nickcsus
06-03-2010, 11:07 AM
I fished the Fall with Chris Parson of the Fly Shop on Monday and Tuesday this week. The weather was overcast and showery to broken sun. Monday was dreadful! One rainbow on a leech at the Lava Creek outflow in Eastman Lake and one Tooey (sp?) chub at the confluence of the Fall and Tule Rivers. There were a fair number of rising fish but whether we were swinging nymphs or trying to drift dries to them, nothing much was biting.
Tuesday was a completely different story. Though it started with a little drizzle, the rain stopped and a little broken sun came through. About ten am the PMDs started coming off and we noticed fish taking duns along the shore close the overhanging brush. We just watched for a few minutes (agonizing when you haven’t been catching many!) and figured out which seemed to be bigger fish. We saw one rising in a little cove surrounded by bushes. After three failed casts (I chickened out for fear of landing the fly in the trees!) I landed a Tilt Wing PMD right in the small opening…BAM! A top water explosion and after some tense moments with my 6X tippet I landed a beautiful 20” rainbow. My first really serious large fish on a dry!
I am mostly a nymph/indicator Lower-Sac-from-a-drift-boat-kind-of-guy and was always a little suspicious of those dry fly purists. No longer! For the next two hours we targeted fish along the bank. With the Tilt Wing and a parachute PMD that Chris ties I caught seven fish, all 19-21”. On some the fish were more than eighty feet from the boat (I know because nearly my whole fly line was on the water) as I drifted my fly down a feeding lane to the rising fish. I had doubts about setting the hook from that distance but Chris said to leave my Lower Sac/East Coast bass hook set in the boat and just come tight to the fish…sure enough it worked!
We also had the sight of a nice, girthy 20” fish coming from five feet below the surface at a weed line to take my dun off the surface—what a kick! I totally get the dry fly attraction now! I have to improve my casting but I think I have the long drift down the feeding lane, mend-like-crazy moves down. Thanks to Chris and thanks to the Fall River!
Nick Burnett
Tuesday was a completely different story. Though it started with a little drizzle, the rain stopped and a little broken sun came through. About ten am the PMDs started coming off and we noticed fish taking duns along the shore close the overhanging brush. We just watched for a few minutes (agonizing when you haven’t been catching many!) and figured out which seemed to be bigger fish. We saw one rising in a little cove surrounded by bushes. After three failed casts (I chickened out for fear of landing the fly in the trees!) I landed a Tilt Wing PMD right in the small opening…BAM! A top water explosion and after some tense moments with my 6X tippet I landed a beautiful 20” rainbow. My first really serious large fish on a dry!
I am mostly a nymph/indicator Lower-Sac-from-a-drift-boat-kind-of-guy and was always a little suspicious of those dry fly purists. No longer! For the next two hours we targeted fish along the bank. With the Tilt Wing and a parachute PMD that Chris ties I caught seven fish, all 19-21”. On some the fish were more than eighty feet from the boat (I know because nearly my whole fly line was on the water) as I drifted my fly down a feeding lane to the rising fish. I had doubts about setting the hook from that distance but Chris said to leave my Lower Sac/East Coast bass hook set in the boat and just come tight to the fish…sure enough it worked!
We also had the sight of a nice, girthy 20” fish coming from five feet below the surface at a weed line to take my dun off the surface—what a kick! I totally get the dry fly attraction now! I have to improve my casting but I think I have the long drift down the feeding lane, mend-like-crazy moves down. Thanks to Chris and thanks to the Fall River!
Nick Burnett