[VFB] Fly tying last nite & fishing today

[DMurphy832]

Last night I tied up some real sweet copper john variations to use today on the "secret" stream.  Wouldn't you know that I left them on my tying table last night and was too anxious to fish today to remember to put them in my box.  No worrys, I had plenty of other CJs in my box anyway.  Wouldn't have made a difference anyway.  Had a 23 fish day and all but one fish was caught on a dry fly.  Had the dropper on all day.   Got to the stream about 8 and we meandered downstream from the tracks (a bit different from the other water we fished on this stream this summer as it got smaller and had some pond-like bends I expected blugills and bass out of) and picked up a few fish on #18 black ants.  Going upstream to the bridge, not a fish got close to my fly.  Just above the bridge, I put on a #14 Adams parachute and proceeded to catch 8 fish in about 20 minutes in one long pool.  Unbelieveable!  Moved up beyond the first deadfall and caught 5 more on a #16 Adams as the parachute was chewed badly and falling apart.  Continued like this until we got tired and decided to head home.   The real unusual part of this is two-fold.  First, the CJ normally (always has in the past) outcatches the dry 10-1, if not more, on this stream.  Second, my most deadly casts were across and down with most fish caught way down as I played out lots of line with the drift almost against the bank where the fish were holding much of the time.  My upstream casts were mostly to clear pools and usually the tails and I missed a lot of strikes for some reason on those.  Seemed like my timing was right but maybe it was the drag from my line in the riffles below catching it just about the time of each strike.   Was a great day even if I left those flys at home.  Seems like I learn something new every time I fish.  Today's fish were all browns.  Some showing vivid colors and others looking like they were stocked recently (those were all about 8").  The biggest fish, 13"-16+", were all colored very nicely.  And yes Byard, I used a tape measure today or that 16 3/8 incher would be reported as 18".  ;-)))   Murf