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JasonB
04-01-2011, 10:07 AM
Well I don't think I am the only one who has had a rather tough March, with all the high water and such especially. I was also suffering from a bit of a nasty streak of loosing the few fish I was managing to get to strike. Finally had a break through yesterday on a fine spring day on the Truckee.

Lost one after a very brief encounter, started to worry that I had a curse put on me as far as being able to land one... but thankfully a few minutes later I hooked (and landed!) my first Truckee river Brown. The struggle to land the brown took me downstream of the hole, and unfortunately made a bit of splashing and thrashing in the process. After sorting my rig out a bit,
I slowly started to wade back up towards the main part of the hole but decided to make a rather lame half hearted effort to probe the tailout. I knew that there could be fish there, but I was more thinking that the "main" hole probably needed a few moments to cool back off, so I figure why not fish my way back up slowly.

I threw a very short lob, more of a get the line back in the water than a real cast and drift, and yet, not two feet into the drift I hooked another! This one took me for a real ride half way down into the next small rapid, and turned out to be my biggest rainbow yet! Although bigger (19" +/-), this one wasn't exactly photo worthy: not only was it not all that colorful, but also looked like it had been beat on just about every day of it's life or something. No matter, I couldn't have been happier... the rest of the day had no action but it was still a wonderful sunny day on the river and FINALLY broke out of my March slump. Springtime here we come :D
JB

(ps: I'm still working on adding photos. They always come out much smaller than I intend them too)

EricO
04-01-2011, 11:06 AM
Nice Jason. Gotta love a Truckee brown. What fly did it take?

Oh, nice underwater pic. What camera do you use?
I bought an Olympus Stylus Tough. Pretty good but
my underwater pics are only good 50% of the time.

Thanks for the pump up! Can't wait to get out soon.

EO

JasonB
04-01-2011, 11:24 AM
EO,
Both fish landed were hooked on a sz 18 Mighty Baetis, with bead head (the one that got away...dunno?). The camera, which is new for me so I'm still learning all of its quirks, is a Panasonic Lumix.
cheers, JB

DFrink
04-01-2011, 12:44 PM
That's a nice looking brown Jason. Congrats. I broke my March slump yesterday on a brown as well (actually it was the first time I've been out in March :sad:), only I caught it in still water.

Dan

Terry Imai
04-04-2011, 10:39 PM
Way to go where most guys are complaining about the conditons that you went ahead and caught a beauty...

bigfly
04-05-2011, 09:25 AM
In my opinion, Jason has the right attitude about flyfishing.
"Lets go make a few drifts and see what happens."
Suffering, and skunkedge don't really figure in.
He's observant, a quick learner, and has a machine-like cast/drift cycle.
The fish better look out.

Jim

JasonB
04-05-2011, 06:19 PM
I appreciate the kind words, and yes it is true that I've certainly put the time and effort into those few choice trout I've caught this winter. I think I've probably averaged out to 2 full days a week all winter long, and on those days I've spent as much of my time with my fly in the zone as possible... and overall since the end of November I think I've caught all of maybe 10-12 fish, and lost probably half again as many. So not such great odds, but then again it sure beats sitting at home wishing...

Almost all of my winter successes so far have come on the Truckee, where I've had a lot of help from some far more experienced folks. In particular I gotta say that Jim (bigfly) has been extremely helpful in that regard. As for the fish; I think that they're still pretty safe around me... for a little while longer anyway :D

bigfly
04-06-2011, 11:27 AM
JB, I'm calling BS(berry sauce) on the fish's safety (so to speak), and the amount of help from me.
Give me a shout before it all goes to mud!

Jim