Silent Ocelot
Well-known member
Rod: Epic 4wt 7'6" fiberglass Fast glass I (3 piece)
Reel: Lamson Guru in bronze, left hand retrieve
Line: Scientific Anglers 4WF-F
Leader: Orvis nylon 9ft 4X
Indicator: Lightning strike twist on style
Tippet: Cortland premium fluorocarbon (gold label) in 6X and 5X (great stuff)
Fish caught 2 rainbows (almost had another one on at the covered bridge that was maybe 14 inches) (the other ones I caught were 9-11 inches and ugly). My fishing partner caught 1 fallfish.
Air conditions: sunny, water conditions: relatively clear with a bit of turbidity.
Flies;
Egg patterns (eggs were about 9mm in diameter) in mint color and yellow (the mint fly took both rainbows), size 12 blow torch with a silver bead, black body, silver wire, and a light pink tail, and an olive perdigon size 16.
Upon arriving, I checked the red bridge to see if it was occupied. My nemesis, Mr. Wade N' Stomp was occupying the hole, splashing down his wooden indicator with quite a fair bit of force. He was smoking a mini cigar so I'll give him a bit of a cool factor. I saw him catch a fallfish. I always recognize this guy by his yellow fiberglass rod and the way he stomps through the water. My friend's dad soon arrived and we begin our trek up past the red bridge. We passed the man I just mentioned and gave him a nod.
We butted in below another angler at a hole my friend's dad likes. I don't know why he likes this hole. I have never caught a fish out of that spot, not even a chub or fallfish. I mistakenly thought the water was bit more turbid and went gaudy, tying on a mint colored egg as my top fly. I entered the spot and fished it for a bit, finishing the hole by tossing my rig into a tree. Me and my friend's dad then headed upstream and the angler above us also moved upstream to block us out from better runs (I would have done the same thing if I were him). We decided to head farther upstream to a spot I liked that had a deep run. We got there and I get a phone call from one of my friends. My friend's dad casted away. We soon notice our preferred golden rainbows just chilling in the top part of the run. My friend's dad casted to these for awhile, getting frustrated (he hates these trout as he can never get one to so much as glance at his fly). I glanced downstream to notice an angler below us fighting a tree with his rod. I did a few passes through the hole and agreed on my friend's notion that these fish have lockjaw.
We headed back downstream to good runs as most of the anglers had now decided to leave. I never understood the aspect of leaving a creek right before the fishing gets really good. I worked a run and picked up an 11 inch bow, my first take of the day. I asked my friend's dad to get my net, thinking I abandoned my sling pack on the shore. He walked up to me and pulled the net out of my pack. I felt stupid. Being a copycat and a diehard believer that the fly is more critical than presentation and depth my friend's dad demanded I tie him on an egg too (he's too old to tie on his own stuff, especially in the waning daylight) (I don't mind as I can attach a fly in less than 30 seconds). I gave him a salmon colored egg, refusing to give him a mint colored egg as I didn't want him to out-fish me and because I don't think the color of the egg matters that much. I sent him in his way to fish some runs below me. I continued to fish, not really getting into anymore fish, but I lost a lot of flies on sub-surface snags and at one point, launched my backcast into some brush behind me that resulted in both flies being broken off.
I soon joined my friend's dad in the hole below me. I picked off a nine inch bow on the first cast which made my fishing partner quite angry as he had spent a lot of time fishing that spot (I would later tell him over a generous meal at Longhorn steakhouse that his drifts, depth control, and line management simply weren't there, thus no trout were interested in his fly). I think when we go out again to fish the same stretch I will take some time to teach him stuff. He's the kind of person that it's hard to explain stuff to, heck, I don't even have an explanation for how I fish, I just use intuition and stream/weather conditions to dictate my fly selection.
We soon decide to pack it in as the evening settled. I had the urge to go pester the lockjaw palominos before we departed, but instead opted to just hit the bridge. At this point I had swapped out to a single mint egg with a good amount of 5X tippet between the fly and the tippet ring. I thought the 6X I was using wasn't quite up to the strength I like when fishing French, even thought the 6X I was using was rated at 3.9lbs. of breaking strength, .2lbs short of Orvis Mirage 5X. I hit the slow pool at the bridge and almost got into an estimated 14 inch trout that immediately left the water and spat my flies, reminding me of the maneuvers steelhead often did when I fished Erie during the first weekend of this month, though those encounters with steelhead resulted in break-offs. My friend's dad seemed interested because he saw that trout clear the water. We both nymphed for a little while longer before calling it quits.
Overall I had a decent time. Wasn't really expecting to catch much as I know the FFO and FFO/DHALO sections are getting pounded before the creeks open up again. The only thing I am changing next time is that I will no longer use 6X there and probably bump up to my 5X Cortland tippet rated at 5.7lbs (I fished this for steelhead in clear conditions). My reason to bump in tippet size is to be able to pull my nymphs out of the rocks without suffering a break-off. I tied on 6lb. fluorocarbon for my friend's dad and he rarely had break-offs (he typically loses and destroys a lot of flies). I would equate his equipment handling to that of a gorilla, he needs to learn finesse. I was impressed with how he was able to free his fly from snags without having to move upstream when using 6lb fluorocarbon.
