As I rounded the bend to where the river is visible, my heart sunk a bit as the water looked like Yoohoo.  I told myself “maybe it’s clearer up river” and kept going.  I pulled in the lot at the project and noticed another vehicle there.  Could someone else be as crazy as me?  I figured they were just walking the trail that parallels the river and walked down to the stream to check it out.  The water in this section actually didn’t look too bad.  It was definetly off color and very high.  I could see the bottom in a few places where the water was shallow and about 1 foot deep.  I decided to give it a go.

I geared up and immediately thought to put on a streamer, which I did.  I put a muddler minnow on and tied about a 24″ section of tippet off the bend of the hook down to a flashback phesant tail (size 16) with a single “BB” shot above the muddler.  I walked up stream a good bit to start working my way down.  I should mention that I rarely fish streamers, and never really liked fishing them.  I remembered reading about a method in the current issue of Fly Fisherman magazine where a guy in Colorado has had great success fishing a streamer with a dropper and pounding deep pools fishing the rig in a dead drift style vs. a stripping style.

That’s how I progressed fishing for the rest of the day.  I fished the streamer up into the current just as if I was fishing a tandem rig with nymphs, except with no strike indicator.  Within a few casts I had a fish HAMMER the streamer and the fishing continued like that until 6 in the evening.  At around 4 a small caddis hatch came off and there were fish surfacing.  Normally, I would have thrown on a dry and fished for them, but I was having such a blast with my new found success with the streamer that I just kept fishing the streamer.

There really is something thrilling about having a decent 14″-15″ brown or bow just come up from no where and pound the hell out of a streamer.  The point of all of this is that when mother nature throws a curve ball and you think that the water isn’t going to be fish able because it’s 90% higher than it’s normal flow, don’t be discouraged.  I ended up having one of the best days on the water that I’ve ever had today (probably 50-60 fish to the net) just because I figured what the hell, I’ll try it.  I also left my comfort zone the the streamer, and I am hooked on it now.  I don’t know whether the colored water had anything to do with the aggressiveness that these fish had or whether I just forgot that trout usually crush streamers, but I really wasn’t expecting the show that these fish put on for the streamer.

Next time the water looks like it’s going to be unfishable, I’m going to get excited and pitch some streamers!

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I listen to some popular fly fishing podcasts on my long commute to and from work everyday and in the last 2 episodes, the issue of dry fly fishing vs. nymphing has come up.  It seems like those who subscribe to one school of thought or the other always have something negative or condescending to say about the other.  In the latest podcast I heard, a comment was made about a stream that they were fishing where they could see larger fish holding on the bottom of a deep pool.  They were fishing dries and said that those larger fish would probably not come up from the depths to take a dry, and the thought of fishing a nymph came up.  Then, one of the hosts said, “yeah, you could fish a nymph down there and probably pick up one of the larger fish, but you’d feel dirty about it afterwords.”.

Now, I’m not a purist, and maybe if I were, I’d side with the host on that comment, but to me, that’s a ridiculous comment.  I don’t know about some of these dry fly fishing purists, but when I go fishing, I go for basically 2 reasons.  Reason one is to get away and spend time outdoors, and reason two (and most important) is TO CATCH FISH.  Why on earth, if you were going out with the intent of catching fish would you say: “I’m not going to try to catch those larger fish with a nymph because nymphing isn’t as pure as dry fly fishing.”?

On Rusty and I’s recent trip, we ended up fishing a wild stream deep in the backcountry, and due to the conditions, I spent 90% of my time fishing dry flies.  Not because I’m a purist, or because I prefer fishing dries, but because given the conditions, that was (in my opinion), the way to go.  I enjoy catching fish on dries from time to time, and I consider myself an excellent caster.  I love sidearm casting in tight conditions and flipping dries back under brush and overgrown stream banks.  Am I going to talk down on nymphing because I like fishing dries occasionally?  NO!  Most of the time I fish nymphs because I’ve learned in my 15 or so years of fly fishing that the bigger fish, and more fish, feed on the bottom.

I’ve watched guys fishing dries in the past during the day while no flies are coming off the water, or very few are coming off and they aren’t catching anything.  Meanwhile, Rusty and I will be dredging with nymphs and picking up fish left and right.  Are we “bad” fly fishermen for fishing nymphs when there’s no hatch?  NO!  We are in fact “matching the hatch”, or more accurately, “matching the lack of hatch” because that’s what the FISH want!

