Today I had a really good time tying flies with a couple of friends that know muuuch more than me about fly tying. The result: I've learned a lot! Besides my friends from Romania that taught me the basics, when I started fly fishing and fly tying, I've pretty much learned by myself (thanks GOD for the internet). But I can say that in those few hours that I've spent in Concord I accumulated a great deal of information, and I'm looking forward to go there again. Sorry guys, it's going to be really hard to get rid of me from now on!
On the way home I stopped to check a brook that flows not even two minutes from my apartment. Two years ago this little stream brought me the
personal record for brown trout caught on a fly: 46 cm, that's a little over 18 inches. Plus a lot of 14 inch-ers, most of them rainbows. Last year I didn't catch anything there so I assumed 2006 was just an accident and I've kind of forgot about that place. But I had my spinning rod in the back of the car so I decided to give it a try. The spinning rod is much quicker to set up than the fly rod, that's why I use it to "test the water", to see if it's worth to try fly fishing. Although I used to fish 50% spinning and 50% fly fishing, lately I don't use my spinning rod too much.
First cast, I see a trout chasing the bait, 2 inch taildancer from Rapala. Second cast I managed to hook a fish, a brookie. Luckilly the treble hooks didn't do much damage and I was able to return the fish to water with excellent chances of survival. Then I packed my rod and went home.
Two hours later I returned with my fly rod, ready to try the flies I've tied the same morning: some soft hackles and a Goddard caddis. Probably one of the ugliest of it's kind, but my first one.
First, the caddis. 3 seconds on the water and the surface explodes: a brown trout decides to take it. Judging by the size, one of those stocked this summer in the Winnipesauke River, which receives the waters of this little brook 300 yards downstream. I assume the fish go up in the brook because the water temperature is cooler than the main river.
I released the fish and tried to place my fly a little further up, close to the branches hanging over the opposite side of the river. Bingo: second fish, this time a pretty brookie. Followed two casts later by another one, a little fish, maybe a native.
Than nothing, I think the rest of them were spooked, so they decided not to rise to my fly anymore. And when my fly landed in a tree with no chance to recover it I decided to move downstream, below the bridge, where I knew there was a deep pool. The place is pretty hard accessible, I was lucky it's just a few feet from the road, but the water levels were high and that pushed me back into the bushes, with almost no room to cast. A good opportunity to test my roll cast. Since I had to change the fly anyway, I put a sinking one, tied on a streamer hook no. 8, with a red tail, ostrich herl for the abdomen, ice dubbing for thorax and a soft hackle. A few rounds of wire under the thorax makes the fly sink faster. I usually let it sink and jig it slowly on the bottom. Two years ago a similar fly gave me the biggest fish in this spot.
This time it looked that nothing was going to happen. I tried at the head of the pool, at the tail, on the bottom, in between, slower, faster, nothing seemed to approach the fly. But when I was thinking to change the place, especially because the mosquitoes were killing me, I notice a quick pull on the line, as the fly was sinking. I set the hook and after a short fight, a nice rainbow trout stops by to have his picture taken. 12-13 inches, nice and fat.
I sent it back and try again, but the very next cast my fly decides that it wants to end its life on the bottom, hooked on a log. That was my breaking point, really annoyed by mosquitoes that were fighting for a landing place over my hands and face. I'm trying not to use DEET when handling fish that I'm going to release because I know how sensitive they are.
I got out of the bushes and went back to the place I started, thinking to try again, with another one of the flies I've tied that morning. Green and black wire body, ice dubbing thorax and soft partridge hackle. It's easy to tie and I really love the way it looks, so I think it's going to be a constant presence in my flybox. Especially now, after I caught a fish with it the very first time I used it:
It was another rainbow about the same size of the previous one, an excellent fighter.
And that concluded that fishing session. One and a half hours in total, five fish of 3 different trout species and only 2 flies lost. A perfect end for the day...
