At first I balked, knowing the only fishing this time of year up in that area was going to be for steelhead, and based on my previous experience with those finny creatures, I had serious doubts that they even existed.  I once spent three days in a steady drizzle casting flies into crystal clear pools with Mr. Base Camp Legend himself, Tom, videotaping my every move.  Only one thing could have been more miserable than standing in water that was a couple degrees away from becoming a solid, for three days, while rain drops nearing the point where they become white and fluffy, pelted down on your back.  And that was standing on the rock behind me with a video camera glued to your face, just waiting for something to happen, all while the same cold liquid pounded down on you.  What did Tom and I receive for our suffering?  Nothing.  Not even a nibble.  Well, I did catch a 15 inch cutthroat trout but that is not exactly a just reward for spending three days dodging hypothermia.  As bad as steelhead fishing may sound I did actually enjoy the trip and promised that I would someday catch one.  I actually made another attempt later that same month but came up empty again while fishing with both of my brothers on a different river.  While it wasn’t raining on that day I do remember having to thaw the guides on my fly rod after nearly every cast as they iced up solid.  After four days of Steelhead fishing and I had nothing to show for it.

That was over two years ago and I hadn’t even tried to catch a steelhead since.  Now here I was ready to tackle the task again.  The frigid air on this morning was just a little reminder of what I had missed out on these last two years.

The conversation in the car  as we made our way down the canyon on this morning was surprisingly optimistic.  Maybe it was the lack of sleep, or the fact that Jeff had yet to spend any time chasing Steelhead with a fly rod, that led to our positive attitudes.  Jeff still had that fresh optimism that quickly erodes when you send a few days casting mindlessly into a river hoping a wayward fish would grab the tuft of feathers swinging at the end of your leader and his attitude was starting to rub off on me.  As we pulled off the road along the surging river, I realized I was catching it again, Steelhead fever.

From here the story gets short.  It only took three casts for adrenaline to do what three cups of coffee couldn’t on this morning.  As my flies drifted past a boulder about midstream my indicator slowly dipped below the surface.  I was sure I had snagged on the rock and I brought up my rod tip to free the drift.  What I felt was not a rock but a powerful surge and a big head shaking wildly in the current.  Even being the calm, even keeled guy that I am, I couldn’t contain the excited yell that came from my unsuspecting mouth.  Jeff heard the commotion and quickly joined the party, helping me land my first Steelhead.  By a quarter till eight I was standing on the bank while Jeff snapped some pictures of my catch.  The hatchery buck taped out at 27 inches.  To have been able to land it on a fly rod, on a fly I had tied, made it only that much sweeter.  In fact the only drama in this fight, besides the excitement of actually tying into one of these ocean run beasts, came when I beached the fish and it came unhooked at my feet.  I quickly corralled it with my hands and just assumed that the fly had finally pulled free of its mouth.  Only after things had calmed down and I was ready to go back to fishing did I discover that the hook had actually snapped in two.  I will have to find some stronger hooks for tying flies meant for my future pursuits of the fish with a metal head.

It turns out that Steelhead fishing is everything it is cracked up to be after all.  Now all I can think about is when I might get a chance to get out there on the river again.  They warned me at the fly shop when I bought my first steelhead rod that someday this would happen.

Hook: #18 or smaller Tiemco 100 or equivalent dry fly hook

Thread:  Olive 8/0

Wing:  Olive Deer Hair

Tail/Shuck:  One Natural Brown CDC feather

Body:  Gray Olive Turkey Biot

Thorax:  Medium Olive Fine Dry Fly Dubbing 

1)  In the winter months the bugs that do hatch tend to be small.  For our rivers in Southeast Idaho I usually tie this pattern in sizes from #18-#24.  You can definitely go larger or smaller if needed.  

2)  Tie in a clump of deer hair about 2/3 down the shank of the hook.  I make about 3 good turns while holding the back of the hair so it stays on top of the hook while the tips flare out.  Then clip the backs as close as you can at a 45 degree angle.

