JasonB
04-17-2012, 09:26 AM
So managed a last minute day off, and ran up the hill as fast as I could to fish the Truckee. Fishing started off a bit slow, but managed to catch one and lost another in the first hour or so. I figured it was still early and would likely pick up a bit once the day wore on. Soon enough bugs started to happen, I missed a couple of bites and all in all things seemed to be poised to go... and then I got snagged! Always hate it when that happens, and I had to make a bit more of a ruckus that I wanted before my flies pulled loose. Thats when things started to go strange:
I noticed that I had pulled up another tandem nymph rig as I got my snagged flies back, and upon closer inspection recognized that those other nymphs were mine (a rig that I had lost in a snag last week at that same rock)! A sz 16 bh Birds nest, with a sz 18 Barr's emerger. Being that I was about due for a change in flies and taking this odd occurrence as a sign, I right away tied on my recovered fly rig (after cleaning all the slime off the Barr's emerger). Very shortly thereafter I start catching fish, and in general getting bit more and more until I eventually lost the Barrs emerger to a big fish (but not the lucky Birds nest).
Moving to another spot, the catching picks up even more with every fish coming in on that lucky Birds nest. I was quite pleased that I had recovered that fly as it was probably the best tie job that I had done on any Birds nest yet and it was really working it's magic on the fish too! Thus I was really bummed when I had one of those 2 second meetings with "Walter" where he broke my favorite Birds nest off and headed back into the depths...
Fortunately I had more, so I tied on my next best Birds nest (with a silver bead and ribbing instead of gold), and it seemed to be working just about as well. I was getting pretty tired, and my arms and shoulders were getting a bit stiff from casting with a pretty gusty breeze but wasn't quite willing to end such a fun day of fishing just yet. I threw out yet another "last cast" and managed to hook up with what felt like one of the biggest fish of the day and thrilled to a couple of big jumps and runs before finally easing the nice plump hen into my net. As I was bringing her in, I confirmed that sure enough she had eaten the Birds nest again.
Gorgeous wild rainbow, probably just shy of 20", or maybe just over? Being large and fat, and feisty, I was having a bit of trouble getting her unhooked. Then things went from strange to BIZARE! I start seeing double; at first I thought that she had spit the hook as I see the Birds nest in the net, but then as she flops over a few times I see she's still hooked... on the Birds nest... I start counting flies and see that there are 4 flies, with two of them being Birds nests! Unbelievably I had caught the same fish that had broke me off earlier, AND recovered my most unusually lucky Birds nest for the second time that day :shock: Talk about weird; not only did I recover the exact same lost fly twice in one day, and manage to hook the same fish twice in the same hole, but I also hooked her on the exact same pattern! I also realized that my earlier 2 second meeting hadn't actually been with "Walter"; it was with his little sister.
So I guess the report would be to bring Birds nests to the Truckee right now, and yeah the fishing was pretty good too :D
JB
(I am thinking I might have to mount that Birds nest somewhere, as I doubt that I will ever have a fly that lucky again!)
I noticed that I had pulled up another tandem nymph rig as I got my snagged flies back, and upon closer inspection recognized that those other nymphs were mine (a rig that I had lost in a snag last week at that same rock)! A sz 16 bh Birds nest, with a sz 18 Barr's emerger. Being that I was about due for a change in flies and taking this odd occurrence as a sign, I right away tied on my recovered fly rig (after cleaning all the slime off the Barr's emerger). Very shortly thereafter I start catching fish, and in general getting bit more and more until I eventually lost the Barrs emerger to a big fish (but not the lucky Birds nest).
Moving to another spot, the catching picks up even more with every fish coming in on that lucky Birds nest. I was quite pleased that I had recovered that fly as it was probably the best tie job that I had done on any Birds nest yet and it was really working it's magic on the fish too! Thus I was really bummed when I had one of those 2 second meetings with "Walter" where he broke my favorite Birds nest off and headed back into the depths...
Fortunately I had more, so I tied on my next best Birds nest (with a silver bead and ribbing instead of gold), and it seemed to be working just about as well. I was getting pretty tired, and my arms and shoulders were getting a bit stiff from casting with a pretty gusty breeze but wasn't quite willing to end such a fun day of fishing just yet. I threw out yet another "last cast" and managed to hook up with what felt like one of the biggest fish of the day and thrilled to a couple of big jumps and runs before finally easing the nice plump hen into my net. As I was bringing her in, I confirmed that sure enough she had eaten the Birds nest again.
Gorgeous wild rainbow, probably just shy of 20", or maybe just over? Being large and fat, and feisty, I was having a bit of trouble getting her unhooked. Then things went from strange to BIZARE! I start seeing double; at first I thought that she had spit the hook as I see the Birds nest in the net, but then as she flops over a few times I see she's still hooked... on the Birds nest... I start counting flies and see that there are 4 flies, with two of them being Birds nests! Unbelievably I had caught the same fish that had broke me off earlier, AND recovered my most unusually lucky Birds nest for the second time that day :shock: Talk about weird; not only did I recover the exact same lost fly twice in one day, and manage to hook the same fish twice in the same hole, but I also hooked her on the exact same pattern! I also realized that my earlier 2 second meeting hadn't actually been with "Walter"; it was with his little sister.
So I guess the report would be to bring Birds nests to the Truckee right now, and yeah the fishing was pretty good too :D
JB
(I am thinking I might have to mount that Birds nest somewhere, as I doubt that I will ever have a fly that lucky again!)