I had a super nice dude from the bay area who was in town to watch his son pitch against Gonzaga over the weekend. When he called to book (Friday) the weather was awful and forecasted to be worse on Saturday (which it turned out to be) but this guy would not be dissuaded. It was cold, windy, and we got hit with squalls of snow and hail all day. At one point we had some thunder roll through. Despite all of that, he was rewarded for rolling the dice on a crappy day.
When he showed up at the shop, he told me his hope was to catch his first fish on a dry fly.... oh boy. I told him that could be tough with the weather but knowing that was important to him I told him I would put us where we needed to be in case the hatch happened. I milked every inch of a short float in hopes of us being in a good area for a hatch that may or may not happen. He also had to be off the water by 3:30 in order to get back to Spokane in time for the game. His son is a pitcher and getting the first start of his career...big day! Our best shot at riser's would put us on a flat that was about a 30-minute float from the takeout.
This guy had very little experience fishing nymphs under a bobber, but he was very coachable and thankfully, the fish were REALLY aggressive... before too long he was hooked up. He lost that first fish....and the next 4....BUT he was starting to solve his problems, by 11:30 he was hooking AND landing fish. We made it to the flat we needed to be on about 12:30 and by 12:45 I started to see heads poking up. I started him swinging a soft hackle (which he had never done) and he caught a few. There weren't many bugs present but it was obvious it was going to happen. About 1:30 I started to see some March Brown's and by 2:00 the surface looked like a size 14 armada of sail boats was moving through.
We swapped out rods and 15 minutes later he was buttoned up on the first dry fly fish of his life. That fish also happened to be his best fish of the day up to that point. He was a very reserved guy, but that fish changed his entire demeanor. Unfortunately, we didn't have much time left. My boys are both college athletes and I rarely get to see them play live so there was no way I was going to be the person who made him late. At 2:30 I told him we had to move on but there might be one more shot close to the takeout. Sure enough we float by an island and the slick at the bottom had some heads poking up. I positioned the boat, and he made his best cast of the day. We both watched the eat, he was right on time with the set and that fish went right to kicking his ass
. He got the fish in an almost a nettable position twice but on the second time he took in too much line and the loop got stuck as the fish ran...broke him off. It looked to be in that 18" range...we spoke of that fish the entire drive back to the shop.
We didn't see another angler all day. The fishing turned out to be WAY better than I would have guessed and we had a great trip. The only downside of the whole day was his kid got roughed up and they lost. If you don't get much time to fish and a day becomes available, but the weather sucks...go anyway! You can't catch e'm if you don't go.
When he showed up at the shop, he told me his hope was to catch his first fish on a dry fly.... oh boy. I told him that could be tough with the weather but knowing that was important to him I told him I would put us where we needed to be in case the hatch happened. I milked every inch of a short float in hopes of us being in a good area for a hatch that may or may not happen. He also had to be off the water by 3:30 in order to get back to Spokane in time for the game. His son is a pitcher and getting the first start of his career...big day! Our best shot at riser's would put us on a flat that was about a 30-minute float from the takeout.
This guy had very little experience fishing nymphs under a bobber, but he was very coachable and thankfully, the fish were REALLY aggressive... before too long he was hooked up. He lost that first fish....and the next 4....BUT he was starting to solve his problems, by 11:30 he was hooking AND landing fish. We made it to the flat we needed to be on about 12:30 and by 12:45 I started to see heads poking up. I started him swinging a soft hackle (which he had never done) and he caught a few. There weren't many bugs present but it was obvious it was going to happen. About 1:30 I started to see some March Brown's and by 2:00 the surface looked like a size 14 armada of sail boats was moving through.
We swapped out rods and 15 minutes later he was buttoned up on the first dry fly fish of his life. That fish also happened to be his best fish of the day up to that point. He was a very reserved guy, but that fish changed his entire demeanor. Unfortunately, we didn't have much time left. My boys are both college athletes and I rarely get to see them play live so there was no way I was going to be the person who made him late. At 2:30 I told him we had to move on but there might be one more shot close to the takeout. Sure enough we float by an island and the slick at the bottom had some heads poking up. I positioned the boat, and he made his best cast of the day. We both watched the eat, he was right on time with the set and that fish went right to kicking his ass
. He got the fish in an almost a nettable position twice but on the second time he took in too much line and the loop got stuck as the fish ran...broke him off. It looked to be in that 18" range...we spoke of that fish the entire drive back to the shop.We didn't see another angler all day. The fishing turned out to be WAY better than I would have guessed and we had a great trip. The only downside of the whole day was his kid got roughed up and they lost. If you don't get much time to fish and a day becomes available, but the weather sucks...go anyway! You can't catch e'm if you don't go.