3)  Next I pull up about 1/3 of the hair and make a wrap in front of it, then proceed to pull up another third, again making a wrap in front of that, then finally pull the remaining hairs straight up and wrap in front so that all the hair is standing up on the fly.  Then be sure to build up a good thread dam in front of the wing as if you don’t, when the fly gets wet the wing will lean forward on you.  Then wrap the thread back to behind the wing and tie down the loose ends on that side. 

4)  Now tie in the CDC feather on top of the hook shank.  I don’t worry about how long the tail sticks out as I cut it later.

5)  Continue securing the CDC feather wraping back to where the shank meets the bend.

6)  Now I trim the tail to about 3/4 hook shank length.

7)  Next tie in a Goose or Turkey Biot Quill with the notch facing left.  Advance the thread to just behind the wing.

8)  Wrap the biot using nice even wraps toward where you stopped the thread, then tie it off and clip the excess.

9)  Next I simply dub a nice football shaped thorax using 2-3 wraps behind the wing and 3-4 in the front of it.

10)  Finally make a nice even thread head and tie off the fly.  Dab some head cement on there and you are ready to fish.

Play with the color scheme to match other mayfly hatches in your area as well.  I like this pattern tied in appropriate colors for the summertime PMD hatches too.  Most of all have fun and catch some fish!

Something about going fishing in the middle of a work day makes the sport that much more enjoyable. Knowing that you could still be at work, but there you are knee deep in a trout stream, brings a new appreciation for the opportunity. I am lucky to work a half hour drive from a great trout stream. It makes for a long lunch but it is possible to get out to the river, fish a little, and get back to the office in a couple hours. Yesterday as I was sitting there in the office looking out the window at a steady drizzle, 45 degree weather, with no wind, I couldn’t keep my mind from wandering to the fact that these were perfect conditions for a solid Blue Wing Olive hatch. I figured sometimes it is better to scratch that itch and get it over with than sit around and daydream all day, so at lunch time I jumped in the truck and headed out to the river.

As I drove along the lower stretches of river I could see that my guess was correct. The bugs were hatching and the fish were eating. Little rings dotted the surface of each slow pool where another hungry trout had picked off a helpless mayfly.

There is a spot along the river I had always wondered about but never tried as it is tucked away neatly off the main road. I pulled off the pavement onto a little dirt track that led back to a big bend in the river. As I pulled up I could see the nature of the river here was deep and slow moving, and just like downstream, there were fish feeding in small pods throughout this stretch.

I pulled out the fly box, tied on a BWO Sparkle Dun type pattern I had tied a handful of over the last weekend and cautiously waded into the slow, quiet current. I tried to approach the first pod of rising fish from down river casting up and a little across to reach them and letting the fly drift back towards me. There were no takers. Wondering if by chance, in this slow current and clear water, the fly line was tipping them off, I changed my approach a little. I waded in above a small pod of feeders further up the river and fished downstream to them. This method is a little trickier as it requires more stealth as you are in a vulnerable position directly in the trout’s line of vision. Secondly it is more difficult to make the cast and get a good drift. Because the current is moving away from you it calls for a cast which will stack up as much slack line at the end of your line as possible so there is plenty of slack to allow for the longest possible drag free drift.

I made my first cast to these fish from my new position and watched the fly drift very slowly in the current. I found my self straining to pick out the tiny fly, sometimes wondering if I was still watching it or a small bit of foam drifting in the current. Then as quietly as the hush over the surrounding hills a nose broke the surface and my fly disappeared in a swirl.

The silence was now broken as the fish pulled at the sting in it’s jaw. Running up and down and side to side through the narrow river, it leaped clear of the water several times, crashing back down with a cacophonous clap. I tried to steer the fish away from the rest of the pod that had been rising hoping to get another shot at a fish from this pool but it was too strong and went where it wanted, at times bringing a screech from my reel as more line was stripped out against the drag.

Eventually the powerful fish was brought to hand, and as I rocked it back and forth in the current, reviving the big brown, I noticed the small ring of a gentle rise develop where the pod had been. Already the fish where back to the business at hand, sipping mayflies, and apparently not missing their comrade very much. Suddenly, the Brown made a powerful surge and bolted from my hands and I took a moment to let things settle even more. As I reconditioned my fly, working it into a buoyant condition again, more and more fish began to rise.

