Time on the fly: 2013

I have not blogged in quite some time, I know. However, Monday the 12^th of August simply had to be chronicled: I had to be home in the afternoon for a Birthday celebration, so I got up early and headed to the river much earlier than I usually do as it’s usually a more productive fishery in the afternoon.

From 7:00 to noon ended up being quite simply the most consistent and fantastic morning of dry fly fishing that I think I have ever experienced – and I’ve been fortunate enough to enjoy some very good days in my time. When I parked the truck it was evident that I was in for a good morning – I could hear fish rising before I ever got through the willows to see the water. Once I slipped into the river, I picked my first target, worked my line out, and instantly had the first big brown of the day hooked up. I eased him over to soft water near the bank, landed him, snapped a photo, and it was game on!

From there I worked my way up a long stretch of slick, slow moving water, picking up cruisers every couple of minutes simply blink casting a small BWO spinner over likely holding water. There were several fish up and actively working, so I ended up spending more time drying my fly off after each fish than I did actually casting! About halfway up the slick on the way to a wide, waist-deep riffle that I knew would produce good results, I began hearing aggressive, splashy grabs periodically mixed in with the more rhythmic rises indicative of trout feeding on mayfly spinners. Then I actually say why: There were several large craneflies depositing eggs across the surface of the water – flying quickly in sporadic patterns. I focused on one and watched it cross the river, double back, and get hammered by a large brown trout in the middle of the river. Game on – I didn’t have any cranefly adults with me, so I picked a dark brown bullet hopper out of my box, tied it on, and immediately caught three large browns on consecutive casts. The acrobatics of these three fish seemed to put down the rest of the fish in the slick as I worked them from the middle to the soft edge to land each of them. It’s amazing this worked so well, considering I didn’t bother swapping out my 6x tippet prior to using the hopper.

From there, I waded up to the bottom of the riffle, and…………paydirt! There were literally heads everywhere as I got close enough to see them in the moving water. I quickly traded the hopper for a #20 black emperor caddis and proceeded to go manic for the next two hours. I was fishing alone (as I’ve grown quite fond of), but actually found myself wishing someone was there just to witness what was happening. It was one of the few times where I literally had to stop fishing because my arm hurt from playing so many fish on my 5 weight – what a day!

Flies that caught fish:

#22 BWO CDC Spinner

#12 bullet-head hopper

#16 Rusty para-spinner

#16 CDC “caddibaetis” – a cross between a calibaetis and a caddis that always produces – one of my inventions

#20 black emperor caddis – this was caught a LOT of fish!