A Newbie's Journey Part IV

It's been a few weeks since I've written anything about fishing. But that doesn't mean that I haven't been out on the water. Any time spent on the river is great, but it would be even better if I could hook a fish. So this time I decided not to go fishing, I'm going hunting (for trout). What's the difference? When hunting for fish I try to be more aware of not spooking the fish, of presenting my fly to look just like what they're already eating, of keeping low and quiet and not tripping on stones and kicking up mud.

The first thing I did was to tie up some flies of the same size and color as the mayflies I've seen the trout eating. I made my own version of an Al Campbell's "too simple" fly by simply wrapping a hook with a thread of tan burlap and building a wing of white Antron yarn.

http://brouelette.com/blog/images/flies1.jpg

Armed with what I hope will be a half dozen deadly mayfly imitations I headed out to the river.

I'd like to introduce you to what I think of as "my spot" and "my river". The Bear river is not thought of as a great trout stream. It reminds me of John Gierach's story "I'll fish anyone's St. Vrain." The St. Vrain is a little stream next to his house that has a few fish. It's a fair to middling trout stream that's easy to get to but doesn't have too many people fishing it. It's not famous and the fish aren't anything that will show up in a magazine, but in time, you get to know every little pocket, hole and riffle. The Bear is starting to feel like my St. Vrain.

It's a short hike to my spot and the view just wonderful.
http://brouelette.com/blog/images/bearriver4.jpg

The banks alternate between thick brush and trees and large boulders. The rocks form several deep pools at regular intervals.
http://brouelette.com/blog/images/bearriver5.jpg

After about a mile the river opens up to a wide, slow moving pool with large boulders under the water that provide lots of hiding places for trout. You have to be careful wading because if you're not watching your feet you can step between those underwater boulders right into a deep hole. The locals call those "Hat poppers".

This is "my pool".
http://brouelette.com/blog/images/bearriver2.jpg

Now that I've been there half a dozen times I know that fish will rise just in front of those small rocks on the right. But the big fish will be in front of that large white and gray boulder. Just upstream from that big boulder are a few smaller rocks that I can hide behind and let my fly drift downstream to the pocket. I tied about 6 feet of 6X tippet to my line and then tied on my own too simple mayfly. Even as I'm setting up my rig I can hear some BIG splashes from the trout hitting the bugs. This is going to be a good day, I can feel it.

I've tried fishing form this spot before, but I couldn't roll cast far enough out to get to the fish. This time I had waders so I carefully waded out about 6 feet into the water where I could hide behind two of those low boulders. The bottom drops off quickly there and I'm already up to my waist. A few more feet and I'd be in over my head.

Sure enough, there's a good size splash right where I knew he'd be. About 15 feet out there's a boulder that's creating an eddy and the trout is hitting mayflies just at the seam of the quiet water that the eddy is creating and the fast flowing water coming between the rocks. I roll cast my fly into the eddy and watch.

The first thing I notice is that the fast moving water is bringing my fly line down stream faster than the fly and I'm getting drag. So I need to practice mending my line upstream to keep that downstream loop from forming. After a dozen tries I'm starting to get the hang of it. Meanwhile, the trout is still hitting flies at that same spot. I must not be spooking him.

I keep placing my fly upstream from him and floating it down. He takes a mayfly right next to mine. Then another just behind mine. Then I see the wake as he takes a run at my fly but then ignores it. I just keep tempting him with it. One dozen, then two dozen cast and he's always so close. He wants it, I just have to keep tempting him.

I find myself talking to the fish. "Eat it. Come on buddy, look at that big fat fly. Eat it!"

After all those big splashes I saw my fly disappears under the water with a simple gulp. I raise my pole and pull in some line and that when it hit's me. I've got him!

My gosh he was a log! I've hooked a couple other trout but this guy felt heavy. He wiggled a bit but it was more like a big fist grabbing my line and pulling it to the bottom. Once again I find myself yelling "I've got him. I've got him." And once again I realize that I don't know what to do. I've got slack between my right hand and the reel so I can't use the drag of the reel to bring him in. I grab the line with my left hand and try to strip in some line to bring him in. He starts to wiggle hard and the battle really starts. I give him a little bit of line so he doesn't break off but he's really fighting. My mind is pretty much blank and I'm so excited that can barely process thoughts. He takes off for a bit and then goes straight down again and as quickly as it started it was over. The tension on my rod releases and the line goes limp.