I ended up catching a couple more fish from this group in a mere half hour of fishing. Each one put on a aerial display similar to that first fish and tested the drag on my reel. After bringing the third fish to hand on the tiny BWO imitation the fly was already getting a little tattered. As I pulled it from the jaws of that last fish I noticed the hook was beginning to straighten out. There is nothing quite like a fly that has been so abused by fish it has been rendered useless. I then realized that if I didn’t take this opportunity and leave now, I wasn’t likely to make it back to the office at all that day so I reluctantly headed back to the truck. So now you know both the good and the bad of fishing on your lunch break. Sometimes the fishing is too good and you just don’t want to leave.

I fish it a variety of ways. Often I will fish it with a double nymph rig as the bottom fly fishing it deep with the aid of split shot. In the spring I like to use it as a dropper off an adult Skwala Stonefly pattern on rivers that have that hatch and fish it in the top foot of the water column. It will work all year I am sure but my focus during the summer seems to shift to the many other hatches that take place and my use of this midge pattern takes a back seat.

Midges though are a popular winter staple for trout as they do hatch in many locations all year. Even on a cold winter day, the mid day sun can warm things up enough to bring about a midge hatch that will bring even the most lethargic of cold blooded trout to the surface.

This pattern is basically a Zebra Midge with a few slight modifications. It’s simple to tie, and has for the last couple years been my top fish catching pattern on a variety of rivers.

Figure 1-I usually tie this pattern on hooks size #18 or smaller. This one is on a #18 TMC 2457.

Figure 2-Push a 2mm nickel bead onto the hook.

Figure 3-Lay a base of black thread then I tie in a short tail of a few grizzly hackle fibers. Midges do not have a tail like a mayfly but I tie this with a few fibers at the end as I like to think it gives a little wiggle to the end of the fly.

Figure 4 – Tie in a short section of fine silver wire and advance the thread to the head of the fly building a slight taper with the thread as you go.

Figure 5 – Make evenly spaced wraps with the wire up to the head and tie off with the thread.

Figure 6 – Tie in a small loop of Iridescent Krystal Flash. Then whip finish and drop some head cement on the head and a little on the body of the fly.

Figure 7 – The finished product.

Often immitated but never duplicated.

Fishing for trout can certainly be done by fishing blind, finding likely holding water and casting a good imitation of trout food into these places hoping for action.  Admittedly a lot of my time on the water is spent this way and sometimes it is your only option.  However, it is a truly rewarding experience when you are able to spot a subtly feeding fish, devise a game plan, and stalk within casting range without disturbing its feeding pattern.  Then choose the right fly, make a perfect cast, manage any tricky currents, bring the fly into the feeding zone at the right moment, and seeing it all come together at the intersection of fly and trout snout.

This spring I had plenty of occasions to practice my trout stalking skills on a local river.  It is a tail water fishery, and the flows in this river are quite low all winter and spring until they bump up sometime after the reservoir above fills in mid April.  This means that in March and early April there is a lot of skinny water, and you will often find large fish hanging in water barely deep enough to cover their backs.  These fish are relatively easy to spot and thus make for a perfect opportunity to apply the spot and stalk method to fly fishing.   I have really enjoyed testing my skills and finding out just how much fun stalking big trout can be.

Late March on this river also ushers in a highly anticipated event.  Skwalas.  An early stonefly that is welcomed with open arms as they offer a much needed break from fishing tiny midge and baetis patterns all winter.  The Skwala Stoneflies are not overly prolific but fish do often gobble up the unfortunate few adults that find themselves clumsily flailing about on the rivers surface.  There was one particular outing this spring where my intention from the beginning was to hammer the bigger bugs into likely holding water and watch the trout go nuts for the big juicy morsels.  In my over exuberance I made some critical mistakes that undoubtedly cost me a few fish that day.

Good water is essential for spot and stalking wary trout.

