Trip Report: Outmatched

This afternoon I rigged up the first fly rod I ever built, 7' 6" 3 weight, and headed to what I would consider my home water. This stream has some vary old habitat improvement work done and pretty decent undergrowth. This is the kind of stream where every lie holding a big fish is obvious and my choice of fly always seems to work. I was hoping to encounter some hoppers but found none. I briefly rigged up a small hopper just to try but no takers.

After fishing fast through the first section of stream with the hopper I tried the pink squirrel of prey and BINGO!

This guy put up a solid fight on the three weight. After admiring his spots I returned him to the depths of the river. As I worked my way up stream visibility improved as did the fishing.

I only tied up two pink squirrel of preys and after snapping of on two decent fish was forced to change tactics. One around 18 inches pulled me under and around a rock before retreating to the undercut snapping my line. I tied on a brown SJ worm and continued.

 As I approached this run I noticed a fish near the head of the run. I tossed the fly in and held on!

This guy fought hard but was no match for the three weight. A little further up stream the brute on the right shot out from an undercut to take my fly. He proved to be a handful on the light gear but came to hand after a short fight. As I approached my endpoint I reflected on my trip. I was frustrated that I couldn't land one of the two big guys that snapped my line. I approached the last good spot on my itinerary tentatively.

 This gnarly spot required some thought as to how I'd fish it. I settled on high sticking the fly down stream. After bouncing a few feet my strike indicator dipped below the surface.

This chunky bastard darted under the submerged log pictured above before heading toward the undercuts, rocks, and vegetation.After dancing a pretty complicated dance I scooped him up in my net. After a few quick pics I returned him to the depths. 

I spotted no fish surfacing all day. No hoppers yet either, but soon!

Trip Report: July 7-17th

I've gotten out fishing a hand full of times over the last few weeks. The majority of my time has been spent tying up an inventory of flies, practicing fly rod building, work, and a little bit of fishing! Hopefully by mid winter I'll have enough flies and rods built that I can open up a small online fly shop. So far I have tied around 400 zebra midges and I'll be working on loads of other midges, CDC emergers, parachute dries, nymphs, hoppers, and stompers during the coming months. This month conditions have been good. We've been getting rain at a consistent enough rate that I have only had to water the garden once this year! This has left the water with a good cloud to heavy stain. This is good news for the fish. Unfortunately along with a good garden of food growing in the garden, stream side vegetation is grown in.

On the 7th I got out for a few hours on a smaller stream that harbors a decent number of above average browns. This was one of the first days that wet wading felt really good. I encountered no significant hatches but caught around a dozen on a yellow RS2 emerger and a few more on the pink squirrel of prey.

 In the pic on the right you can see that the stream side vegetation was just starting to prohibit easy access to good lies and trouble on the back cast of a bad back cast. On the 12th of July I decided to bust out the kayak for a workout. I put the 'yak in on a pretty popular stretch of a local river and paddled upstream. It was hard work and I was soaked in sweat before long.

 For every cast I took I lost 5-10 feet of progress up river. I managed to roll a few decent browns but while line control seemed difficult hook sets proved impossible. Well, almost impossible!

 This decent brown came while I had the 'yak beached. I saw a few fish surfacing but every time I got within range they'd stay down. He and a hand full of small ones came on the various nymph patterns. Today I worked a short day before picking up the boat for another workout. I headed to another pretty popular access point and headed upstream.

Traveling was pretty tough but I managed to beat the current. In this spot I paddled to the tail of pools, beached the 'yak, and worked my way through each pool, run, and riffle ahead. Then I'd paddle to the next set of lies. 

I saw a few really small fish rising so I opted for the tungsten beaded nymph. This guy fought pretty hard but was no match for my homespun fly rod. After a quick pic he was released to fight another day. I manged to rouse a few decent fish but only landed around a doze with the one pictured above the biggest. 

Toward the end of my paddle I faced a good log jam and pool with a young mother and two kids paddling an inflatable raft down toward me. They took a right when they needed a left and got stuck in strong current leading to a sticky spot in the jam. The current running around and through the jam had been scoured out to around 6 or 7 feet deep and the current lead directly into a point of no return. I asked if they needed help as I paddled by and the mom said, "I think so." I beached the 'yak and waded in pretty deep she was still pretty far back in the jam. She looked like she was paddling hard but making little progress. I had no rope but reached into the jam to grab the longest branch I could find. The current was pretty strong but I managed to maintain my balance while pulling the branch from the jam. She was still pretty far away so I cheered her on saying things like you can do it, come on, you're getting close, etc. She got close enough that she could reach the stick, grabbed on, and I pulled them upstream as they pushed off all the sharp sticks that threatened the inflatable boat. I got them up and around the jam and back into the main current. They were able to turn downstream and hit the safe current seam. After a few nice words they disappeared around the next bend.

Oh yeah, then I busted my fly rod when I was unloading my gear:( Now I get to build a new one:)