Improbably Small 'Gill Seeks large, Gaudy Fly for Dinner and Dancing
I met Jack Hise on the Duck River below the Normandy Dam last Friday. They were still only spilling about 40 cfs, less than a third of the normal release. After getting stuck in Nashville traffic I realized that I had forgotten to bring my flies! Argh! I returned home and hastily retrieved them. That was a wasted hour. I finally got to the water and worked from the parking lot upstream. I found a sweet, little pocket and pulled out a couple of stocker rainbows on a size 10 parachute dry. The pattern is part of a series of more or less deliberate experiements on my part. I kept the same dry all day, although there were a few tense moments involving trees.
After a while, we met up with Doublewide and made our way downstream. Jack kept working the trout with his Purple Pizzazz. I kept the dry and worked a hot hole for 'gills and their cousins. I think that this is a stump and snag known well to the Ohio Terror himself. I hooked an adjacent silver maple at least 5 times, but I was always able to retrieve my fly. I landed a wee crappie.
I had my fly slapped all over the water by a procession of bluegills that were small enough (sub-three inchers) to make nice aquarium specimens. I landed a few. Then the bigger fish got involved. The biggest 'gill too me straight in The Snag. I couldn't muscle it out fast enough, so I turned low-down-sneaky-mean. I tried dragging the fish into the snag. Bluegills pull away from you and turn their bodies perpendicular to the direction in which you try to pull them. The fish swam straight away from the safety of the timber and ran hard for open water. It is a trick that I have used before. I have even had 'gills run to the gravel bar on which I was standing and belly-out.
I managed to land the nice +7-inch bluegill and release it. I really prefer barbless hooks. I managed to release most of the fish by grabbing the hook and inverting it.
Jack kept working the tail-out behind me, taking trout. I don't know how many he took. I didn't keep track of how many fish I caught. I was simply having a great time. Perhaps the biggest excitement was having a water snake almost slither over the tow of my wading boot. I think that it was just a banded water snake, but I couldn't see the face closely enough to be sure. I moved and the snake fled, another indicator that it was probably a harmless water snake. Yes Virginia, we DO have snakes swimming in our trout streams Down Here. They are mostly polite and do not wish to cause anyone any trouble.
We hung around the parking lot below the dam until well after dark like so many not-so-juvenile delinquents with no homework to worry about. We chatted and planned and enjoyed each others company. All too soon, it was time for me to start my 2-hour drive home. It was almost 11:00 when I got there. I can't help but to be thankful for another great afternoon and evening on the Duck.
Ed
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