We've got some Fall color starting to show.
Frosting more often at night.
Water temps are dropping, fishing is picking up!
Seeing some isonychia swarms, and I found an October Caddis house yesterday.
It was sealed up. I popped it open, and the tenant inside was almost fully developed.
Won't be long now.
Not everyone likes fly fishing, lakes, but I do.
Spent a few evenings on the water recently.
The inlets are going off!
Fish of dreams, in shallow water.
What more do you want? An invitation?
The little guys are rising, and macking on midges, caddis, hoppers on the surface.
Big guys waiting for a distracted little fry.
Try stripping a bugger with a midge off the back.
The best of both worlds.
Kokanee are running up now.
One great seasonal joy, is to walk the inlet streams.
It's like a mini Alaska. Eagles in the trees, spawned out salmon on the banks, bear tracks,
big fish chasing each other around.
Once in while, even a mackinaw, comes up to eat.
Everything seems to be bulking up for winter.
Must be coming a little early.
October is the "norm" for this.
I don't really care when it happens, as long as I'm there for it.
The evening window is the best, but if we don't get windy, you can catch them all day.
Come on up!
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Dippers and such.
I watch birds. They often convey info that is beneficial to my fishing, and add pleasure to my time on the water to boot.
After all, many eat the insects, that the fish eat as well.
Birds often help me determine what's hatching, or what stage of insects the fish might be eating.
Since the different varieties of birds feed in different ways, once you learn what their normal style is, you can spot changes in feeding behavior.
Much like fish, birds will adopt the easiest feeding style, for the most food possible.
When a ground feeder like a Stellar Jay, is acting like a Gnat catcher, (Perching on a strategic limb, flying up, nabbing a bug, then returning to the limb.) I can safely bet that there is a large emergence of a flying insect like Termites, or Carpenter Ants.
I've seen ground feeding Brewers Blackbirds crash the surface of a stream to catch a green Drake. A risky business, since they aren't water birds.
I've seen Gulls, and Geese swimming together in aimless circles, sipping Callibaetis Spinners on the surface of a lake.
American Dippers, are my local favorite. I've heard that they mate for life, and since they stay here year-round, I see them most often.
They mostly feed subsurface, walking on the bottom of a stream.
One day this winter I was standing in the water, wondering what fly to fish.
I absently watched a Dipper.
It took a moment for me to realize, both Male and Female birds were feeding on freshly hatched midges dotting the snow bank like pepper.
Tree Swallows will chase emerging Mayflies near the water, or forty feet up during the bugs mating swarm. Once female Mayflies return to the waters surface to ova-posit, the Swallows will disturb the surface tension, leaving rings when they make a grab.
The up and back feeding style of a Gnat catcher, will change to a hover style, with the May's return to the water as well.
A birds, feeding frequency, will closely indicate the numbers of insects available to them.
An infrequent feeder reflects a sparse hatch, where as, busy birds indicate a feed is on!
As a fly fisherman, I need insights into insects of the watery realm.
Birds can give me an edge.
Spend some time watching our feathered friends, and you might catch more fish.
After all, many eat the insects, that the fish eat as well.
Birds often help me determine what's hatching, or what stage of insects the fish might be eating.
Since the different varieties of birds feed in different ways, once you learn what their normal style is, you can spot changes in feeding behavior.
Much like fish, birds will adopt the easiest feeding style, for the most food possible.
When a ground feeder like a Stellar Jay, is acting like a Gnat catcher, (Perching on a strategic limb, flying up, nabbing a bug, then returning to the limb.) I can safely bet that there is a large emergence of a flying insect like Termites, or Carpenter Ants.
I've seen ground feeding Brewers Blackbirds crash the surface of a stream to catch a green Drake. A risky business, since they aren't water birds.
I've seen Gulls, and Geese swimming together in aimless circles, sipping Callibaetis Spinners on the surface of a lake.
American Dippers, are my local favorite. I've heard that they mate for life, and since they stay here year-round, I see them most often.
They mostly feed subsurface, walking on the bottom of a stream.
One day this winter I was standing in the water, wondering what fly to fish.