I reeled in my line and see that he broke off the fly.

I'm staring at the end of the tippet with a huge smile on my face. I hooked a big trout with a fly that I tied at a location where I knew he would be. But the excitement of actually hooking a fish is so overwhelming that I go brain dead and can't think of my next move. I'm going to have to go over that in my mind and practice the motions of retrieving the fish so they become 2nd nature when I do hook one.

Through the rest of the evening I hooked one more very briefly but he spat out the fly almost instantly. I did have two other small adventures though. After doing a couple of laps on that big pool from the downstream side up to the boulders I decided to go back to the roll casting spot and try for some of the others that started rising again. By this time it was getting pretty dark and as I cast a small brown bat flew right past my face just inches from my nose. I jumped, and then laughed at myself. Looking up at the sky I could see half a dozen bats taking bugs in the air.

It started getting too dark to even see the fly on the water. The trout were still rising and it was a half moon last night which gave off plenty of light. But down here in the canyon at water level it was pretty dark so I decided to pack it in.

Now, I've done a lot of backpacking, hiking, camping, and rock climbing so I come prepared. I had a flashlight in my pack and I put fresh batteries in it yesterday. But for some reason the damn thing wouldn't work. So now I have a mile hike back to the car in the dark. In some spots the trees open up and the moonlight helps. But when the trail goes back under the trees it's freakin' dark. But I've dealt with this before and I know that you just take it slow and easy and eventually you'll find your way out. I once climbed Taquitz peak and topped out a 1000 foot vertical face just as the sun was setting. My wife and I had to hike off the back of the mountain and down to the car (about 5 miles) as it was getting darker and darker. We eventually made it to the car 3 1/2 hours later. Like I said, you just take it slow and be careful.

Luckily, this hike was only a mile long and I was back at the car in about 20 minutes. I called my wife to let her know that I was running late and I did make it out of the canyon safely. looking at my cell phone I realize that it's after 9:30 already. I hiked in at 6:15. Where did those hours go?

JUST AWESOME WRITING!!!!!
you'll get em eventually
dont give it up :D
again great story ! keep em comin please :lol:

Dru, you must learn to get the fish on the reel. Do not find yourself with a pile of line on the water (or ground) when the big one hits. Yes, I know you can play and land small fish by stripping line in by hand, BUT, I'll bet you would have landed that fish if you had been playing him off the reel. A big part of fly fishing is line control. That means in the casting AND playing the fish.

If you get caught with too much line out and have a fish on, pinch the line against the rod and reel the excess line up right away.
You can get the fish on the reel, but it is a lot easier to have your line under control all the time.

We're enjoying your writing too.

That's good advice. I'm probably stripping too much line out. I'm going out again tonight and I'm going to try letting out only the needed amount of line instead of "as much as I need plus some insurance".

Lady Fisher:

That worked almost perfectly. I went out again last night and hooked a trout on my 3rd cast. I got him on the reel. I could hear the drag zing as he ran. I played him to within about 20 feet of me and then he turned and swam towards me. I lifted the rod and reeled as fast as I could but I couldn't keep the slack out of the line and he got off. But it was pretty awesome.

I'm getting closer.

Oh, man. This is so agonizingly exciting. I wish I could be there when you land that first fish. You are on the steep part of the learning curve. Dru, on the mile walk to your favorite pool you should fish those smaller faster pools, too. The rougher water surface will go a long way to hide you and an imperfect drift. You can make shorter casts, too. You live in a great area for fly fishing!

Greg

Hey Greg, thanks for the encouragement. BTW, In Real Life my name is also Greg.

If you ever find yourself in the foothills of the sierra mountains between Sacramento and Lake Tahoe give me a call. We'll have to form "Team Greg".

Great story and I feel your pain. I fish with a fella that has had the same problem since we started fishing together... he can get the fish on the hook, but can't seem to get the fish to hand. One thing that I have learned over the years is that getting the fish on the reel is very import. But, that being said, there are alot of times when trying to get the fish on the reel too early will cause you to break off... I have caught several hogs that, when I tried to get them on the reel, I broke off because I had pinched by line too tightly. So, when you pinch your line with your rod hand, give him some ability to run.

