Yesterday, my friend and I spent the day fishing for rainbow trout at a stream about 2.5 hours away from where I live. I rained heavily on the way there and I had noticed on my barometer that the air pressure had dropped back. I was still quite optimistic, as I have spent pleasant days on this stream in late September/early October in past years. We made good time and appeared to have the stream to ourselves, at least initially. We picked a spot that has produced reasonably well in the same month as in previous years, although this year, the water level was a bit lower than usual.
I took one rod set up for fishing a nymph and attached a caddis imitation Czech nymph to the leader and another smaller rod set up for fishing a dry fly. Since it was fairly cool and not yet mid morning, we both started to fish nymphs as there was no apparent surface or hatch activity apart from the occasional mayfly or caddis fluttering around. After as while, my partner spotted a rise right up against the far bank. Try as I might, it was a bit too far for me to cast to with my light cane rod. Another disadvantage was that it was difficult to get a good drag free drift of any length due to the faster currents between me and the target. My partner tried to swing his nymph into the spot but was experiencing similar difficulties. After a good try, we decide to give up and wade down stream as far as we could see to get to another pool that my partner had fished several years previously. There was no path and so we slowly made our way downstream as the river had widened out and was fairly shallow, although we had to swap from side to side. It took about half an hour on more to get there and took a few casts on the way, but generally it was too shallow for fish to take up residence. We eventually arrived at the pool and it was evident immediately that this pool was quite unlike the last as the surface was much smoother, the water gin clear and more like a spring creek. We started to notice several smaller tan/grey mayflies and several rising fish. I figured that the best way to approach these fish was to position myself downstream of them and start at the most downstream rising fish. I crouched down tight to the bushes and slowly edged my way downstream and into position. Bushes lined both sides of the stream making it necessary to wade out into the stream to allow for a back cast. Even then, it was somewhat difficult as one had to false cast parallel to the bank and then suddenly change direction on the forward stroke of the final cast. This was reasonably successful and I put my fly pretty much were I wanted it to go. I waited for the expectant rise and......waited some more. Several cast later, I changed flies, as I was sure that I was covering the fish close enough. Still nothing so I changed flies again and again and again. I degreased my tippet for the last 6 inches before the fly and when that didn't work, put the lightest tippet material on that I had with me which was 5.5X, but still nothing. The mayflies were hatching out for quite some time, their sail-like wings prominent as they were swept downstream or disappeared in a resounding rise. By now, we were really scratching our heads. Thinking of the prominent wing, I attached a wally-wing mayfly that I knew was too big (probably a size 12)but I had nothing in that particular style. On second cast, the fly was flopped over on its side with the wing on the water and before you could say "Jack Robinson" a fish rose to it. I struck and felt nothing, however I discovered that the tippet was caught under the tail of the fly which had caused it to tip over. It was impossible to set the hook as the tippet was caught around the bend of the hook and I must have pulled the fly out of the fish's mouth with the point facing backwards. Moving on to the the next spot downstream, therer was a small creek that entered the stream with the usual large snag in the shape of a large log sticking out of the deepest part of the pool. Fish were active as was observed by the many fast splashes at the surface of this rough and fast piece of water. I won't call them rises because there were no insects or other things visible that they were rising to. I tried various dry flies again without so much as a sniff! My partner tried a nymph and then a large Griffiths gnat fished just under the surface. He had a couple of brief pulls but no real contact. I tried comparaduns in various sizes and colours down to size 16, Harrop duns, parachute adams, Fran Betters "the Usual" and still more which have always worked in the past but not today. I was totally beaten. Perhaps my flies should have been smaller - maybe size 18- 20 even, especially in the "Spring Creek" pool. I have no idea what the fish were feeding on in the last place as I could see nothing on the surface. It was very humbling and frustrating experience and I'm not sure what I have learned as I have yet to figure out what was happening. Skunked again. Neville (Nev) Gosling Greater Vancouver, B.C. Canada --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the "VFB Mail" group. To post to this group, send email to vfb-mail@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to vfb-mail-unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/vfb-mail?hl=en VFB Mail is sponsored by Line's End Inc at http://www.linesend.com -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
