Fellow flyfishers of Washington,
The river levels are dropping down to summer flows in the Snoqualmie River
system. I headed out to the Middle Fork for some evening fishing.
I started out with a double nymph rig of two #12 beadhead zugbugs. I landed
and released an 8 inch cutthroat trout on the 3rd cast.
It was much slower last night than the last time I was out. I ended up
catching about 8 or 9 cutts with the biggest around 10 inches. I think
with the lower flows, the fish can be a little more selective, damn them...
However, I did miss 2 mighty fine fish later in the evening on the #8 Easy
Rider (ER) dryfly. (This is a foam body dry similar to a madam x.)
I've developed a technique for dapping the dry fly in back eddies that sit
next to or in the middle of the fast moving main river. Using my new 9 foot
rod helps with this (my old rod was 8'3").
I rig the ER with a#14 beadhead gold-ribbed hair's ear dropper with about 4
feet of leader off the bend of the hook. The beadhead acts as an anchor. I
cast the flies across the river into the eddy, usually directly across or
from above (ie casting downriver). The ER lands somewhere in the middle of
the eddy. If not, I raise my rodtip until the fly skitters into the middle.
I then start lifting and dropping the rodtip causing the fly to skip,
skitter and wake like a crippled fly hopping on the water. I keep doing
this until the ER is is sucked down river. I call this technique "Double
Dapping."
I don't think this is a new technique, just new to me.
Of course there are at least of couple of problems with this approach:
1) There can be a lot of slack and extra line in the water.
2) Un-natural drift on the fly.
I saw at least a 12 inch cutt (and probably bigger) blast up to the surface
to slash at the ER only to have too much slack in the line to set the hook.
This was a long distance cast to an eddy in the middle of the main channel.
I have always passed this pool by because I though there was no way to get
a fly into the eddy without it being immediately pulled downriver by the
current.
I missed a similar fish in the same fashion. I've also caught some nice
cutts when I've least expected it because the fly isn't dead drifting.
Double Dapping goes against the law of natural drift. It jut goes to show
that a little change can be good.
Fish on, my friend.
Danny McMillin
