JackM
Well-known member
- Joined
- Sep 9, 2006
- Messages
- 17,349
Second fishing outing of the year, cost me an additional $9.90.
800 AM, 11/11/2016, set foot in water at Elk Par Road Access, well a little upstream, but below the tressel. Flows were very good, a little on the murky side. Fish were concentrated, so to speak, in the larger holes, which were occupied. In between were plenty of pockets. I caught nothing, so I cannot say what was working. My brother and nephew each caught one and lost another working a shadrap. We stayed there until almost dark and were hungry and cold, plus, I ran out of cigs almost before we started the day.
The theory emerged that we were in a dead zone between runs and that fish would be more plentiful up near Sterratania. So we stayed overnight and went to Sterratania access in the AM arriving about 830 AM. The theory proved true-- there were plenty of fish, and plenty of anglers, too. My bro and kids stepped into the first hole, across from the barking dog home, there was no dog, though. I continued downstream looking for a nice hole or pocket that I could fish without crowding out another angler. Two and a half miles, and about a couple dozen half-hearted casts, later, I decided to turn back and see where I could horn in. To my surprise a deep pocket was available and it held anywhere from a half dozen to a dozen SH, that I could see.
I hooked three fish, landed none. The first came on a small streamer pattern in natural colors. While drawing my line to begin another cast, I was sighting my streamer to see how well it looked. A steelie swiped at it and I realized that I needed to move my fly a little and/or twitch it. The fair hooked fish was first and short-lived. I felt the take and set the hook lightly, because I had too much slack, so when I went to sure it up and the fish breached in my direction and threw the hook. This was enough, though to keep me trying for the next couple of hours, during which time I hooked and lost another, again short-lived but the fish was not visible, so I could not tell fair or foul. Finally did snag one right in the back. After two tries to dislodge the hook, I had to break it off and sacrifice my rig.
Later in the day, we went to the mouth of Elk, but only stayed about an hour. The water was murky and it didn't seem promising, so we returned to the Elk Park access to finish the day. Including me, no other fish were landed.
The upshot and lessons learned:
I am a bad wet fly angler.
Stay where the fish are.
Spending time with family fishing is it's own reward.
800 AM, 11/11/2016, set foot in water at Elk Par Road Access, well a little upstream, but below the tressel. Flows were very good, a little on the murky side. Fish were concentrated, so to speak, in the larger holes, which were occupied. In between were plenty of pockets. I caught nothing, so I cannot say what was working. My brother and nephew each caught one and lost another working a shadrap. We stayed there until almost dark and were hungry and cold, plus, I ran out of cigs almost before we started the day.
The theory emerged that we were in a dead zone between runs and that fish would be more plentiful up near Sterratania. So we stayed overnight and went to Sterratania access in the AM arriving about 830 AM. The theory proved true-- there were plenty of fish, and plenty of anglers, too. My bro and kids stepped into the first hole, across from the barking dog home, there was no dog, though. I continued downstream looking for a nice hole or pocket that I could fish without crowding out another angler. Two and a half miles, and about a couple dozen half-hearted casts, later, I decided to turn back and see where I could horn in. To my surprise a deep pocket was available and it held anywhere from a half dozen to a dozen SH, that I could see.
I hooked three fish, landed none. The first came on a small streamer pattern in natural colors. While drawing my line to begin another cast, I was sighting my streamer to see how well it looked. A steelie swiped at it and I realized that I needed to move my fly a little and/or twitch it. The fair hooked fish was first and short-lived. I felt the take and set the hook lightly, because I had too much slack, so when I went to sure it up and the fish breached in my direction and threw the hook. This was enough, though to keep me trying for the next couple of hours, during which time I hooked and lost another, again short-lived but the fish was not visible, so I could not tell fair or foul. Finally did snag one right in the back. After two tries to dislodge the hook, I had to break it off and sacrifice my rig.
Later in the day, we went to the mouth of Elk, but only stayed about an hour. The water was murky and it didn't seem promising, so we returned to the Elk Park access to finish the day. Including me, no other fish were landed.
The upshot and lessons learned:
I am a bad wet fly angler.
Stay where the fish are.
Spending time with family fishing is it's own reward.
