Friday, September 3, 2010

I thought I hooked the bottom.......

It's feeling more fallish all the time, a beautiful time to be alive and on the water!
No color change in the trees yet.
Seeing a small surge in bug hatches on slightly overcast days.
On the bright/hotter days it still slows a bit during midday.

A guide-friend and I were gentleman fishing a few days ago on the local tributary.
We traded off on each hole, in the intermittent rain and wind.
The flow was up a bit, and we needed more weight to get down near the bottom.
Suddenly my friend raised his rod in the middle of a drift.
He pulled hard for a moment or two, then started making one roll-cast after another to get his fly off of, whatever was holding his fly.
After the third hard cast to the spot where he was hung-up, the spot started moving across the water.......
He later uttered the near famous cliche for waters around here.
"I though I hooked the bottom...and then it moved".
A chase down-stream a-ways, finally produced a fine colorful wild rainbow 17"+.
I get to travel around the west fishing/guiding a bit, but I hear the this phrase used more, around here, than anywhere else I fish.
Nothing makes me happier, than to hear a client say this. But it's a hoot, to see it done by someone who knows how to fish, and fishes often.
On our local water, the fish get a lot of pressure.
Many of our best fish won't rise to a dry-fly.
Feel free to add some weight, be bold enough to risk losing flies, fish down where they hide.
Try this style, and you may also "hook the bottom".*

Edit* Same thing happened to me a couple days later.