I absently watched a Dipper.
It took a moment for me to realize, both Male and Female birds were feeding on freshly hatched midges dotting the snow bank like pepper.
Tree Swallows will chase emerging Mayflies near the water, or forty feet up during the bugs mating swarm. Once female Mayflies return to the waters surface to ova-posit, the Swallows will disturb the surface tension, leaving rings when they make a grab.
The up and back feeding style of a Gnat catcher, will change to a hover style, with the May's return to the water as well.
A birds, feeding frequency, will closely indicate the numbers of insects available to them.
An infrequent feeder reflects a sparse hatch, where as, busy birds indicate a feed is on!
As a fly fisherman, I need insights into insects of the watery realm.
Birds can give me an edge.
Spend some time watching our feathered friends, and you might catch more fish.
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.
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.
Monday, August 30, 2010
First frost
It won't last, but fall arrived over the weekend.
Crispy mornings, fish enjoying the cloud cover, feeding all day.
Smoke rising from the rivers, and lakes at dawn.
I don't think there is anything that gets me more motivated to fish,
than the visible mystical union of air and water.
The two "elements" are always interacting, but now... I can see it happening.
It seems to move me, as much as the fish.
Over the years I've caught some of my most memorable fish, under futzing skies.
Soothing beams of sun, punctuated by spiting mists.
Waving grass, golden in the the meadows.
Clear low flows murmur hypnotically,
The cooler temps trigger the hatches that we impatiently await, all.... summer long.
Stare at a shadowed background, and a large array of bugs, back lit by sunshine will fly by.
Thousands and thousands of bugs, over many miles of water.
All these insect multitudes, giving it their best to reproduce.
For them, it's now or never.
Living a year or more underwater, hatching for this one Fall day.
To fly, mate, deliver ova to the water column, is their mission.
Many are food for fish before they can ever reach the water's surface.
Many more are slurped by surface feeders, trout large enough to hear.
Trout swirling like sharks, taking the future of these bugs, with remorseless regularity.
Recently I saw a heron stalking a largish rainbow, that was stalking some baby fish,
who were in turn sneaking up on midges.
I'm feeling the need to get in line too.
I'm feeling the need to stalk a large wild fish, stalking his dinner.
It's that time of year.
Crispy mornings, fish enjoying the cloud cover, feeding all day.
Smoke rising from the rivers, and lakes at dawn.
I don't think there is anything that gets me more motivated to fish,
than the visible mystical union of air and water.
The two "elements" are always interacting, but now... I can see it happening.
It seems to move me, as much as the fish.
Over the years I've caught some of my most memorable fish, under futzing skies.
Soothing beams of sun, punctuated by spiting mists.
Waving grass, golden in the the meadows.
Clear low flows murmur hypnotically,
The cooler temps trigger the hatches that we impatiently await, all.... summer long.
Stare at a shadowed background, and a large array of bugs, back lit by sunshine will fly by.
Thousands and thousands of bugs, over many miles of water.
All these insect multitudes, giving it their best to reproduce.
For them, it's now or never.
Living a year or more underwater, hatching for this one Fall day.
To fly, mate, deliver ova to the water column, is their mission.
Many are food for fish before they can ever reach the water's surface.
Many more are slurped by surface feeders, trout large enough to hear.
Trout swirling like sharks, taking the future of these bugs, with remorseless regularity.
Recently I saw a heron stalking a largish rainbow, that was stalking some baby fish,
who were in turn sneaking up on midges.
I'm feeling the need to get in line too.
I'm feeling the need to stalk a large wild fish, stalking his dinner.
It's that time of year.
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
BE HERE NOW
Geese taking off at dawn, headed south. Coolish temps in the high country at night.
Smoke on the water in the mornings, and squirels dropping lots of pine cones.
Fall feels just around the corner.
I teach people to see the water they visit as a new expirience every time, even if they visit it everyday.
Most humans search for the consistant patterns to capitalize on, even when they fish.
If Fly Fishing has taught me anything, it's that there isn't a constant, only change.
