Season Change

Since the fires in CA aren't showing any signs of slowing, I finally decided to throw the buff on and get outside anyway.  This 21" bow made some great runs.  It seems with the dropping temps, the oxygen is up and so is the piss and vinegar in the Truckee.  They are fighting harder and getting airborne.

I found this 23" brown with a mouse streamer hanging out the side of his mouth, dead in 4 inches of water.  I'm guessing someone put the night-stalk on the previous evening and something went wrong.  Not sure what would have killed him.  Funny thing is, my buddy at Orvis sold the exact streamer two days before I found this, and they are the only local distributors. 

This brown pounded a tiny black nymph and gave me a run for my money.  Nice shoulders.  First time I can remember having the river to myself in weeks.

The ugliest crawdad pattern you'll see.  At some point I inherited this dastardly looking thing.  I am a firm believer in the "ug" factor.  Fooled the healthy bow below, whom had me fooled that she was a much bigger brown.

Dave Hamel is a good dude of Pyramid Cutthroat fame.  We met up to hit the Truckee and had a productive morning.  After resting a run below us that was pounded for quite a while by a guy on the opposite bank, Dave found this gorgeous brown.  Congrats on the recent engagement Dave.

My favorite midge pattern these days and a few other shots for my kids to Google in a decade.  

Keep On Keepin On

2013 has been a good year for me to gain some confidence and practical experience while catching a few fish along the way.  Friends and family have gifted me the fly-fishing classics, but like the rest of life, reading without implementation means very little.  So, I've been intentional to try out the tricks and tactics I've read about.

Time on the river is still very restorative and meditative.  While still trying to learn as much as I can from as many as I can, I also am more comfortable with my particular style of nymphing and less concerned if others think it's effective or "correct"...which is good timing because this time of year there's probably anglers above and below your favorite slot.  If you can tell whether my caddis is a size 12 or 14, you're probably too close.  But seriously.

 
  

 

The picture doesn't do it justice, but this grand-dad beaver below was almost twice as big and slow as the other dozen or so beavers I have encountered in the last several years.  Because of the off-colored water, he surfaced about three feet from my position and gave me a good startle as well.  The kind when you mash together three or four cuss words and some Cantonese for good measure.  You don't speak Chinese?  Yeah, me neither.

Crayfish are productive, but I have stuck a lot of nice fish on midges and caddis pupae recently as well.  Jan's Pearl Caddis Pupae and Gilligan's G6 is always a worthy contender.

 

 

The downside of being a lifetime fisherman but new to the fly game is that I can read a stream and find the fish but lack the experience to prevent things going sideways after the hook up.  Each time, it seriously seems like I make a new mistake that I hadn't before.  A lot can go wrong between the take and the net.  Hoping to close some deals.

Meaningful Mornings

Sometimes the fish sleep in a bit and hold where they are supposed to and want what you're pitching. These are good days.  Add a good friend that's been to hell and back in the last year and the time out means even more.

 

The Truckee River in 1867

Some old photographs from a western settler, Timothy O'Sullivan were recently discovered.  The series is breathtaking, but here is one from the batch of the Truckee:

"Sailing away: The Nettie, an expedition boat on the Truckee River, western Nevada, in 1867. This was the river that O'Sullivan almost died in and according to the magazine Harper's 'Being a swimmer of no ordinary power, he succeeded in reaching the shore... he was carried a hundred yards down the rapids...The sharp rocks...had so cut and bruised his body that he was glad to crawl into the brier tangle that fringed the river's brink.' He is also supposed to to have lost three hundred dollars worth of gold pieces during the accident too."


Read more here.

Beat the Heat

I firmly believe the fish grow accustomed to the increased traffic on the water's surface this time of year.  I've hooked heavy fish drifting nymphs ten feet just upstream of a group of tubers multiple times.  I recently heard a story about someone dropping a camera behind their raft and having multiple large browns come "kiss" the lens.  I buy it.

Once hooked, this 21" cutt-bow below took it nice and easy in the off-color water...until she spotted me and took off downstream with a vengeance.  While running her, some inflatable recreation types entered the run and actually passed over the top of the fish before she went to the net.  Slightly more stressful than I like.  Either way, the San Juan worm wasn't going anywhere.  Photo credit to my Mom visiting from OKC, who insists I was born 6 weeks early because she went on a fishing boat on Pyramid Lake.

I lost a huge gigantic monster brown recently, and after resting the run a few weeks I decided to go renegotiate.  I insist he was still there, but I connected instead with some nice fish pictured below including a nice 20"+ bow that ran me for the longest fight ever...this fish did not want to come in.

Despite a lot of advice to the contrary, I've been having a lot of success recently with a very short leader.  As in crazy short.  Sometimes you just have to try stuff out and let the results do the convincing.  Summer tricks I guess.