I’m not saying that nymphing is “better” than fishing dries, and I don’t think anyone who goes fly fishing to catch fish would say either way that one is “better” than the other.  The other thing I commonly hear is “nymphing is easier than dry fly fishing”.  Now, I’m really confused at this one.  First of all, when you’re fishing dries, there is typically NO mistaking a take from a fish.  You’d have to be a really poor fishermen to miss a take on a dry.  Nymphing on the other hand is always resulting in mistaken takes and snags, cases where the hydraulics cause slack between your indicator and your flies and times when you’re fishing over no fish.  Nymphing requires much more of an understanding of where fish hold deeper in the water, and a greater knowledge of what insect life is most prevalent than when dry fly fishing.

I really can’t understand how someone could say that nymphing is easier than dry fly fishing, but that’s not my point.  My point is, who cares?  The point is to go out, have a good time and catch fish.  By that logic, really, anything goes.  I personally don’t have any gripe with people using spinners(hardware), live bait and powerbait for that matter.  It’s not my cup of tea, but I can’t fault people for trying to catch fish by logical (except powerbait ?) means.

Here’s a good thing to think about.  One of the most intriguing waters I’ve fished is the North Branch of the Potomac in MD/WV.  This river is awesome, huge, fast moving and contains a fair number of trout.  The problem is, though, that it has very poor insect life.  This river is no secret, and is known for producing the state record fish.  So how did the fish get so big without insect life?  The simple answer: Baitfish.  So, given that piece of knowledge, here is a simple question: If you want to catch big fish on a river like the North Branch, what should you fish?: (A) Nymphs (B) Streamers (C) Dry Flies.   If you answered (B), you’d be right on, and I hope it doesn’t take a genius to realize that.  Now, by the purists way of thinking, you’d fish dries.  Why in the hell would you fish dries for giant trout that spend 99% of their time on the BOTTOM of a river with pools as deep as 20 feet, on a stream that has VERY little insect life, and virtually NO hatches?

I apologize for the harsh post, and such a bunch of rambling, but this whole dry vs. nymph thing has been WAY too common for my ears lately.  Just had to get this off my chest and point out the North Branch example as an extreme to illustrate the bullheadedness of some people’s thinking on dries vs. nymphs.

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     I studied the water a little bit and realized that if I drifted nymphs or streamer low and slow, I thought I could pick up some fish.  Even though the skies opened up as soon as I got set to go, the morning proved to be a success. 

     I started with a fly that I thought would be a visual advantage for the trout to seen in the stained, or should I say muddy water, a wine colored San Juan Worm in a size 14.  After I fished for approximately 30 minutes I realized that this could be tougher then I first expected, but I pushed on and was rewarded with a nice brown that made an aggressive strike.  I no sooner released that fish and was quickly rewarded with the fish of the day, a nice 16 inch acrobatic bow.  Fishing the same run where the previous 2 fish came from, I kept dredging and a really nice fish hammered the San Juan Worm.  This fish was never seen but I had plenty of time to feel the weight of the fish and it was definitely a nice one that I would’ve loved to get my hands on.

     Now that I broke off I thought I’d try something else, so I tied on a size 14 olive soft hackle.  I fished pretty hard with the soft hackle and managed a few more nice trout.  That’s 2 different patterns that have produced on this raining day.  Being completely honest I can say I didn’t expect much to happen in the catching department with the conditions the way they were, but as long as the fish were active I wasn’t leaving. 

     Well the rain continued to fall, now at a pretty steady pace, and the trout kept feeding.  I thought that since I caught fish on 2 patterns, I’d try a third, so I tied on a size 16 caddis larva, green in color, to see what would happen.  After fishing the previous flies slow I really knew I’d have to slow it down with the caddis larva because of the small size and the discolored water.  I fished this low and slow and believe it or not, caught more fish with the caddis then I did with the others.  It just amazed me at how good a trouts eyes are to be able to pick up a size 16 fly in the muddy current, decide if it’s food, and strike.  I picked up several more trout with the caddis larva before deciding to fish a streamer.  Now I really don’t like fishing streamers and only go to them as a last resort, but today was such a good day I thought it was worth a try. 

