With a lot of recreational traffic on the water we would wait to get on the water on this day. So, we pushed the drifter off the trailer in the midst of a hot afternoon. The guys would catch some fish early and then we would get a dry spell as the fish waited until after the recreation folks passed over their heads. Then it became more quiet and the hits began.
Tim is a believer in the nymph and after a short time on the terrestrials we went back to an old friend, the nymph. Tim learned nymph fishing early this year on his first float this year. Where there is confidence, there is opportunity. A confident angler at the very least is more focused. Tim was focused and that focus soon paid dividends.
Because Tim has fished on the drifter before he dialed himself in real quick. He put the first fish couple fish in the boat and was already comfortable with me telling him how and when to mend. We had the bugs set deep and were bouncing them off the bottom. Cast and wait a bit, then as the fly bounces along the bottom and stops, pick up the rod and if there is not a fish on cast again....right away. This routine soon turns into sort of a game of; cast and wait a bit, then as the fly bounces along the bottom and stops, pick up the rod. But every once in a while there will be a fish on the line and that is a game changer. Basically we were putting the fly in the face of the fish and trying to force a decision.
Tim was dropping the fly on the bottom and recasting, then one time, one cast, wait for it, a big rainbow was forced to make a decision and that rainbow chose correctly. The fish ate and the fight was on. Tim was soon well into his biggest fish on the fly. Tim was doing a nice job of getting the fish to the net and his face showed maximum concentration during the fight. The rainbow took us for a Nantucket sleigh ride around the river and we eventually ended-up beaching the drifter to get the fish to the net. It took a while but soon we had gone from the bounce to the release with some good memories made in between.
We had our slow time then it started picking up more. Ryan and Tim were both picking-off fish. So by this time in our float we had come off a few fish, a slow period, and a bigger rainbow. Ryan was getting those good drifts as we entered a particularly productive stretch. The fishing had just began to pick up when Ryan's hook-set produced another nice rainbow on the fly. Ryan had the fish from the beginning but no one told the fish. That rainbow was trying to get to the rocks, to the grass and in general just get away from the net. But, Ryan was ahead of every trick that rainbow had and soon he had the rod tip up and was sliding that fish into the net. This would be his largest rainbow of the trip and as the oar blades pushed us toward the takeout the guys would get some more action. Eventually dusk would turn to dark and we would race that darkness to the gravel bar where we loaded the boat on the trailer. There would be no more recreational traffic, to speak of, and the guys would go home with tales of fish, dry spells and big-time comebacks...
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