Those that fish well, are immersed in this moment.
Work in a fly shop for a while, and you'll see a fisherman walk in, straight to the fly bins, pick out a Royal Coachman (or whatever). The story you extract from him will run along the lines of
"Fourth of July back in '76, I caught a monster, on the RC. from that rock by the bridge."
" It's the only fly I use."
Talk about stuck in the past. Does he relly think fish follow habits like he does? A script?
This year in May, "normally" a muddy water month, we had clear water and an amazing Skwalla emergence.
June was mudded up, and our green drake hatch fizzled.
Fish live in a flux state. It is different everyday, every hour, every moment.
We live in this same state, but continue, for comforts sake, to seek predictability.
It makes our life easier , if we know the market's going up, or Tigers going to win again.
Life doesn't always go according to plan eh?
Raise your fishing odds, and overall awareness, "BE HERE NOW!"
Smoke on the water in the mornings, and squirels dropping lots of pine cones.
Fall feels just around the corner.
I teach people to see the water they visit as a new expirience every time, even if they visit it everyday.
Most humans search for the consistant patterns to capitalize on, even when they fish.
If Fly Fishing has taught me anything, it's that there isn't a constant, only change.
Those that fish well, are immersed in this moment.
Work in a fly shop for a while, and you'll see a fisherman walk in, straight to the fly bins, pick out a Royal Coachman (or whatever). The story you extract from him will run along the lines of
"Fourth of July back in '76, I caught a monster, on the RC. from that rock by the bridge."
" It's the only fly I use."
Talk about stuck in the past. Does he relly think fish follow habits like he does? A script?
This year in May, "normally" a muddy water month, we had clear water and an amazing Skwalla emergence.
June was mudded up, and our green drake hatch fizzled.
Fish live in a flux state. It is different everyday, every hour, every moment.
We live in this same state, but continue, for comforts sake, to seek predictability.
It makes our life easier , if we know the market's going up, or Tigers going to win again.
Life doesn't always go according to plan eh?
Raise your fishing odds, and overall awareness, "BE HERE NOW!"
Friday, August 13, 2010
Truckee Challenge
The consensus from many fishermen polled, is that the Truckee River isn't an especially easy piece of water.
I know a guy who fishes it a bunch, and figures he catches a fish for every ten hours he fished.
Fishing this river year-round for a few years now has led me to believe, that's close to true.
You have to wonder why so many are loyal to a river that doesn't let us look like "fish hero's" very often.
For me, I like the bar set high. Doing the easy thing, has not had a large appeal in my life.
But, guiding the Truckee is really raising the bar.
Taking someone who rarely fishes, or is a total beginner, to a fish here is one of the hardest things I've attempted.
When we do get lucky, the river gives it's best. Wild colorful fish with the ability to leave you standing there wondering what happened?
I call it, "A short meeting with Walter".
A good fishing friend called me to share a fish tale yesterday.
He told me, he'd been fishing down in the deepest darkest heart of the canyon, and he turned a fine fish. The fish made the jump to warp speed, and headed downstream to Reno.
Realizing he needed to run to keep him on, my friend followed as fast as he could over broken slippery boulders. Glancing up to see where the fish was still going, he missed a step.
A hard fall followed. He tore his waders, got seven stitches in his leg, lost his nymph box (Tragic), and broke off a twenty+ incher (More tragic!).
He called this morning to ask if I wanted to join him fishing the Truckee.
The next time you go fishing here, and feel like whining about the spanking you received from the river, remember how bad it can be.... then, suck it up and go fish.
They are in there*.
*Edit note, My friend called to say, he got blanked the next day, the day after he landed a 25" brown, the next a 23"brown.
I know a guy who fishes it a bunch, and figures he catches a fish for every ten hours he fished.
Fishing this river year-round for a few years now has led me to believe, that's close to true.
You have to wonder why so many are loyal to a river that doesn't let us look like "fish hero's" very often.
For me, I like the bar set high. Doing the easy thing, has not had a large appeal in my life.
But, guiding the Truckee is really raising the bar.