After rigging up my fly rod at the truck with a trusted adult Skwala pattern, I barged down to the water and without much grace waded right into the current.  After casting into likely holding water below riffles, and around mostly submerged rocks for about 20 minutes, and coming up empty I turned to wade up river to the next run.  There about 20 feet from me just off the bank in some very shallow water I could see a good sized fish working back and forth in the trickling current.  With my mind still set on Skwalas I threw a nice cast landing a few feet out in front of the fish.  As the fly drifted overhead the big fish made a lazy start up at it then turned away at the last moment.  I made a few more casts and each one got similar results.  Finally I took a breather and just watched the fish as it fed.  It was feeding in a small channel of current that flowed between two small submerged rocks.  It was darting back and forth and at times rising nearly to the surface to intercept its food.  As I watched it I knew it was time to put away the big bugs and break out my midge box again.    As the fish continued to feed, its mouth slashing from one side to the other in the buffet line drifting by it in that soft current, I devised my game plan.  Seeing that the fish had not shied away from the Skwala pattern I had passed over it a few minutes earlier, I used one of my favorite methods of fishing small hard to see flies that are fished subsurface.  I tied about 18 inches of tippet to the bend of the hook on my bullet head Skwala pattern and tied on a #20 zebra midge as a dropper.  This would allow me to watch the larger fly to detect a strike on the smaller submerged fly without using an unnatural looking indicator that would likely spook or tip off the fish.

As the cast unfurled and landed a few feet above the slot the fish was feeding in, I watched in anticipation.  The flies drifted through the slot cleanly and as the Skwala pattern passed over the feeding fish I saw it make a quick movement and the Skwala gently dipped below the surface.  I brought up the rod tip and felt the heavy head shake of a hooked trout.  As the big brown trout blasted across the river ripping line from my reel a smile broke out on my face.  This is what it is all about.

A few moments later after releasing the 20 inch brown back into the current I took a very close look up the stream ahead of me.  There about 15 feet in front of where I had just caught this fish was another very similar fish in a similar lie slashing from side to side.  And up beyond that fish I could see the dark form of yet another fish also feeding a couple feet off the bank in the shallow water.  I was glad to see it but became quite aware that with fish stacked up like this tight to  the bank I surely had busted a couple feeding fish out of their water when I had pushed my way down to the river.  That day turned out to be one of my better ones on the river as I stalked and caught visibly feeding fish right up until dark.

If you are like me you value your time on the water fishing.  Quite a lot of energy can be built up just anticipating the moment that you arrive at the river.  The problem is our tendency to allow this energy to push us along right into the river where we begin to waive our rod madly about, without stopping to simply observe what is happening on the water.  The solution is a matter of taking the energy built up within us and dialing it back a couple notches before we arrive at our fishing spot.   Slow down and use your senses.  Too often I am in such a rush when I get to the river my main goal is just to get a fly tied on and get in the water.  While the advice we have all gotten at some point in our lives that “you can’t catch a fish without your line in the water,” is technically true, it can also cause you to miss out on a lot of fish.  Rather than rushing down to the water’s edge it is sometimes better to start by hunting rather than fishing.  Look for feeding fish, look for insects, keep your options open, and don’t solidify your game plan until you have taken some time to truly observe what is happening that day on the river.  Rivers are a changing environment and no two days will be the same.  We can’t just assume what worked for us last time we were here will work the same way again.  It is this constant challenge that keeps us coming back.

So the next time you pull up to your favorite fishing hole remember the words of baseball’s wordsmith, Yogi Bera, “you can observe a lot by just watching.”

A big brown falls victim to the author's spot and stalking methods

While it is fun to pick off rising fish with a dry fly it is good to remember that most of a fish’s feeding takes place sub surface on nymphs.  While it can be discouraging for a beginner to try and manage the double nymph rig it can pay off with more and often larger fish.  It also provides a realistic chance of catching fish under a wider variety of conditions.

The most effective method if I am specifically targeting fish with nymphs is the double nymph rig, as this method allows a very realistic presentation.  This rig starts at the top with an indicator of your choice.  There are many types of indicators and ideas for homemade indicators out there.  Most store bought indicators will be the poly yarn variety.  I like these but have had trouble in choppy water with them staying buoyant enough after becoming submerged in the riffles a couple times.  My personal choice is an appropriately sized Frog Hair Ultimate Adjustable indicator.