Reel: Lamson Guru in bronze, left hand retrieve
Line: Scientific Anglers 4WF-F
Leader: Orvis nylon 9ft 4X
Indicator: Lightning strike twist on style
Tippet: Cortland premium fluorocarbon (gold label) in 6X and 5X (great stuff)
Fish caught 2 rainbows (almost had another one on at the covered bridge that was maybe 14 inches) (the other ones I caught were 9-11 inches and ugly). My fishing partner caught 1 fallfish.
Air conditions: sunny, water conditions: relatively clear with a bit of turbidity.
Flies;
Egg patterns (eggs were about 9mm in diameter) in mint color and yellow (the mint fly took both rainbows), size 12 blow torch with a silver bead, black body, silver wire, and a light pink tail, and an olive perdigon size 16.
Upon arriving, I checked the red bridge to see if it was occupied. My nemesis, Mr. Wade N' Stomp was occupying the hole, splashing down his wooden indicator with quite a fair bit of force. He was smoking a mini cigar so I'll give him a bit of a cool factor. I saw him catch a fallfish. I always recognize this guy by his yellow fiberglass rod and the way he stomps through the water. My friend's dad soon arrived and we begin our trek up past the red bridge. We passed the man I just mentioned and gave him a nod.
We butted in below another angler at a hole my friend's dad likes. I don't know why he likes this hole. I have never caught a fish out of that spot, not even a chub or fallfish. I mistakenly thought the water was bit more turbid and went gaudy, tying on a mint colored egg as my top fly. I entered the spot and fished it for a bit, finishing the hole by tossing my rig into a tree. Me and my friend's dad then headed upstream and the angler above us also moved upstream to block us out from better runs (I would have done the same thing if I were him). We decided to head farther upstream to a spot I liked that had a deep run. We got there and I get a phone call from one of my friends. My friend's dad casted away. We soon notice our preferred golden rainbows just chilling in the top part of the run. My friend's dad casted to these for awhile, getting frustrated (he hates these trout as he can never get one to so much as glance at his fly). I glanced downstream to notice an angler below us fighting a tree with his rod. I did a few passes through the hole and agreed on my friend's notion that these fish have lockjaw.
We headed back downstream to good runs as most of the anglers had now decided to leave. I never understood the aspect of leaving a creek right before the fishing gets really good. I worked a run and picked up an 11 inch bow, my first take of the day. I asked my friend's dad to get my net, thinking I abandoned my sling pack on the shore. He walked up to me and pulled the net out of my pack. I felt stupid. Being a copycat and a diehard believer that the fly is more critical than presentation and depth my friend's dad demanded I tie him on an egg too (he's too old to tie on his own stuff, especially in the waning daylight) (I don't mind as I can attach a fly in less than 30 seconds). I gave him a salmon colored egg, refusing to give him a mint colored egg as I didn't want him to out-fish me and because I don't think the color of the egg matters that much. I sent him in his way to fish some runs below me. I continued to fish, not really getting into anymore fish, but I lost a lot of flies on sub-surface snags and at one point, launched my backcast into some brush behind me that resulted in both flies being broken off.
I soon joined my friend's dad in the hole below me. I picked off a nine inch bow on the first cast which made my fishing partner quite angry as he had spent a lot of time fishing that spot (I would later tell him over a generous meal at Longhorn steakhouse that his drifts, depth control, and line management simply weren't there, thus no trout were interested in his fly). I think when we go out again to fish the same stretch I will take some time to teach him stuff. He's the kind of person that it's hard to explain stuff to, heck, I don't even have an explanation for how I fish, I just use intuition and stream/weather conditions to dictate my fly selection.
We soon decide to pack it in as the evening settled. I had the urge to go pester the lockjaw palominos before we departed, but instead opted to just hit the bridge. At this point I had swapped out to a single mint egg with a good amount of 5X tippet between the fly and the tippet ring. I thought the 6X I was using wasn't quite up to the strength I like when fishing French, even thought the 6X I was using was rated at 3.9lbs. of breaking strength, .2lbs short of Orvis Mirage 5X. I hit the slow pool at the bridge and almost got into an estimated 14 inch trout that immediately left the water and spat my flies, reminding me of the maneuvers steelhead often did when I fished Erie during the first weekend of this month, though those encounters with steelhead resulted in break-offs. My friend's dad seemed interested because he saw that trout clear the water. We both nymphed for a little while longer before calling it quits.
Overall I had a decent time. Wasn't really expecting to catch much as I know the FFO and FFO/DHALO sections are getting pounded before the creeks open up again. The only thing I am changing next time is that I will no longer use 6X there and probably bump up to my 5X Cortland tippet rated at 5.7lbs (I fished this for steelhead in clear conditions). My reason to bump in tippet size is to be able to pull my nymphs out of the rocks without suffering a break-off. I tied on 6lb. fluorocarbon for my friend's dad and he rarely had break-offs (he typically loses and destroys a lot of flies). I would equate his equipment handling to that of a gorilla, he needs to learn finesse. I was impressed with how he was able to free his fly from snags without having to move upstream when using 6lb fluorocarbon.
