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Bad Luck Larry

Go big, or go home?

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Why the heck WOULD a 22 inch trout take a #18 fly?

That's a question I always ask.

If I'm a 6' 2" person with 210 pounds of solid muscle, why would I order a 'Happy Meal' when I SHOULD be ordering a 'Big Mac combo'? 'LARGE SIZE' it even? Big guy, big meal. RIGHT?!
First off, I WISH I was 6' whatever and made of solid muscle. However, mom and dad saw to it that 23 chromosomes here and 23 there made sure that I stand 5' 5" and 150 pounds with most of the active Arnold Schwarzzeneger(SP?) muscles located in my mouth, which work fine when my foot isn't anywhere to be found.

Big fish needs big food, right? RIGHT?!

Yesterday, here in Kingston where I live, the flying ants were all over the place. And once again, I saw a sight which stunned me the first time I saw it: Seagulls.
(I don't know about a lot of you good friends from south of the border, but to me, the seagull should be Canada's national bird!)
During a similar hatch of flying ants in a field just behind my parent's home, I happened to notice that the seagulls were flying around within a HUGE perimeter; swooping, turning, hard braking.
Acrobatics, in other words. And all without ever leaving the vicinity of their 'dance circle'.
Then, I started getting closer and taking a close look at what they were doing, and wouldn't you know it, they were eating flying ants!
All their flying manoeuvers, and every now and then a snap of their beaks like chopsticks, snatching a little itty-bitty ant. This huge bird which spends most of its time eating french fries my kids throw and every other bit of food we discard, going after these insects.
Never would've believed it until I saw it.
And yesterday, I saw it all over again. Although this time, right outside my front door in our neighborhood.
Some of the ants were #16's, some as small as #20's, and the 'Terminators' making sure work of them all.

Which brings us back to the stream.

You read it in all the fishing mags but you never understand why. And then, 'matching the hatch' all of a sudden makes sense. When you have thousands of 'Happy Meals' all over the place, THOUSANDS, it only makes sense that you at least ENTERTAIN the idea that maybe....MAYYYYY-BEEE....putting on a 'Happy Meal' might increase your chance of catching a fish.
I don't know how, but fish KNOW what's going on above AND below the water. When there's something going on above the surface, the fish below it..KNOW IT! And contrary to what I think SHOULD happen....fish aren't going to wait for the half dozen 'Super-duper big guy meals' which MIGHT come their way, when they know full well that a hatch of hundreds are going on right at that moment.
Eat one large meal, or a lot of little meals?

Three years ago fishing the Ausable in NY., the last day before we left for home I caught a nice brown about 16 inches (heck make it 22...I'm a fisherman, right?) on a #18 grey emerger and I wondered why on earth a big fish like that would casually sip a small piece of fur and feather I strained to be able to see.

It all boggles my mind, but it just happens.

And it sure is nice when it DOES happen.

Updated 08-13-2009 at 11:05 PM by Bad Luck Larry

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