They are made of foam; they float well in almost all circumstances, are very responsive to even the lightest of bites, are highly visible, and they are easy to slide up and down your leader to adjust the depth as you move from run to run.  All the things that I feel make a good indicator.  The rule I use for where to put the indicator is usually twice as deep as the water I am fishing and adjust from there depending on the swiftness of the water.  The faster the flow the higher you will want the indicator to allow the nymphs to get to the bottom where the fish will be looking for them.

Once the indicator is in place I tie the top fly on the end of the tippet.  Personally I often use a larger nymph like a stonefly or one with a bead head as my point fly.  The advantage is twofold here.  First a larger fly like the Stonefly nymph or a bead head nymph will provide a little more weight to help get the flies to the bottom quickly.  Second they can serve as an attractor to get the fish’s attention.  Even if it is not exactly what the fish wants a big potential meal like the stonefly of something with some flash like the bead head will catch their eye and may be too much for the fish to resist.  As with everything else though this is just a guideline and if conditions dictate I will deviate from this strategy with different flies.

Once the top fly is chosen and tied on I tie about 12-18 inches of tippet to the bend in the hook and tie my second fly on.  In my experience the second fly will be the one you catch most of your fish on.  My most used patterns here are a small pheasant tail or hare’s ear nymphs.   Obviously your fly choices will again depend on what type of insects hatch on your body of water.

The final but very important step is the split shot.  I place my split shot about 12” above the top fly in my rig.  Start with as little weight as possible and work up as conditions dictate.  Most nymphs live on and under the rocks at the bottom of a river so a fish feeding on nymphs is most likely going to be found on the bottom as well.  You need to get your fly down to where the fish are and that means adding weight.  You will want your flies to be bumping bottom occasionally but not continually hanging up.  Finding this balance will be important to your success.

There is no fast hard rule about where I will fish this rig but the most likely spots I target are in tail outs just below a riffle or in long 3’-4’ deep channels with fast  to medium walking speed current flow.  Other good areas are in current seams where fast current meets a slower current.    I usually cast upstream at about a 45 degree angle and let the flies drift past me making sure to mend the line properly so I don’t get much drag.  Nothing will tip a fish off faster to an imitation than a fly that is streaming instead of drifting.  This is another good use for the indicator as it helps you get a better idea of what the flies beneath the surface are doing.  Since the flies are out of your sight you will have a hard time knowing for sure if you are getting a lot of drag or not without an indicator.  You can be confident that if your indicator is dragging, your flies are also dragging.  If your line is ahead of your indicator it will pull the indicator downstream.  Mend your line as often as needed to keep the line upstream of your indicator to get the most drag free drift.  Simply let your indicator float as drag free as possible for as long as possible.  One exception to this comes at the end of your drift when the flies have drifted past you and are coming to the end of the line.  The current will catch the indicator and the flies and start to pull them towards the surface.  I always let this happen because the rising flies will mimic nymphs that are swimming or floating towards the surface during a hatch.  Fish will sometimes take these nymphs as they make their rise from the bottom of the river to the surface.  I have caught many fish just being patient and letting the current take hold at the end of a drift.

One important thing to remember is that a trout’s take on a drifting nymph can be extremely subtle.  It can be very easy to miss a take as fish seem to be able to mouth your flies while your indicator makes almost no movement.  Keep your eyes on the indicator for any abnormal movement and be ready to take up your slack.  It takes a bit of experience with the set up but you soon develop a sense and can really tell the difference between your fly ticking the bottom and the soft take from a fish.  Generally though, you should probably be thinking fish anytime your indicator moves in a way contrary to what the current is doing.

The Double Nymph rig can be a very productive way to find and catch fish but the one piece of advice I would give to anyone giving it a try is to be patient and slow down.  When casting an outfit with this many moving parts things can get tangled in a hurry.  I was reminded of this advice last week as I broke down and opened the nymph fly box on a slow catching day on my local river.  I had been used to casting tiny Blue Wing Olive, and midge imitations so when I broke out the indicator and the split shot and failed to adjust my casting accordingly I found myself wasting a lot of time undoing big knots.  Each tangle made me more frustrated, which made me tense up even more, which did not improve my casting.  After an half an hour of fighting against myself and gritting my teeth at tangle after tangle, I was able to slow myself down and shorten my casts and wouldn’t you know it, I hooked right into a good fish.  It reaffirmed the lesson I learned years ago on that fall day, that knowing how to fish nymphs can turn a frustrating skunking into a great day on the river in a hurry.

