wait.  It simply illustrates the unfortunate reality of having a world-class brown trout fishery so close to a heavily populated area.  Perhaps it's time for me to find some off-the-beaten-path spots for smaller, less pursued trout.  In the mean time, here's the fish:

Woolly Blogger......

Here's another Wednesday night project while the kids are in bed and the wife is teaching young children how to dance: This is my spin on a classic fly pattern called the Woolly Bugger - I just call this fly a Black Leech, because you can't change a classic pattern and still called it the same thing.  It incorporates a lot of flash - from the tail all the way to the thorax, and has a very thin body.  It's tied to bridge the gap for me between a traditional woolly bugger and a stillwater nymph, and I have had good success fishing it from Billingsley Creek to high mountain lakes.  Enjoy the video, or at least turn the volume up and dust your office......

Stay young, go fishing

More playing with my GoPro, more showcasing my mediocre tying ability, and more dreaming of warmer weather when this "fly" will actually work. This is a Chernobyl Ant - one of the most prolific attractor style flies for warm weather. This thing just has a knack for drawing strikes from large fish when nothing else seems to work.  

Gear Review

This is primarily a gear review about two products I used yesterday on the Owyhee River: My new GoPro Hero 2 HD camera referenced in my previous post, and this was my first experience with Cutthroat furled leaders - leaders made not out of monofilament like most on the shelf at your local fly shops, but rather out of several pieces of thread twisted together, and then tapered much like a regular leader.  Cutthroat leaders is a local company from Boise, and man are they nice!  They have no memory, do not get wind knots, and made even an amateur like myself cast like a pro!  I'm sold!

As for the GoPro - I love it!  A sample of what it can do is included below (and perhaps I should have cleaned my windshield).  I also discovered that even when it no longer has enough battery life to video, it's 11 megapixel wide angle camera feature works like a champion! I hooked a fish in excess of 25" (which I would have broken off had it not been for my new leader), and the battery life would not allow me to video the catch.  Plan B: Put it in photo burst mode, set to snap a shot every two seconds, and viola - still able to capture a fantastic fish and quickly release him unharmed! With days off this good, who needs a job?..............

New Toy......

I fully admit to being a techno-tard.  However, I recently decided that I just "had to have" a GoPro Hero 2 HD video camera in order to capture various fishing footage.  It wasn't until I had a few beers that I realized it could have other uses.  Here's me playing around with the camera (and my take on a rather old fly pattern) after the kids were asleep..................enjoy.

Spring has sprung......

Although few seem to have acknowledged it to this point, spring appears to have arrived (at least in Meridian, ID). Sure, it still freezes at night - but with day after day after day of sunshine and 50 + degree weather, it's prime early-spring fishing weather. Add to that a new rod (see previous posts), and a lack of runoff from a mild winter, and you get one happy angler. Last week I hit eastern Oregon's Owyhee River twice, and the fishing was pretty good - as usual for this time of year, dry fly action came from midges - those tiny little flies that seem to able to hatch no matter how cold it is. Size twenty Griffith's gnats did the trick!  Naturally, I don't see the need to dig my camera out for every fish - here are a few that I made an exception for:

Workplace Oasis

This is an overdue post.  A few months back, I was selected to be a company commander for my job with the National Guard.  All that really means for this audience is that my hair will become (is already becoming?) gray much quicker than it normally would have, and that I will, at some point, get promoted to Captain.  However my incredible wife Bridgette, who has an amazing knack for gift-giving, got me this cool shadow box as a gift so that I could display some of my flies at my office. 

I spent some quality time around Christmas tying some flies, and she created me some very nice looking labels for them.  Several hours, one fish picture, and a trip to the craft store for some cork later, and here is the result:  It’s so nice to be able to look at my wall and be taken to another place entirely, and it’s very nice to be lucky enough to have a spouse who understands my addiction to fly fishing!  Thanks for the work oasis, Honey! 

the (4) weight is over....

The time had finally arrived for me to own and fish with a 4 weight - something I have not done in quite some time.  As usual, I decided to build rather than to buy, and boy am I glad I did!  This rod turned out great - not only does it look great, but it casts incredibly well.  The theme for this rod was subdued - matte blank, gun metal thread, dark titanium carbide guides and reel seat accented with a beautiful box elder burled insert.  Can't wait to take it to the water!

Casting for Schwag

This past weekend was the fly fishing expo in Boise!  It's the first time in several years that the event has not conflicted with my Drill weekend for the good old National Guard.  I was so excited that I loaded the whole family up and headed down there!

As I expected, there was an almost endless array of things to look at - so much that it bordered on overwhelming.

The best part by far was the casting pond.  Towards the end of the evening, they did a "casting for dollars" contest, where you pay a dollar and attempt to land a fly in a small concession-style soda cup at 30 feet for some prizes.  The rod was an Orvis Helios (and of course now I must have one!!), and after playing the "kid card" (helping Drake cast -and of course he was a winner for being such a cute little kid and showing interest in casting), I paid my dollar and nailed it.

 SO - for two dollars, We took home what ended up pricing out at $110 dollars worth of Schwag!! ($80 fly line, and $30 MFC Coffee Mug). 

See you on the River (with hot coffee and new line),

-Cody