Fished with two buddies today. What a fun day. There was a strong downstream wind which blew us down to takeout a good 2 hours sooner than we planned. But we still rolled some real toads today. (Dangerous) Dan Gard’s flies saved the day: the Juicy Lucy, Gold Finger and Bubba were definitely the flies of the day. Photos will follow tomorrow. Fun 4th of July.
OK. Here are two of three promised pics, of Dan Gard dry flies. Dan retired last fall, after guiding on the Missouri near Helena/Great Falls Mt for the last 19 years. I drifted the river yesterday with Dan and Chuck Tuschmidt, who also just retired last fall, after 29 consecutive years of river guiding in Montana. I doubt I’ve ever had a single day of fishing where I learned as much–in one day–as I did yesterday. I’ve been drifting the Missouri since the early 1980s. And I have my ways. But where I tend to fish is not necessarily where they did. I’m not sure it’s Kosher to reveal what I learned about where to look for the extra-big “toads” we where (dry fly) prospecting for. All I’m going to say on that score is I’ve been ignoring a lot of good dry fly water for a long long time.
There were clouds of Tricos here and there, a fair number of Yellow Sallies and few PMDs. But not enough bugs anywhere to get the rainbows to pod up in the slicks. So it was more of a prospecting day than a sight fishing day. But we did well. And we chose the one float too that was not so insanely crowded on the 4th of july. On top of that we started early–before everyone else. So we basically had the river to ourselves. Which–on the 4th, was a minor miracle in itself. We fished Dan’s Juicy Lucy, which is a big #12 Elk Hair Caddis with a trailing, twinkly shuck. With a tuft of pink on top so it’s easier to see. Off that we trailed a variety of small flashy beadheads and soft hackles. In general the browns ate the big dry fly and the rainbows ate the trailing nymph. But I did jump and lose one 20" or so rainbow that took the elk hair. Later in the afternoon we fished Dan’s Bubba, which is an odd foam (giant) ant with extra-twinkly wings made from wide bands of Flashabou. You can see that fly twinkle back at you from as far as you can cast. They ate it too. Dan gave me a streamer of his named the Gold Finger. I didn’t fish it yet. I’ll photograph that one after I actually fool a fish with it. The Juicy Lucy below is about to unravel. I fished it for half a day. I’m going to try to pry some better examples of Dan’s work soon. He’s a hell of a fly tier. The trailing shuck on the Juicy Lucy below started off a lot longer. But it lost a fair amount of Lucy’s tail after the first half dozen or so fish. Dan did say the Bubba was an adaption of someone else’s fly–some East Coast fly tier whose name I’ve forgotten. Dan added the strobe-flash plastic wings I think.
More proof that a trout will eat anything that looks and acts alive, is smaller than it is, and is slow enough to catch !!! :shock:
I really relate to your comment “But where I tend to fish is not necessarily where they did.” I often realize that I tend to look for a certain kind of water in a stream system, and wonder if I am actually passing up good or even better water ?? But habits that have produced results over time are hard to modify. You were fortunate to spend the day with a couple very good anglers whose habits are very different than your own. When I see others fishing, I always stop to watch, to see what I can learn. But that is no substitute for the experience you had on the Fourth.
John
On a buggier day (PMDs or BWOs, caddis, tricos, etc) you do have to fish nit pick imitations. But this was a slow-motion prospecting day. The other boats we saw were bobber fishing with heavier bead heads. Both Chuck and Dan said that’s probably what they’d be doing too, if they were still guiding, because end-of-the-day tips have such a one-to-one relationship with the number of netted fish.
Well said Pitt!!!
Another thing occurred to me, about using Dan’s big hi-vis attractors as a strike indicator for a small wet fly. The Juicy Lucy doesn’t float well enough to “indicate” for a heavy beadhead. But it works just fine for little ones. Or for a small dry fly. I’m 63. Going on older than that. Just got diagnosed with “macular pucker.” Which means I now have CSS as well as CRS. I now need to fish with a big, easy-to-see dry fly now no matter what. More or less at all times. I can still catch fish on a #20 BWO dry fly. But only because I noticed a dimple behind my big foam grasshopper. Or my #12 Juicy Lucy. That’s just the way it is now. Or fish wet flies only and rely completely on line tip ESP. Like that old Wet Willie song: “Keep on Smilin.” I’m still here. So I ain’t complaining.
Gee, these patterns don’t seem to fall into the scope of the opinion you stated in a previous thread. Must be something in the water.
Allan
Originally Posted by JohnScott
More proof that a trout will eat anything that looks and acts alive, is smaller than it is, and is slow enough to catch !!! :shock:
I really relate to your comment “But where I tend to fish is not necessarily where they did.” I often realize that I tend to look for a certain kind of water in a stream system, and wonder if I am actually passing up good or even better water ?? But habits that have produced results over time are hard to modify. You were fortunate to spend the day with a couple very good anglers whose habits are very different than your own. When I see others fishing, I always stop to watch, to see what I can learn. But that is no substitute for the experience you had on the Fourth.
John
[/QUOTE] yep , now that same theory works for me time and time again
Watched a guy who was obviously a much better angler than I fishing a famous tailwater yesterday and he was fishing a medium size dry in the deepest, fastest current in the area - not that I saw him take a fish, but I wouldn’t even have looked twice at that run. No wonder I miss out on those big fish.