Once on the reel, if he charges, change direction for him. For example, if he is charging to your right, pull the rod up and to the left. If he goes left, go right, etc. This keeps tension on the line and also helps to get him closer to the net faster (the quicker you get him to net, the better off he will be). Anway, good luck to you. There is nothing like seeing what you have learned actually working. Good luck and enjoy.

Lee,
You are soooo close. When a fish charges at you, you may have to hand strip in the line as you did the first time. There is no other viable choice in many instances. At that point, you can trap line with your casting hand and try and retrieve the line you stripped in. If the fish pulls, all you really need to worry about is keeping enough tension on the line to prevent the fish from spitting out the hook. Worst case is the fish will end up taking all the line you just stripped in, leaving him on your reel again, in the same position as before but alot more tired. Keep at it, for surely you are close.

jed

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Anway, good luck to you. There is nothing like seeing what you have learned actually working. Good luck and enjoy.

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That is so true. As I think back on the few months that I've been fly fishing I see that I've learned so much. I use to lose multiple flies on each trip by hanging up in trees in bushes. Now, I rarely lose a fly to a bad cast. I use to think that this river didn't have any fish in it, but now that I know when to go (evening during the hatch) I can see the fish rising and I even saw them jumping out of the water on Saturday. I think that's why I decided to call my journal a "Newbie's Journey" because it really is such a journey of learning.

In fact, Saturday I brought a young friend of mine fishing. He's 15 and actually called me Saturday morning to ask if we could go fly fishing.

"Sure!" I said. "I'd love to take you fishing".

So we went out to the river. He didn't have waders so we found a spot where he could roll cast from the shore. The fish were rising and he was able to get his fly fairly close them. However, he did get his fly caught in the trees and bushes a couple of times and I had to re-tie a new leader and fly for him. I just had to smile because here he is going through the exact same learning process and frustrations that I'm going through. I'm just a dozen fishing trips further down the road than he is. It makes me wonder how I'll look back on my learning process a year from now.

I'd fish your St. Vrain anyday! What a beautiful river. You're getting close, real close. You're also getting really good advise. Actually, I fish the St. Vrain quite a lot as it's not far from my home at all.
It empties into the town of Lyons ant you can fish starting right there. Moving upstream it forks into 3 forks, all very fishable. Don't let John fool you too much, people do fish it, and it is a very pretty stream. With the increase of population here it's getting more pressure than ever. Occasionally, you can find a real hog there, too. When you do you find yourself asking him, "where the hell did you come from?"
I know it's dificult to do now, but once again don't think, just react. It needs to come natural. When it does your success will be fruitful. I know we would all like to see the picture of your first catch, and most of us would forgive you if you did handle the fish, but do it carefully, please. You also need to learn how to release the fish. The best method is to not touch him at all or remove him from the water. If you do need to handle him a net is best, but beware, a net can also remove the protective coating off of the fish. Always wet your hand, regardless if you intend to handle him or not, just in case.
Hunting fish is just what you are doing. Fishing is sitting on a bank or a boat with a beer and a worm. Stealth and presentation are the keys. Presentation is everything.
My partner and I went out ourselves Saturday to a little creek I love to fish just a few miles below Wyoming. It was a perfect day, the temperature up on the mountain go to about 78 degrees, the sky a little overcase, the water was a good temperature and bugs of all sorts comming off of the water everywhere. Best of all, we were the only people fishing! We did see others, but they were intent with their quads, (now, there's a blessing in itself, I'm really starting to appreciate the things).
We both caught fish all day long. The phases of fishing you go through in your journey are many and diverse.
I remember when quantities and size mattered. That gave away to just catching, then just being there. Enjoy every minute of your journey, after all, it's not the destination but the journey that is what stands out later in your mind.
Good luck, we all are pulling for you!

I am really enjoying your journey. :D I feel as though I am there and living it along with you. Years ago I lived in Cameron Park (Shingles Springs) and made many a fishing trips up Ice House Road and along the Rubicon Trial. Your journals take me back those times. Really good of you to share your experience in becoming a flyfisherman. It's a lifetime of learning and sharing.

I wish you tight lines and thanks again for sharing.

I'm also enjoying your journey - one we are all on to some degree or other.

I can't wait to read the part that's coming when you bring a trophy (whatever the size) to hand with a fly you've tied.....

Keep the journal coming!