There are people on eBay selling their life’s worth collection of fly tying supplies all bundled together for prices that are very reasonable. I am no eBay whiz, this is for sure, in fact the only time I have ever used it, I used the “buy it now” feature so there was no bidding involved at all. Just click and pay and I was done.

Being an eBay rookie I learned a few things along the way, and had some fun as well. I started searching the site and found a whole tying set up, with a very good vise and a whole lot of materials, that at the time was very reasonable and well within my budget. There were 4 days left to bid on this set and in my exuberance I placed a bid right then and there. I was in the lead…for exactly 12 hours. Soon an item that had started out looking like a good deal was spiraling out of control in a price range that made me feel queasy. I bowed out. Then I found a great deal on a Regal vise. There were no materials with it, just the vise, but I figured I could always get the materials later. The deal on the vise was just too good to pass up. I started bidding early again and had the item won for a price so low I could hardly believe my luck. Then while I was at work, like most reasonable human beings, the bidding ended, and five minutes before it ended someone, obviously unemployed or maybe very irresponsible with the duties of their work, swooped in and outbid me, by $1. Oh, the agony of defeat! Now this was getting my competitive juices flowing. Just the emotion that I am sure eBay thrives off of.

Determined to not be out done again I found another great deal on a whole package. There were enough skinned animals, and full bird capes in it to make any small fur bearing, or feathered animal very nervous, and a very nondescript picture of a vise with very little information on it. One thing I know through all this is that I have done my homework when it comes to vises, and I was pretty sure from what I could see in the picture that this was an older Regal vise. Just what I wanted, a Regal vise with enough material to get me going and keep me going for a while. Time was running out on the item and the price was still right. I emailed the seller about getting more pictures of the vise to confirm my suspicions regarding it’s maker, but it was the night before the items bidding was to end so I was not sure he would even get my email in time to respond. I withheld the urge to bid right then and simply noted the ending time when I planned to come back and make my move.

Time was winding down that morning when I jumped into the fire. With 3 minutes left I placed a bid that put me in the driver seat with $21 to spare. Then I watched impatiently as the time ticked off. At two minutes all was well, no more bids. One minute, all’s quiet…good. At this point my cell phone rings and it is my lovely wife.

“OK I can talk and do this, no problem.”

Thirty seconds left, “Yes, sweetie I will pick up some eggs, and milk on the way home.”

Twenty seconds…19…18…UH OH we have another player in the game. I was bid up. By now I was not sure what my wife was saying on the other end of the line. I was focused on the task at hand. I upped my max by 10 dollars with 5 seconds to go in the bidding and by the time the screen refreshed it had confirmed I was a winner! I truely felt like a champion. I could actually picture myself in a boxing ring sitting in my corner getting a couple cuts stitched up, persperation wiped from my brow, and some yahoo squirting water in my face while my whole corner buzzed about the great fight “with a great flurry at the finish.” I had been beaten down by those veteran eBayer’s for the last time. I went back in to check the bid history and sure enough, my bid had beat my wily opponents by 3 seconds…for the exact same amount. If he had entered one more penny or 4 seconds earlier I would be mourning my 3rd defeat in as many days. It was that close.

The thing with eBay is, before you even have time to come down from the thrill of your victory a screen pops up to burst your bubble.

“Payment options.”

“Shoot, I knew there was a catch.”

I never did hear back from the seller on what type of vise I just bought but I am not overly concerned as the tying materials alone in this lot are worth more than what I paid, and if my suspicions are true that this is a Regal Vise you will hear another round of celebration once I receive my item. Now I just wish I could buy those groceries my wife asked me to pick up on eBay. That was kind of fun.