     I fished the streamer for no more then 5 cast before the first of many browns became a victim of my olive Matuka streamer.  The more I fished the streamer the more I started to like fishing it, probably because I was catching fish.  Now this is the 4th fly that I have had luck with this morning, and I always try to tell people that the fly isn’t the most important thing and that proved right today. 

     I only fished about 100 yards of stream today because of the muddy conditions I had to fish slow and present the fly to the fish in a way that appealed to them.  Lets rewind here and remember I caught about a dozen fish, lost about 8 others and did so with 4 different flies.  If you ask me that proves my theory of Presentation is #1, and is something that I will always believe.  Next time your really itching to go fly fishing but the water conditions just aren’t right, fish low and slow and I promise you’ll catch fish that you thought couldn’t see your fly.  Also, the fly your fishing doesn’t have to be big, but it can help when the water clarity is a factor.  The size 16 caddis larva I was fishing found several trouts mouths, so just believe in the trouts seeing ability and fish your fly the way the fish want to see it.

     And as for now and always “tight lines”

     Rusty

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This weekend was the next attempt, and was to be a unique first day out as I wanted to get a co-worker, John Z, out fly-fishing for the first time in his life.   Rusty got called to work, so it was just John and I this time.  We met up early and walked the 3/4 mile from the hard road down through the woods to the stream which was running at a decent flow and pretty clear for this time of year.  A big relief after last weekend’s blow out when the same stream looked like Nestle Quick.

This was the first time that I’ve gone out fishing with a first timer.  John was eager to learn though, and it was a perfect day to get someone on fish.  I don’t consider myself much of an instructor, and honestly, I think fly-fishing is something that just takes time and practice to learn.  I did my best to give him some basic tips and point him in the right direction without being too overbearing.  Being a nymph fan (highsticker), I pointed out that we’d be fishing deep as opposed to dry which is what everyone thinks of when you mention fly-fishing.  We turned over some rocks to illustrate what the nymphs were designed to replicate, and it was on to fishing.

The water was in perfect shape with a good flow and just enough tint to help our situation.  The fish seemed to want to cooperate right off the bat.  In the first hole we had several takers on the tandem rig I set John up with which was a very basic nymphing rig.  A #16 bead head hare’s ear with a  #18 gunmetal flashback beadhead pheasant tail (see movies section).  I could see John looking at me funny when I tied these on and could tell he wanted to ask if the fish could see them.  He made a comment about that later in the day.  It still amazes me that they can matrix out a #18 mayfly nymph a foot above them in the water colum flying at them at what would probably be 60 mph to us and manuever themselves into position to eat the bug/fly.

Watching John reminded me of when I started out.  It’s a daunting sport to jump into, with all the equipment, insect biology, water reading etc. and then enter the fact that you’re in a stream with other fishermen around watching you, and you’ve got a down right nerve wracking experience.  I guess that’s what defines us eventually in this hobby.  The ability to ignore all those factors and move ahead or to give up.  Regardless, John did great for the first time he’d ever casted a fly rod.  By the end of the day I could see a huge improvement in casting and line handling.  It was great to watch, and I’m glad I got to be a part of that.

John was able to land one fish, and had another one for as long as I would consider a “caught” fish, so we’ll say 2.  I had a few while poking around.  I was more interested in being out on the water on a nice day, helping John learn, playing with my new waterproof camera and just relaxing than slaying fish.  It’s funny, to me anymore, it’s not about numbers.  I’ve had those days of 30 – 40 fish each with Rusty, and they are fun.  This same stream last year wore Rusty and I out.  I still don’t know how many fish we caught that day, but it was simply amazing.  Sometimes though, it’s nice to take it slow, catch a few and just enjoy the outdoors.

We saw a lot of fish, and a lot of fish swinging at flies.  I rolled a huge bow at the last hole we fished, and I’m sure if I would’ve pounded the water to a froth, I could’ve managed a few more.  We hiked the long hike back out and I just couldn’t resist poking around in the leaves under the apple trees near the lot.  John took off, and I stayed for another hour harvesting wild mushrooms.  Morel mushrooms.  If you haven’t heard of them or seen them, they’re great!  You can only find them for a few weeks during the end of April and beginning of May (in Pennsylvania), and you can only find them in very specific areas like the North side of a hill with aged apple trees.  They’re really hard to see too, so the pic below should help  you find them.  Here’s a link to a site about Morels.  http://thegreatmorel.com/index.shtml

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