An enlightening experience

W

Wilderness Medic

Smolt
After getting all the way up to my spot and having my brand new rod break I decided to do some underwater scouting. I threw on my mask and snorkel and floated all my usual fishing spots. My reaction was.... you've gotta be kidding me. There were 10x more fish than I imagined. The most surprising thing was how little they cared about me. I've read and watched a lot of videos about how skittish trout are. They must just mean shadows? I could have kicked them without them caring. I played around making noise and moving and they did not care whatsoever.

If there are that many fish there why are they so hard to catch? I've been doing ok lately, but I based that on assuming there were only a couple fish in each spot. On a recent trip to northern idaho I had the best fishing experience of my life. I caught 6 keeper trout one after another. After the 6th fish my fly came apart. No matter what other fly I tried they would all refuse it at the surface. I had similar sizes, similar colors, etc. But nothing that was the exact same combo of colors. Are they really that picky? Or was something else going on? Should I be sitting on one hole and trying 5-10 different flies?
 
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Brian Miller said:
View attachment 121552
Takayama Pheasant Tail Kebari wet fly. I will vary the hackle from a variegated Grizz rooster & hen, or Partridge depending on structure; (free flowing or pocket water) and the movement or non-movement (anchor, hold in a hydraulic cushion or eddy) I want from the fly.
View attachment 121553
Click to expand...
Gee, see any similarities?
www.flyfisherman.com

Yvon Chouinard: Lessons from a Simple Fly - Fly Fisherman

Simplicity can lead to a more satisfying way of fishing and a more responsible way of living.
www.flyfisherman.com www.flyfisherman.com
 
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Matt B said:
Gee, see any similarities?
www.flyfisherman.com

Yvon Chouinard: Lessons from a Simple Fly - Fly Fisherman

Simplicity can lead to a more satisfying way of fishing and a more responsible way of living.
www.flyfisherman.com www.flyfisherman.com
Click to expand...

Good article.
Yes Indeed! Chouinard was an early adopter of modern ~Japanese (and Euro - Italian) fixed line fishing styles.

"For the way I typically fish with wet flies, I rank the fly's action as most important, followed by size, and then presentation. I believe most fly fishers place too much importance on form and color"...

"But I've also learned some subtle fish-teasing moves that I can't begin to describe. It would be like trying to communicate how to crack a safe".

I found some (paid) online tutorials with videos that do a pretty fair job of describing the Japanese "safe cracking" techniques (includes precision casting & aerial mending). The rod's action (flex profile plus linear & rotational dampening...) along with a lot of practice, is key to a polished result.

Chouinard's TFO built Patagonia rod action was a bit too stiff for some of the finer Japanese techniques, but would be a better rod with a floating PVC or furled line he used for Deschutes Steelhead and he improvised using what seems to be a more "western" Portland-hitch waking movement.
fly-fishing-blog.patagonia.com

Patagonia Fly Fishing

The Tenkara and the Steelhead I spoke with Bart Bonime, Fishing Director at Patagonia last spring. They had just introduced the Tenkara fly rod in a package including rod, line, leader, flies and a...
fly-fishing-blog.patagonia.com fly-fishing-blog.patagonia.com
Smaller and small mid-high gradient streams that I have always enjoyed can hold surprisingly large fish for their size. These types of streams don't get fished a lot so I enjoy the solitude. They also help teach the fundamentals of reading the water that can be applied to larger streams when broken into smaller bites. And they are where Tenkara rods and techniques began that were documented six hundred years ago.

But fishing Tenkara or any style of fixed line rod limits reach. Larger streams and large rivers require much more wading for positioning that can feel like I am fishing with an arm tied behind my back.
 
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Old406Kid said:
What's really humbling is when you're fishing a size 28 on 47x tippet and the guy that's within earshot is knocking 'em dead on a #4 Mepps spinner. :ROFLMAO:
Another real pisser is turning on the fish alarm on your depth finder while getting skunked on a lake.
Click to expand...

A friend will don full camo gear, crawl around like a ninja. I am a few yards down stream catching fish in a white t-shirt and I am 6'4" with my shadow going across the water .....he thinks he is smarter than the fish.
 