Tuesday night my heart skipped a couple beats each time I saw that big swirl all around my size 4 gray Zonker. The fish were not hammering it on a consistent basis but they were even aggressive in their investigation. Often they would come up and take a look at it and then give a big tail slap on the surface of the water that would have made many a beaver proud and turned back to their ambush site. A few fish grabbed at it after their once over but failed to get the hook in their mouth. But there were two fish who fell for it and they did it with passion. The first, a 23 inch fatty, hammered the streamer right out in the middle of the river and I knew immediately this was a nice fish. So far this is the biggest fish I have caught on the Owyhee River. It pulled hard and made several good runs before finally coming to hand.

After reviving this monster and watching it swim slowly away I turned to grab my rod and noticed I was in a virtual cloud of Caddis. I have to admit I chuckled to myself when I thought about the massive hatch that was happening all around me and yet there was no way in the world I was taking that big Zonker off. If you want to catch the big, mean, ugly Browns, you have to think big, mean, ugly thoughts. Or at least throw a fly that fits that description.  I am all for that.

Sometimes in the world of fly fishing things get complicated.  Is my tippet long enough?  Is it strong enough?  Is it too strong and therefore too thick, spooking the fish?   What hatches are coming off?  What stage in the insect lifecycle are the fish keying on? Where do the fish hold?  What time of day are they active?

Then there is the massive fly box you bring along to match any hatch that could possibly come off.  You have so many choices but it all comes down to reading the conditions just right and putting the right combination out on the water.  You try to put it together and sometimes it works out just like you pictured in your mind, but still there are times the fish confound you and leave you scratching your head.  To think of the lengths we go to in order to outsmart a slimy, wiggly, little animal that probably has a brain that would fit comfortably in your thumb.   I enjoy this pursuit and I actually kind of feel smart when I fool a wily pea brained trout but sometimes it is fun to get away from the complex world of fooling pressured fish that have seen it all and head up into the mountains.

I had the pleasure this last weekend of doing just that.  I hit the road in the afternoon knowing it was about two hours to the river I was hoping to fish.  It was an amazing trip even though it was fast and reminded me what fishing was all about, simplicity.  I threw my gear in the truck at 2:30pm and was on the river by 5:00.  On a normal day trip my gear could include waders, boots, two or three rod and reel combo’s for different presentations and conditions, a net, a large fly box, and a fishing vest loaded with various items like tippets; leader; clippers; forceps; strike indicators; more fly boxes, dry fly floatant; and reconditioner.  But on this trip all I needed was my three weight rod and reel, a small fly box with a couple foam grasshoppers, and an extra tippet, just in case.  

There are several reasons the fish in these mountain streams receive far less pressure than their low land cousins and I quickly learned that the first reason is washboards.  No nothing to do with laundry, it has everything to do with the condition of the roads that lead you into these off the beaten track locations.  On this particular trip I endured 32 miles of teeth rattling, gut wrenching, motion sick inducing, curvy gravel road.  I was only fishing 75 miles from my house and while the first 43 miles took about 45 minutes to travel, the remaining 32 took an hour and a half.  Ah but the air was clean, the water was clear and the fish were hungry. 

On these rivers there is very little thought needed as too what is actually going on in the fish’s minds.  They live in a place where insect hatches are not near as prevalent as in the lower elevations.  Because of this I think they become more instinctive eaters rather than selective.  They don’t really examine a bug as it floats over head, in their mind if it’s in the water and smaller than them it is a prospective meal.  For instance I did not see a single grasshopper along the bank on this trip and yet that is all I used and I caught fish all evening.  Another fun thing about fishing in these locations is that pretty much every place that you look at on the river and think “There has got to be a fish in there,” there is.  Each boulder had a hungry fish or two behind it and they jumped all over the foam grasshopper.  Every deep slot had several more fish lying in wait, and at the bottom of each riffle there were fish of different sizes waiting for the buffet to come to them. 

I fished for about four hours that evening before preparing myself for the rough ride back home.  In all I caught 18 fish in that four hours within about 50 yards of river.  Most of them were in the 10 inch range but a few were between 13 and 14 inches.  Those are very respectable mountain stream trout.    But the thing I took away from this trip was that this was the way I remember fishing being when I was a kid.  Nothing complicated about it, just fun.