geartalk

BONEDALE FISHING REPORT #9

THE MUDDY RIVERS OF SPRING ARE SNARLING

Here’s the thing, you either like to fish, or you don’t. For those of us who like to fish, it doesn’t matter what kind of fish it is, as long as we get to see them. A client of mine once caught a sixteen-inch Koi on a Prince nymph. The poor bastard blew out of some dude’s pond up-valley and ended up in our sights. It was a flood year and you didn’t know what the hell you were going to run into. Steve Avery caught a Goddamn Mackinaw on the Burry Lease. We were floating the Fork at 9,000 CFS and the fishing was primarily limited to people’s lawns–the secret weapon was four different colors of chenille gobbed on a hook. I don’t think anyone ever submitted that fly. The river blasted new channels left and right, and we were fishing holding water that didn’t exist, at least in my lifetime. Avery pole-vaulted out of a Grade B raft that Bill Fitzsimmons was renting to the guides. He said he could see the frontage road as he floated over the river. I came close to stuffing it a few times, but dumb luck often carries the day. Tim Heng told me Fitz almost sunk them in the Keys, because he was so busy watching fish. We know // after all // it’s fun sneaking up on things. Come fishing immediately.

Live from the WORLD HEADQUARTERS

Kea C. Hause

‍

Photo: Roaring Fork River brown, Burry Conservation Easement, Carbondale, CO.

Follow the Bubbles

One early morning, while dry fly fishing a Trico mayfly hatch (Tricorythodes) on Montana’s Missouri River, guide Pete Cardinal checked me up, then told me to stop casting and watch the water.

We were working a seam where fast water, colliding with a slow pool, was creating a foamy bubble line. At times, that bubble line would disperse and spread out in wide fronds of white, wispy water. At other times, the currents converged and collected hatching insects in a tight, white highway that ran straight through the run.

Until Pete pointed it out, I hadn’t noticed that the fish were keyed into this system. When the currents dispersed or collapsed, the fish didn’t rise. When the foam line formed a hard seam and collected those tiny mayflies, the trout began slurping away at the surface.

The lesson? Follow the bubble line.

When you see a pronounced foam or bubble line on the surface, there’s a very good chance that trout will be underneath it, and feeding.

Tom’s Leader

Tom Rosenbauer is probably the preeminent educator in the fly-fishing world today. During his more than forty-three years with the Orvis Company, Tom has written more books and articles than we can list; he now hosts a widely listened-to podcast, appears on television shows and all that. Many anglers like myself, who have been around the block a few times, are only half-joking when we credit Tom with teaching us to fish, at least in part. Tom also happens to be a good friend. I’ve had the pleasure of fishing with him in places like the wilds of Chile, in the Colorado high country, in Montana, on the tradition-laden rivers in the Catskills, the flats in the Bahamas and elsewhere.

Tom is the real McCoy, not an “all hat, no cattle” author. Quite the opposite–if anything, he understates his own prowess in his writing. I still learn from him, and not long ago we were kicking back in the Hill Country of Texas, where I asked him for a few tips I could unceremoniously adopt “as my own.”

This was the best one: Tom will borrow your fly rod. He’ll use someone else’s reel. He’ll even borrow boots and waders in a pinch. But there’s one thing of his own that Tom insists on using, every time, no exceptions…

His leader.

Now, you might think that $5-$10 of monofilament and/or fluorocarbon attached to hundreds of dollars (or more) of gear might be a little lower on his priority list. But Rosenbauer says it’s the number one thing he worries about–not only because that’s the “connection” to the fly and fish, but also because a properly built leader (he builds or at least modifies his own) will do more to help the cast and presentation than most anglers are willing to acknowledge.

His recipe is simple: He extends the butt section by a few feet, matching the thickness of the end of the leader, and he extends the tippet by a few feet. This naturally makes for a longer leader, but that extension of the butt end helps you point and lay it down. The extra tippet, with the more supple material, is meant to help prevent microdrag.

Whether you build your leader exactly as Tom does or not doesn’t matter. The lesson is that you should tinker with leaders and find something that works really well for you. Don’t just take them out of the package, tie them on and expect everything to be perfect. “Stock” leaders are no cure-all, and that comes from a guy who’s been working for a company that sells packaged leaders.

What the Bass Boys Taught Me

It’s funny how anglers like to embrace their own brand of fishing as high art and dismiss the others. Bass anglers may shun the fly rod as a buggy whip, while fly anglers may think of bass fishing as bubba fishing.

Both are wrong. Fishing is fishing.

Ultimately, what separates the contenders from the pretenders is the ability to read water, and that starts with understanding currents. Then know what the fish are eating, and how to present it to them.

It’s all essentially the same. The only difference is the stick used to make the cast, and that’s not worth making a big deal over.

Having written about and fished with a number of bass pros, I’m always amazed to find out how many of them have at one point or another fly fished. In fact, I pick up some of my best fly-fishing ideas when I’m bass fishing with these guys.

Gary Klein, who has qualified for the Bassmaster Classic 28 times and is still rolling, credits fly fishing in part with his understanding of currents, structure and how fish behave around them.

“Once you understand how moving water behaves, and creates currents, you learn where the fish concentrate in the water, and that’s the same whether you’re throwing crankbaits around a windblown point on a reservoir, or a dry fly in a river,” said Klein.