( FAOL FOTW Archives 12-31-12 )

Three years ago today, just after noon, I hooked up and landed a Clearwater B run steelhead on the original version of JARS. It took about eight minutes to land that fishy. A few minutes later, I hooked up another such fish, and landed it in about the same length of time. Those were the first two steelhead I landed on my northern Idaho home water, the only river I've fished that holds steelhead, and only during the spawning run.

A few days ago, sitting at the fly tying desk, I wondered what a JARS would look like with vermile rather than chenile for the main body. Kind of liked the look, so I tied several and put them in the fly box.

Today, just after noon, in the same spot as three years ago, fishing the same indicator technique, with the new version, in conditions virtually identical to those in 2016, I hooked a monster B run steelhead. Twenty plus minutes later, after a goodly number of strong runs and constant pressure, it came to hand - all 36" of it.

P4220038 (2).jpg

Guess where I'm going to be and what I'm going to be doing on April 22, 2022.

John

P.S. Rig today was a TFO BVK 9' for 5wt fishing a Rio 4 wt nymph line on an Abel TR1 ( click and pall ) reel with a 5' furled flouro leader and 5' of Orvis Mirage 1X tippet under a thingamabobber indicator.