And in February, it is easy to come home without a single tap. I've had at least 4 days like that this month. I should keep track; then again maybe I shouldn't!
After multiple days with nothing, the Cargo Cult issue starts to creep back into consciousness. Therefore when you finally feel a tug, the mind starts racing and the pulse goes up. "Was that real?" Did I imagine that? Was it just a snag?
But then when you *see* a fish following, then it gets real. No more Cargo Cult concerns. But your hands start to shake---"don't mess up this cast!"
Haha it is only fishing. But it wouldn't mean anything if we didn't get excited about it.
There was a lot of water in the river, but where I found the pickerel it is always quiet.
I was invited to fish yesterday in a very special place.
I didn't catch anything.
I had one take. Just one.
This stream has wild brook char in it. My friend has caught them in spring and fall but never this early. It was worth a try.
Wild brook trout are my greatest piscatorial motivator and have been pretty much all winter--heck all last year. But other than the one I caught in September, I've only been able to dream.
Someday, someday. I can't imagine how I am going to react. I will probably make too much noise and then be unable to focus for the rest of the day.
This week has been "Week of the Trout Management Area."
Last week was the last time I had any takes on the non-catch/release section of my local river. It happens to be that that section is closer to home. But I just can't stop fishing--and needing to catch a fish--so starting with Super Bowl Sunday, I've made attempts at the TMA. 4 days total. Yesterday (Thursday) was a skunking but I saw three trout, in two locations. The previous day I fished (Mon? Wed? I can't remember) I got one take, a very brief fight, and then lost it. And of course on Super Bowl Sunday I caught one and then lost it--on the black headed minnow streamer I devised below.
This morning, I started out going with my newest streamer pattern again--the minnow shape but a newer copy that I neglected to photo. It looked mostly like the lower one except only two rather than four peacocks, no dot dot dot flash, and less mallard flank bulk:
Sadly, I lost it somewhere in a cast at the first pool--the one I spooked two trout out of yesterday.
So I went into my box and found another fly I made up. Here it is, shortly after I caught the fish:
It is tied on an eagle claw size 10 smooth shank bait hook (offset bend) and the body is chartreuse ordinary acrylic yarn. I think I put nonlead wrap down first. It is a "nymph" because it has no hackle--I guess. But it doesn't change how I fish it--however I damn well want to!
It was a perfect case of location and casting. There is a plunge pool with a waterfall just up 30 feet from a good vantage point. Plenty of back cast space for a 20 foot back cast, so I cast and shot line to put the fly right into the waterfall. I did this four times. The last time, I had that classic feeling of a snag while starting to get ready for a retrieve--and it was a fish!
I am glad I remembered my net. Being a catch/release section, and knowing that there are a number of people who pester this fish (including me) its--their--survival depends on being delicate with them. I was able to keep the fish substantially in the water, and the hook fell out without me touching the fish. When I saw it loose, I lowered the net into the water and the fish simply swam out of the net.
The videos are unedited and sequential. Because I don't have a helmet-cam, as usual there is no footage of the initial strike and fish fight, which is unfortunate, as it was memorably good.
Even though I got very little photographic activity today, and even though I did not catch anything I could take home, and even though I used up 6 shiners to no avail on the ice, it was still a good day fishing.
Why?
Because last weekend's adventure with baitfishing gave me an idea. I tied some minnow imitations. I just made them up with materials I had on hand. And it worked!
The lower one uses the following materials:
orange embroidery thread body
white saddle hackle tail
matched mallard flank wings (which slipped and became asymmetrical)
peacock herl
ice drop or whatever that is called flash
DNA flash
black monocord thread.
I
used much more DNA than I've ever used on any fly. Instead of just 1 or
two strands each side, I used five. Underwater, it is really blue and
iridescent. This one caught a trout.
I fished a c&r TMA -- I could see two or three trout below the pedestrian bridge. I started out with one of my wet fly things--like this one except with some gold mixed in 50-50:
This failed to attract any attention.
Then I fished another streamer that has been very successful during spring and summer:
This also did nothing. It was time to try my theory--that winter trout are in fact hungry and will devour a crippled minnow if given half a chance.
And it worked!
It took a few casts. The first time the fish was attracted, it approached, turned away, approached again and refused. The next time, it whacked at it but I couldn't feel it hit (I was fishing from above--line sensitivity is very poor in this circumstance). But I also believe it was hitting the long tail. So I tied on a trailing hook and gave it another try. Sure enough, the fish came out from under its lie and approached. I watched its lips open, then my fly was obscured. I waited just a moment and lifted my rod and sure enough, I had it!
