Alain and Jeremy on the River

Alain and Jeremy had not fished together before and had contacted me separately. Both were wanting to get on the river and with one open date on the calendar, they agreed to a half day and we went fishing. We didn't know it at the time but the wind, water levels and hard rains would make conditions tough; so tough that at times it felt like fish were swimming through the boat instead of eating the flies...

The generation has been a bit on the slack side and the grass made the catching tough at first. We tried a few different patterns and finally landed on slightly different patterns for each of the guys. We entered a section of the river that under normal circumstances would be crowded. On this day, since we were the only ones on the river, we had the run of the place. Anyway, Alain put his fly right on the mark and threw a good mend for the different currents. Then he set the hook on a nice brown trout...

...as soon as the hookset was complete the fish started head shaking and making short runs. Alain gained control of the fish and started getting the head turned at just the right time. The fish made a couple dives to rub the fly off on the bottom of the river, but wasn't successful and began coming to the net. Then just as the brown got to the net and almost halfway in...it threw the hook. The fish simply went on its merry way. It would have been a nice brown just short of making the 20+ Club, still it would have been a nice fish and topped off a week of several big fish that got away.

So we kept at it as the wind gusts continued on and on. Nothing in particular was hatching and therefore the fish weren't real interested in eating off the surface. Between gusts Jeremy kept casting and mending.  Jeremy was consistently gaining confidence with each fish. Toward the end of the float Jeremy's hookset improved enough that he started catching pretty much every time the fish would eat. Alain, who is an accomplished angler was steady the entire trip.  

What could have been a disaster because of the weather and water conditions turned out to be a great way to spend a day on the river...in-spite of the times it felt like fish were swimming through the boat instead of eating the flies...

We are moving into the Winter stretch of short daylight and cold days. That means streamers and meaty offerings to big trout and musky. If you want to set up a trip just email or call/text 615-796-5143 to get a day on the water.