READY TO ROLL(ALMOST)!
Well the season was looking off to a weird start. Because I changed day jobs, I was worried that I would miss some time on my Home waters. As contracts and projects seem to be rumbling along pretty well, Liliane and I are setting our sights on a few weekends of fishing.
I remember that I rambled on a few months ago about tying up flies for the 2010 season. All that got done. The Bombers and big streamers are all lines up and ready for the big water we come up against the first few weeks of the season.
Big water?? Spring run-off, not this year my friend.
In Eastern Canada, we had a particularly light winter. Snow packs were low, spring rain was non-existent and some record high temperatures have meant that the rivers and streams are fairly low.
It’s in French, but the Green line is normal flows, the Grey is record high and the Purple is the record low. Well, I guess the record low flows will be reset by this spring’s data!!
I don’t mind. Well, I actually do, but I won’t complain!
Low water conditions, especially in spring for salmon up around here creates some very special challenges. For one thing, the salmon which come in early in June seem to get into a quandary of some sort. They have that fresh from the Salt impulse to move to the fly, investigate, follow ... everything to get your heart just a poundin’ … but they often refuse at the very last instant. Sometimes in a very spectacular fashion!!
As with many fly fishing situations, the standard reply to a splashy refusal, … go to a smaller fly. Of course, over the past few months, we’ve been busy filling the spring season boxes with big feather wing classics as well as #4, 6 and 8 streamers and such. What is there to do but pull up the vices and re-do most of the patterns in #10, 12 and even #14’s!
The stand by patterns in #6 and #8’s will soon be joined by some smaller cousins!
Fortunately, the Bombers and Birds still work in such conditions, even in low water, so we won’t be doing another run of Bombers!!
They ain’t pretty flies, but they get the job done!
In Eastern Canada, the winter was very mild with record low snow accumulations. If you are coming out East, … you might want to give a shout to a local outfit to see how the flows are doing (or drop me a line).
Christopher Chin – Proulxville Quebec.