I was fortunate enough to get to meet up with @jimlucey (we also ran into @Fish Tech) and fish bamboo together on the Salmon River.
This was a planned outing which is something that I normally don’t do, my fishing days tend to be spontaneous. But, because I knew we were fishing together I started to watch water levels after a major rain event here and tried to come up with a plan. Instead of trying to get a fly sunk on the dry line in higher water I was more thinking of areas that wouldn’t hold fish during normal flows but during higher water would be optimal. This is the type of water that I’ve really started to gravitate toward as I’ve embraced the muddler and fishing the surface/film/upper water column. The dry line has the advantage in these spots, you can hover a fly in areas that anything else would snag and hang up. With this in mind, I tied up a muddler inspired by one of Bruce’s dee patterns. My wife casually mentioned that Charlie has a pattern and she doesn’t, so I showed her the fly after and she approved. I now plan to fish it until it catches a fish.
What I didn’t anticipate was 3” or so of snow/slush falling during the morning commute.
As we made our way to the water I mentioned a spot that I like to fish that as far as I know gets overlooked, since we would be passing by it might be worth swimming a fly through quickly.
Toward the very end of the tailout, as my fly was picking up speed there was a flash, a big splash and a tug….. my line came tight quickly and then slack. I could see the wake of the fish heading downstream. I made a few more casts and then reached for the flask while Jim was finishing up. My day was already made, the new muddler idea had risen a fish. Water temperatures were 46-47 degrees today but this gives me the motivation to stay fishing the surface throughout the winter once again on my first pass. I’m getting more confident with my approach to the dry line and each season these occurrences are happening a bit more regularly. I’ll continue to update this thread this season when I get the opportunity to fish and maybe those of you fishing the same way can share and compare notes here
This was a planned outing which is something that I normally don’t do, my fishing days tend to be spontaneous. But, because I knew we were fishing together I started to watch water levels after a major rain event here and tried to come up with a plan. Instead of trying to get a fly sunk on the dry line in higher water I was more thinking of areas that wouldn’t hold fish during normal flows but during higher water would be optimal. This is the type of water that I’ve really started to gravitate toward as I’ve embraced the muddler and fishing the surface/film/upper water column. The dry line has the advantage in these spots, you can hover a fly in areas that anything else would snag and hang up. With this in mind, I tied up a muddler inspired by one of Bruce’s dee patterns. My wife casually mentioned that Charlie has a pattern and she doesn’t, so I showed her the fly after and she approved. I now plan to fish it until it catches a fish.
What I didn’t anticipate was 3” or so of snow/slush falling during the morning commute.
As we made our way to the water I mentioned a spot that I like to fish that as far as I know gets overlooked, since we would be passing by it might be worth swimming a fly through quickly.
Toward the very end of the tailout, as my fly was picking up speed there was a flash, a big splash and a tug….. my line came tight quickly and then slack. I could see the wake of the fish heading downstream. I made a few more casts and then reached for the flask while Jim was finishing up. My day was already made, the new muddler idea had risen a fish. Water temperatures were 46-47 degrees today but this gives me the motivation to stay fishing the surface throughout the winter once again on my first pass. I’m getting more confident with my approach to the dry line and each season these occurrences are happening a bit more regularly. I’ll continue to update this thread this season when I get the opportunity to fish and maybe those of you fishing the same way can share and compare notes here