My brother and went fishing on the North Fork of the Stanislaus River Monday evening and this morning. Fishing was pretty good considering all of the pressure that the fish got this weekend. First thing after we got there, about 3:30 pm, the bite started. I started out casting a #10 Parachute Adams under a deep, dark cut-bank and pulled out a nice 10-inch bow. It was a nice fight and it was barely hooked. I was lucky. The PMD hatch was HUGE. In one pool, my brother and I counted more than a half-dozen rainbows between 8" and 12".
I got them chasing a #8 Brown Humpy with a couple lack-luster hits then hooked one on a #12 Blue winged Olive. It was heartbreaking when I got him within a foot of me and he dove. I had stupidly stripped this nice fish in instead of reeling and setting my drag, so you can guess what happened next.
This morning I redeemed myself by landing two beautiful bows. First thing in the morning there was no surface action so I tossed a little brown Matuka (without any weight) downstream into a five-foot deep hole, I just let them sink naturally (makes for fewer lost flies here where submarine logs are plentiful) and stripped in. I probably cast three times when I got a feisty strike and reeled in a beautiful, chubby 12" rainbow. I headed up stream from the big pool and cast into some cut-banks with a #14 and #12 Bird's Nest with a single split shot and a strike indicator. Nothing was taking it, but since this is normally a pretty productive spot, I tossed in another Blue Winged Olive then a bright green comparadun and various PMD patterns. Nothin'. So I walked upstream and came upon a HUGE morning PMD hatch, but there were no fish anywhere (this section is pretty easy to spot fish in.)
I walked back to camp to find Sam getting geared up. We did a little cleaning, some journaling then headed back to the pool that produced so much heat the night before. Sam was casting streamers while I was trying to scare something up with a bead-head #14 Hare's Ear and a strike indicator. There was very little surface action still and it was getting to be kind of late for a good bite but we persisted. We could see all sorts of fish and we threw everything at them from dries to terrestrials to nymphs to streamers and only got them to chase a Matuka but they really weren't in the mood. But again, we persisted. Finally, getting desperate I started casting a #12 Bright Green Comparadun into the leaves above a little cut-bank where I had seen a fish sipping everything that hit the water. Then after over a hour of pressure on this pool, I got a hit. She was a fun fight but easily stripped in. I didn't waste time measuring it because it had taken me so long to get it untangled from my net, but it was probably 10".
All in all, it was a good trip, except that the mosquitoes were atrocious!
Tight lines!
2 comments:
It is important to note that the big bow that got away had quite a bit to do with my netting job. The truth is, I felt bad for him and gave him the chance to get away.
It's really wasn't your fault. I should have never stripped in and played a fish that big and fiesty so hard. No worries!
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