Unfortunately though, after a decent amount of fight, I lost it. I believe it was on the trailer.
A fly tied to imitate a minnow can work--even when I do the designing and tying!
A bit over two weeks ago (around the 10th of January) I went ice fishing for the first time ever. Not a big production--just grabbed my spinning stuff, my lures and headed out hoping to find some holes cut. I met two nice guys who had already cut 20 holes and gave it a try. No luck.
So I went back a few days later--with shiners. And that worked:
Caught two Pickerel. One came home for dinner.
Last weekend I tried again without bait and was skunked again. So this time, yesterday, the 27th, I tried with shiners again. It was very slow fishing, but after almost three hours, I finally caught a really nice 12"calico. Then I had two more bites I missed--probably more of the same.
There was an interesting hatch evident on the pond:
After it tapered off around 2:30 I decided to take the two remaining live shiners to head for the stream. I had never used live bait in a stream before. I mean it is almost heretical. I felt sheepish with the first trout on a spinner last March. Well, there's no going back. I'm a sinner for life.
Well, that worked! I caught a trout! It was in the "upper" pool, but when I landed it I instantly recognized the fish--it was one I had caught at least once if not twice before--in the lower pool. The photographic record proves it. Unfortunately for this fish, I used a #2 hook. I had been on a #8 but lost two dead shiners to him on that hook. I saw it in the water taking them. So I figured that maybe the hook point wasn't catching it. Well, it got it in the eye, so I took it home. This is the 2nd fish I've caught on #2 and both times they've been impaled in the eye.
Compare this one from December 27th:
To this one from yesterday (January 27th):
And the starboard side from December:
And from yesterday:
You can see the exact same markings.
I harvested the fish and it was very good.
But more interesting was that it had a full stomach--and not merely from one of the earlier shiners. It seems to have been eating what are possibly case caddis:
Compared to some of the other stocked trout, this one seems to have had the right genes to become a wild fish. Some of the others had completely empty stomachs a month after stocking, or were eating hemlock leaves. So this has me thinking about the whole stocked trout business. How do they maintain genetic diversity?
I've read with great interest about the Farmington Survivor Strain program. That makes a lot of sense. But it must be expensive. I know that regular adult trout stocking is one of the most expensive stocking programs around--about $4 per fish I read somewhere concerning Michigan. What does it cost to do the Farmington approach? And if we did that in other rivers, could we transition to natural reproduction, or is there just way too much pressure?
When you can't get known fish to take your flies for a week, you know you need to come up with some other pattern.
Tie something new.
Try something new.
So after the grey ghost, black ghost, various beadhead nymphs and even wooly buggers all get no takers, and the candycanes are now like a warning claxon to the fish, you need something subtle and effective. So I tied this batch:
Yes, there are candycanes in there. And a grey ghost. But look at those black ones. I stopped into my local shop and showed them to the guru. He plucked the simple black one with the red head out, held it up and said, "this one will catch fish." It was December 23 at about 4:15 pm. I drove the 3 miles to the pool I had caught numerous fish out of, but been denied the past week in. I saw swirls--as usual. I cast this one out a few times in close: got a tug. I paused. Rested the pool for a few minutes. Cast upstream and worked that section a few times. Then when I thought it was ready, I cast straight across, let it drift but with a tight line, just barely retrieving enough to keep contact. Tug-tug-lift. Fish on. No, big fish on.
This one was the biggest of the stocked rainbows I have caught yet this fall. This one knows how to eat wild food. That's why I've seen it so much. That's also why I've watched another flyfisherman try unsuccessfully to take it. It isn't a "dumb" stocker. It has been "wild" for 2.5 months now.
But this black fly, in the darkness, had what it was looking for.
Photo:
https://flic.kr/p/21sN7x2
Edit: a couple days later (Wednesday 27th) I catch another trout, but this time on a smaller version, tied #16 dry fly hook.
A few days earlier, I actually caught and lost the bigger fish mentioned first. I was using both my own grey ghosts (see my last entry) as well as a commercial one in size 6--the one on the top in the photo:
Only the commercial one got touched, and twice I had a big fish on, fought it and lost it. I think it was this very same fish. At one point in the dark that previous night, there was a huge splash at the tail of the pool. This trout is over 2 pounds.
Success means reading rivers etc. Matching the hatch is ok. But there are multiple ways to do that. Principally you need to try different flies!
