Sanity in Small Doses (Pic-Heavy)
- This topic has 8 replies, 9 voices, and was last updated Aug 11, 2010 at 12:54 am by
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Hey Ya’ll,
I hadn’t caught a trout since May. For some of us that wouldn’t be anything to complain about, but after two consecutive summers of gluttonous dry fly fishing on some of the holy waters of the west, I was knee-deep in July with nary a trout to speak of, and starting to get the shakes. I can’t think of too many things more irrational than driving hundreds of miles to catch a few 6-inch fish out of a ditch, but with August looming that seemed just the thing to do to maintain some sanity. I grabbed the pooch and a couple of good buddies/noob fly fishers and ran for the hills.
The smell of dew on the pines, the deceptive seclusion of stream canopy, the swirls and gurgles of trouty pocket water… it all felt right.
The noobs felt felt the vibe too and got right into the swing of it (well, right after I told them to change out of their bright-orange shirts).
My first foray with cane. A gift from a good customer, circa 1960’s. 7′ 4-weight J.S. Sharpe “Scottie”. Simply a pleasure to fish.
A first for him: Pooch crosses another species of the list.
That the first fish of the trip was a 5-inch native couldn’t have made me happier.
Followed by an equally pleasing encore:
So day one was an overwhelming success. A little bit of fire and fire-water seemed a fitting celebration.
Started day two with a photo just for ya’ll:
After eating, headed out to briefly capture a few more specimens…
By 2:00, I was feeling content and headed back to camp for lunch and some brews, with company.
After working up a good buzz, I eyed that little “Scottie” and the short, mangled 6x leader dangling from it’s tip. I decided a few more casts were in order and headed for new water upstream. I worked some chapstick (forgot the floatant at home) into the calf-tail wings of a sz. 14 adams parawulff and made a few novel casts. One of those casts was directed toward a skinny riffle that I’d hoped might hold another small native. The dry fly landed on-target and, in short order, disappeared in a suprisingly elegant sip. I thought I’d hallucinated when this guy then reared his head in a thrash:
These two seemed a perfect compliment to eachother…
Needless to say I had gotten my fix. Hopefully it will get me through ’til those pudgy lake-run rainbows show up in October.
Hope you guys are finding similar relief!
JL
JL
great looking fish man! I bet that pig had you doubled over on the boo. I can understand the no time for fishing dilemma lately, getting a fix seems to put me back into perspective of priorities.
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