Taking someone who rarely fishes, or is a total beginner, to a fish here is one of the hardest things I've attempted.
When we do get lucky, the river gives it's best. Wild colorful fish with the ability to leave you standing there wondering what happened?
I call it, "A short meeting with Walter".
A good fishing friend called me to share a fish tale yesterday.
He told me, he'd been fishing down in the deepest darkest heart of the canyon, and he turned a fine fish. The fish made the jump to warp speed, and headed downstream to Reno.
Realizing he needed to run to keep him on, my friend followed as fast as he could over broken slippery boulders. Glancing up to see where the fish was still going, he missed a step.
A hard fall followed. He tore his waders, got seven stitches in his leg, lost his nymph box (Tragic), and broke off a twenty+ incher (More tragic!).
He called this morning to ask if I wanted to join him fishing the Truckee.
The next time you go fishing here, and feel like whining about the spanking you received from the river, remember how bad it can be.... then, suck it up and go fish.
They are in there*.
*Edit note, My friend called to say, he got blanked the next day, the day after he landed a 25" brown, the next a 23"brown.
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Fishing seasons
Guide season is in full swing, so, I've had little time for blogging.
I apologize for slacking.
August is apparently the high point of interest in fishing. Folks lining the banks looking for fish love. Where were they in March (BWO's), or April (march browns), or May (SKWALLAS!!!!)??
Funny, how when the fishing gets toughest, some people feel the need most.
Since I fish/guide year-round, I get consistent feed-back from the fish.
"They" appreciate the time fishermen are distracted by other activities.
Ski season seems to be their favorite. Baseball/Football season figures in as well.
Slowly it's dawned on me, that there are two kinds of people in life, fishers and
seasonal-fishers.
The former has a full blown case of fish mania that they just can't shake. These folks do what they need to do, and go where they need to go, whatever time of year, to speak with fish one-on-one.
The latter approaches the activity mostly as a consumer, getting in line, buying the "stuff" necessary to participate, and playing during "the season".
I'm not saying everybody should put on snowshoes and attack at dawn in Dec.
Just that, the shoulder seasons are kinder to the fish, and fishermen as well.
Right now, we have a small hatch window in the morning, and an even smaller window in the evening. The pm water temps on the Truckee River near town are disturbingly high 70+.
That leaves just mornings to hit the water with hope of a meeting with Walter, and not doing him harm in the process.
The hot tip right now, if you see a bug on land, in the air, or on the water, drown it.
Few to no noses rising right now. Nights are already getting slightly cooler, soon the temps will start dropping and "fishing season" will gain momentum again.
Jim
"Take care of your fishery, and it will take care of you."
I apologize for slacking.
August is apparently the high point of interest in fishing. Folks lining the banks looking for fish love. Where were they in March (BWO's), or April (march browns), or May (SKWALLAS!!!!)??
Funny, how when the fishing gets toughest, some people feel the need most.
Since I fish/guide year-round, I get consistent feed-back from the fish.
"They" appreciate the time fishermen are distracted by other activities.
Ski season seems to be their favorite. Baseball/Football season figures in as well.
Slowly it's dawned on me, that there are two kinds of people in life, fishers and
seasonal-fishers.
The former has a full blown case of fish mania that they just can't shake. These folks do what they need to do, and go where they need to go, whatever time of year, to speak with fish one-on-one.
The latter approaches the activity mostly as a consumer, getting in line, buying the "stuff" necessary to participate, and playing during "the season".
I'm not saying everybody should put on snowshoes and attack at dawn in Dec.
Just that, the shoulder seasons are kinder to the fish, and fishermen as well.
Right now, we have a small hatch window in the morning, and an even smaller window in the evening. The pm water temps on the Truckee River near town are disturbingly high 70+.
That leaves just mornings to hit the water with hope of a meeting with Walter, and not doing him harm in the process.
The hot tip right now, if you see a bug on land, in the air, or on the water, drown it.
Few to no noses rising right now. Nights are already getting slightly cooler, soon the temps will start dropping and "fishing season" will gain momentum again.
Jim
"Take care of your fishery, and it will take care of you."
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