Tall Tales...or is it tails? I caught five today but they were all big.
I had a conversation with one of our local fly shop owners a few years ago about BS from customers over the cash register counter. "Just the other day," he said. "I had a guy come in here and tell me he caught three fish in a row all over 20" inches long. On three successive casts!" Steve slapped his hand on the glass counter as we guffawed and laughed. We all took turns telling our best customer BS stories.
I thought of that day today. Caught five nice ones today. We've all had days when we caught and released more than five. But today's smallest fish was about 18" inches. Biggest a strong 20. Now that's a fun day. Especially on the 27th of January. It was supposed to be sixty. Not sure it ever got that warm but it was plenty warm enough. Windy too. Not much traffic on the river. The few other fishermen we did see were high sticking with Flashback Nymphs and Pink Scuds. There can be good midge activity in late January. But not today. We maybe saw two or three noses all day long.
But they sure were banging streamers. At least until about 1:00 anyway and then it shut off. Hal fished Buggers and did well too. I fished Knuckleheads. Randy fished scuds and got skunked. Tied this way, as below, on a #6 jig hook with an extra fat tungsten bead off 3' feet of Ox tippet on a 14' foot leader--you could still make a long cast in the wind and lay it down where you wanted it. Strip fast just once to get the line tight and then let it drift and sink. Mend the line a few times if you have to, even up to 50' 60' feet out. Let it get deep and then twitch but not strip. And look for every chance at winter water too, which are medium deep slicks with a slow but steady current coming in. That's where the good ones were today. In medium deep slicks and not on the banks not in the seams and not in the riffles. Jan 27th! What a day. What a day.
....a Knucklehead Sculpin Link
https://localhost/mrb/?page=Fly-Tying/Pat-Barnes/Sandy.htm
...and one more short story link
https://localhost/mrb/index.php?page=Fly-Tying/Sandy-Pittendrigh/Articles/Fastsinking-Streamers.htm