Daughter's First Trout

I've been trying to figure out the right timing to fly fish for trout with the kids. I tried last year and it went great until about 20min in my son fell in the river. He wasn't swept away by the current but he did go in face first and got soaked. This time instead of taking both I decided to try just going with my daughter. The weather seemed to cooperate and I knew a stream had just been stocked. My mother was able to come along and things were adding up to make a great fishing trip. We got to the river and only one other car was in the parking lot. I rigged up our gear as fast as I could and my mother talked to a gentleman who was recently fishing. He said he didn't think it was stocked at all. My heart kind of sank when I heard that but I was skeptical and decided to check for myself. I looked in a location I knew always had fish and sure enough there were 4 or 5 just hanging in the calm water.

 Fish were here and I knew a run where they stack up after stocking. I put my daughter in position and watched her cast upstream. I tried to explain how to watch the drift and keep an eye on the indicator. On her third cast the indicator dipped. She lifted the rod late and felt the tug of a fish and instantly had that smile you get when you hook a fish. "I felt it fighting!" she said. The next several casts she had several strikes and her timing was just a bit off from setting the hook. I figured this is how it would go most of the day then all of sudden she shrieked "I GOT ONE, I GOT ONE" and I saw a shimmer in the water. Before I could say anything she hauled the fish out of the water and brought it over to the bank. I ran over and put the fish in the net and I told my daughter "try not to slam the fish on the bank but that was awesome!"

I was still amazed at how fast she caught a fish. I knew she'd probably catch one but not in the first 10min of fishing.

We were both a little giddy. I thought it was beginner's luck but a few casts later she had another fish. Then while I was helping my mother untangle her line I heard behind me "I got another one!" 

She caught another fish shortly after and then asked if she could take a break.

I explained that fishing isn't always like this and some days you don't catch anything. She knew that and wanted to take a break to check out the flowers and do some other projects. She proceeded to start building something using the river rocks. I thought about talking to her about how those are a home for other animals and some of the consequences of doing that but just left her to her fun. 

I love that she enjoyed just being outside and it wasn't about how many fish she caught. She learned this a lot faster than I did. It was an amazing day for everyone and the best part is that I could share it with family.

We all caught fish and the weather couldn't have cooperated better. I can only hope the future trips we have will be half as successful.

The Thaw

It's that time of year again. A warm front has moved in giving us the first feeling of spring. I took advantage and headed to the mtns. It's the same every year. I fight with trees the first 20min. There's time spent figuring out my cast again and learning how to properly nymph. It's only been a few months since I fished for trout but my casting and drifts were horrible. My hooksets were abysmal. The first few fish literally swam away with my fly before I even noticed they were on. There were several foul hook sets which usually is a result of poor timing. It took me a while to finally hook a fish in its mouth. It might take a few months to forget the tug of a trout but only 2 seconds to remember the joy of catching one.

Just like the weather was figuring itself out I was doing the same. Eventually my cast, timing and drift came together. I started to realize what the fish wanted and got into a rhythm. The sun was intense and the bugs were taking advantage. I've never seen this many mayflies on this stretch of river. The ground has been snow covered for over a week and the scenery still has the look of winter.

My buddy had me try his secret fly and it was doing well. Eventually I had to try my soft hackles. The current made me play around with different depths. Once the flies were on the bottom the fish started to come. It was a great day and I'm glad to know my soft hackles are still working. It seemed the color of the bead made a difference. The fish preferred the gold bead as apposed to copper.

Soft Hackles and Long Legs

Every year I try to host a couple trips for my local fly fishing club. Usually the trips are to delayed harvest streams. The goal is to get people more familiar with how to fish for trout. The day usually comes down to nymphing. Soft hackles have always been a personal favorite. They just seem to work. It could be confidence in fishing them or they could just be the perfect fly. I tried tying a few before the trip.

I didn't like how long the hackle was on each of the flies. No matter how hard I tried to make a sparse looking fly I felt it had too much hackle and the fibers reached too far beyond the fly.

I trimmed them a little but I really don't like doing that. I feel it can give a really artificial look to the fly. Not like the whole thing isn't artificial enough. When we got to the river. The fish were in there usual places. I looked in my fly box trying to decide what to throw first. A voice in the back of my mind kept nagging me. "You just tied those soft hackles last night use those." I figured the best time to try those would be first thing. Then if they didn't work I could move on to other patterns. On my second cast I saw the indicator twitch. I set the hook but missed the fish. I have spent the whole summer chasing small brook trout that hit your fly like starving bluegill. My nymphing techniques were really rusty. After missing a few other strikes I had a fish on.

It was your typical stocked brookie. Bland and beat up but gives a nice tug. The key to most of this water is the drift. For some reason on certain days these fish do not want a dead drift. They want the fly almost dragging behind the indicator. They'll either hit the fly on the drag or hit it on the swing at the end of the drift.

The weather was unseasonably warm. It was in the mid 80's and you could have almost left the waders at home. It's always interesting to see how the fish learn to survive. When they're first dumped in they clump together and stand out like a sore thumb. You can always tell where fish are stocked because there will be about a 100 fish stacked up in a run. It takes about a week or more for the fish to spread out and start acting like an animal that has predators. Many fish were frolicking in the sun just waiting for a heron or eagle to snatch them up. Some fish were figuring it out early. I found this fish in a plunge pool. It had more color than your average stocked brown. It was also lacking the chunkiness of a pellet fed fish. I wonder if it is wild.

There was one section where if you got your drift just right you could catch fish after fish. I tried to show others but nymphing is something that takes a lot of practice. Your setup can make a huge difference. If one person is using just a foot or two longer leader that can be the difference between catching fish or nothing. I found the easiest way to get someone to learn the drift was to just let them use my rod with my setup.

My soft hackles were the fly of the day. The fish seemed to like the long spindly legs. I tried other flies that were similar with smaller legs or none at all. The fish wanted the long legs.