Word from Clive!
By Clive Schaupmeyer
Here is an update from Clive! This was written to
Al Campbell and he kindly shared it with us. Hope Clive finds his
way back safe and sound.
I am off to Vancouver today. Staying overnight to visit with my dad, and then off to
China tomorrow for one week. Always nice to have reading material while
travelling. Glad you have something in Outdoor Life. Good for you. [Al
Campbell has an article in the current issue of Outdoor Life.]
It's been a most unusual summer here because we moved to a new town closer to
where the action is in the potato processing industry I work for. Until last
week we had not had our fifth wheel out.
Last week we spent three days of R&R in the mountains. It was
pretty damn nice to kick back for a few days. The cutt fishing was
good and it was the first time I had been stream fishing since March.
Last Wednesday I took another day off and made a day trip to the
Crowsnest River and it was simply sublime. The weather was drizzly, showery,
rainy and the trout loved it. We spent 10 hours on the River and actually did
not land many fish--I netted perhaps 12 rainbows. But I also hooked (for 2 to
30 seconds) perhaps another 15 fish and had, throughout the day, somewhere
around 40 more hits. So the action was very good. The low hookup and landing
rate was mainly caused by the fact that we were often fishing the small
stuff. At 4 PM in the rain there was a #24 BWO hatch (not usual for August
here) along with (what appeared to be) another small tan may and some #30
midges.
From 4 to 7 PM (when we walked away) we were kept busy by about 100 trout in
a 75 yard stretch--there were perhaps 30 or 40, 16 to 18-inch rainbows
constantly feeding in the one "pool." For a few momments they were just
subsurfacing and then for five minutes they were nosing on top and then just
below again and on and on. It was a hoot. In about two hours of having two or
three dozen fish all rising at once...it was incredible...I landed one, broke
off another, unhooked two (that I had on for about 20 or 30 seconds), and had
perhaps 15 hits. No lack of action, even if we did not land too many. Geez,
they were fussy and frankly I have never been too great at hooking trout on
the small flies. It was just great.
Several years ago I started using small foamy indicators for small dry
flies...they made the day for me on Wednesday. There's a piece about
foam indicators in my book (and at FAOL). They are the
ticket for seeing your fly or a hit in a situation like Wednesday's. We had
to make some fairly long casts into the feeding frenzy and I dunno about you,
but trying to see a #22 BWO dry at 40 feet in a constant mass of feeding
swirls is simply not possible. And without the micro foamy (about 1/4 inch in
diameter) you'd have no idea which of the many constant rises were at your
fly.
Well, it's 4:08 AM so I had better be going. I woke up at 2:30 AM and could
not go back to sleep. I'll stay up now as I off to the airport in three hours
anyway. My system is already messed up and I ain't even in China yet.
Have a great rest of the summer.
Cheers! ~ Clive Schaupmeyer
Our Man In Canada Archives
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August 23rd, 1999
