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The three piece T & T 8wt took longer than normal to put together, as a light early morning breeze and a light frost, coated the low lying vegetation in the valley. The night before, the snow, rain and winter conditions gave way to a crisp mountain morning with all the quiet and solice one could ask for....The day before, my good friend Hotrod generously sent me some beautiful, proven flies, and I was a bit nervous, and cold as I arrived at the river.
It has been quite some time since I shared the river with Professori and hooked and lost my first steelhead on the fly...I guess all my whining paid off, as I now have quite a nice arsenal of professionally tied flies to help me with my quest My first fish was a nice chromer with lots of athletic delivery and was hooked on a beautiful tie by Prof. who watched in amazemeent as it ran to freedom as fast as she was hooked. At least he knows that pattern has some promise!
For this morning's fishery, which happenened in spite of a bunch of other things going on in the workplace as well as the home was a small spot that has produced for me in the past on gear in low water conditions, but was yet, untested by me with the flyrod. I was surprised to find no one in sight in spite of the near perfect conditions.
A new purple sparkle bunny leach was the first fly to get wet and I spent a considerable length of time working on my casts and making sure I was in the areas that I felt might be productive. I has previously used a type 3 15 foot sink tip but, in advance of my arrival at the river, I choose to put on the type 8 12 foot tip with a 5 foot 10# fleurocarbon leader to handle the faster moving water this run has to offer.
There is something special in sharing these types of mornings with friends, however this morning was one of the few I have chosen for a "me only".
This is not to slight any of my good friends, however, today was a good day for me to be alone...
.I could hear the line swiftly moving thru the air on my false casts and thought about trying to keep things as smooth as my golf swing. I practiced the "double haul" for a few hrs., just as Stone had shown me in my brief lessons a few years ago. The purple was replaced with a smaller version, and then the pink, and then the egg leach patterns in purple & black and finally the all black leach....and then all of a sudden, out of the blue, just as I am about to hit the road, my line tightens in the deepest part of the run, I lift the rod tip and the weight of a Vedder River
Stickfish is thrashing the surface of the pool with reckless abandon!....This is no ordinary stickfish, but a very well educated branch, that seems to like both fly-fishers and gear fishers alike
.
As it was almost time for me to depart to my next spot, I decided to wade out into the current and see if I could retrive my fly from this very stubborn, underwater dweller. The current was fast and the top of my waders were approaching the limit of their capacity to keep me dry when the beast on my line gave one last pull, and came close enough to the surface for me to see my quarry, and allowed me to have one chance to not only retrieve my fly, but a whole bunch of other stuff that has been attached, and lost during the higher water of last week.
With a quick stroke of my hand, I managed to tail the branch, which turned out to be a really nice cedar specimen with the following attachments.
One spin n glo, 2 pink/purple flis, one beautiful purple spey, two small blades, a varity of line, weights and swivels, and a very unusal spoon with a triple hook!!.
A careful, slow paced wade back to the shore, a long walk to the truck, and no fish, but another day on the water where all the problems of the world melted like the mountain snow. Beautiful British Columbia at it's best!!...............Ortho 8)
It has been quite some time since I shared the river with Professori and hooked and lost my first steelhead on the fly...I guess all my whining paid off, as I now have quite a nice arsenal of professionally tied flies to help me with my quest My first fish was a nice chromer with lots of athletic delivery and was hooked on a beautiful tie by Prof. who watched in amazemeent as it ran to freedom as fast as she was hooked. At least he knows that pattern has some promise!
For this morning's fishery, which happenened in spite of a bunch of other things going on in the workplace as well as the home was a small spot that has produced for me in the past on gear in low water conditions, but was yet, untested by me with the flyrod. I was surprised to find no one in sight in spite of the near perfect conditions.
A new purple sparkle bunny leach was the first fly to get wet and I spent a considerable length of time working on my casts and making sure I was in the areas that I felt might be productive. I has previously used a type 3 15 foot sink tip but, in advance of my arrival at the river, I choose to put on the type 8 12 foot tip with a 5 foot 10# fleurocarbon leader to handle the faster moving water this run has to offer.
There is something special in sharing these types of mornings with friends, however this morning was one of the few I have chosen for a "me only".
This is not to slight any of my good friends, however, today was a good day for me to be alone...
.I could hear the line swiftly moving thru the air on my false casts and thought about trying to keep things as smooth as my golf swing. I practiced the "double haul" for a few hrs., just as Stone had shown me in my brief lessons a few years ago. The purple was replaced with a smaller version, and then the pink, and then the egg leach patterns in purple & black and finally the all black leach....and then all of a sudden, out of the blue, just as I am about to hit the road, my line tightens in the deepest part of the run, I lift the rod tip and the weight of a Vedder River
Stickfish is thrashing the surface of the pool with reckless abandon!....This is no ordinary stickfish, but a very well educated branch, that seems to like both fly-fishers and gear fishers alike
.
As it was almost time for me to depart to my next spot, I decided to wade out into the current and see if I could retrive my fly from this very stubborn, underwater dweller. The current was fast and the top of my waders were approaching the limit of their capacity to keep me dry when the beast on my line gave one last pull, and came close enough to the surface for me to see my quarry, and allowed me to have one chance to not only retrieve my fly, but a whole bunch of other stuff that has been attached, and lost during the higher water of last week.
With a quick stroke of my hand, I managed to tail the branch, which turned out to be a really nice cedar specimen with the following attachments.
One spin n glo, 2 pink/purple flis, one beautiful purple spey, two small blades, a varity of line, weights and swivels, and a very unusal spoon with a triple hook!!.
A careful, slow paced wade back to the shore, a long walk to the truck, and no fish, but another day on the water where all the problems of the world melted like the mountain snow. Beautiful British Columbia at it's best!!...............Ortho 8)