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Peyton00 said:
A friend will don full camo gear, crawl around like a ninja. I am a few yards down stream catching fish in a white t-shirt and I am 6'4" with my shadow going across the water .....he thinks he is smarter than the fish.
Click to expand...
I resemble that remark 😉
 
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Brian Miller said:
...there is a specific attractor wet fly pattern that has fooled hundreds of fish in that time, and more recently a specific attractor beadhead nymph pattern that has caught fish on every trip I've used it...
Matt B said:
I read all that because I thought you were going to tell us the Magic Fly! Imagine my disappointment! :LOL:
Brian Miller said:
View attachment 121552
Takayama Pheasant Tail Kebari wet fly. I will vary the hackle from a variegated Grizz rooster & hen, or Partridge depending on structure; (free flowing or pocket water) and the movement or non-movement (anchor, hold in a hydraulic cushion or eddy) I want from the fly.
View attachment 121553
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
A few days after my previous posts I made a trip to a pretty backcountry stream I hadn't been to before that one of Shorett's books says "contains mostly small fish." I didn't find any fish with a 4 meter rod and the Takayama PT in the one shallow reach with easy access close to the road I tried. So I hiked a trail along the stream for about a mile that had only 2 faint game trails through the impenetrable streamside brush until I came to a place where section of bedrock came down from above jutting out from the forest floor and into the stream. It was a slightly higher gradient reach with small cascades into deep pools.
20240722_131902.jpg
I had tied a line on with about 4 1/2 feet of 5X tippet and the "attractor beadhead nymph pattern" I mentioned above onto a 3.9 meter rod with a little more backbone that makes it better for setting the hook farther down in the water column.
20240728_081934.jpg
It has a 3.5mm Tungsten bead on Togatta #12 jig hook from Japan, Olive Ice dubbing spun on green thread to wrap the body, partridge hackle, and a whip-finished collar coated with clear olive and gold glitter nail polish. I'm probably jinxing it now but this stupid simple pattern has produced fish on every outing I've used it that are larger than what I typically encounter in those streams.
Standing on the bedrock jutting out into the stream a couple of 20-foot casts produced what might be an average fish for this stream.
20240722_132558.jpg
A couple more casts and I hooked-landed this.
20240722_134322.jpg
20240722_134529.jpg
After a quick hands-free pic and release into sheltered water it revived and swam into a cleft under the bedrock.
 
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Brian Miller said:
A few days after my previous posts I made a trip to a pretty backcountry stream I hadn't been to before that one of Shorett's books says "contains mostly small fish." I didn't find any fish with a 4 meter rod and the Takayama PT in the one shallow reach with easy access close to the road I tried. So I hiked a trail along the stream for about a mile that had only 2 faint game trails through the impenetrable streamside brush until I came to a place where section of bedrock came down from above jutting out from the forest floor and into the stream. It was a slightly higher gradient reach with small cascades into deep pools.
View attachment 122545
I had tied a line on with about 4 1/2 feet of 5X tippet and the "attractor beadhead nymph pattern" I mentioned above onto a 3.9 meter rod with a little more backbone that makes it better for setting the hook farther down in the water column.
View attachment 122546
It has a 3.5mm Tungsten bead on Togatta #12 jig hook from Japan, Olive Ice dubbing spun on green thread to wrap the body, partridge hackle, and a whip-finished collar coated with clear olive and gold glitter nail polish. I'm probably jinxing it now but this stupid simple pattern has produced fish on every outing I've used it that are larger than what I typically encounter in those streams.
Standing on the bedrock jutting out into the stream a couple of 20-foot casts produced what might be an average fish for this stream.
View attachment 122547
A couple more casts and I hooked-landed this.
View attachment 122549
View attachment 122550
After a quick hands-free pic and release into sheltered water it revived and swam into a cleft under the bedrock.
Click to expand...
Too cool. Trout just seem to really like little bead heads with a soft partridge hackle.
 
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Wilderness Medic said:
After getting all the way up to my spot and having my brand new rod break I decided to do some underwater scouting. I threw on my mask and snorkel and floated all my usual fishing spots. My reaction was.... you've gotta be kidding me. There were 10x more fish than I imagined. The most surprising thing was how little they cared about me. I've read and watched a lot of videos about how skittish trout are. They must just mean shadows? I could have kicked them without them caring. I played around making noise and moving and they did not care whatsoever.

If there are that many fish there why are they so hard to catch? I've been doing ok lately, but I based that on assuming there were only a couple fish in each spot. On a recent trip to northern idaho I had the best fishing experience of my life. I caught 6 keeper trout one after another. After the 6th fish my fly came apart. No matter what other fly I tried they would all refuse it at the surface. I had similar sizes, similar colors, etc. But nothing that was the exact same combo of colors. Are they really that picky? Or was something else going on? Should I be sitting on one hole and trying 5-10 different flies?
Click to expand...

This is why euro nymphing works.
 
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