>It was old home day at the Narrows yesterday among the 13 or so fly anglers
>there were 5 of us from the list. Leland, Bill, John, Tom, and myself and
>maybe more we didn't meet. Buy we were out in full force. Report same as
>usual, everybody caught fish but me so you'll have to ask them for the
>details.
>
>Tight lines my friends,
> Charlie
Here's a few details. There have been silvers at Doc's since early
December. It has been a late afternoon/evening fishery with about a 30
minute bite. The fish are both marked and unmarked and have been running
between 12 and 16 inches. I had been catching them on tiny, one inch,
sparse candlefish clousers tied on #10 hooks. I say had been, because on
saturday, the ball game changed a bit and it was reinforced sunday evening.
I had been switching between the candle clouser and a #10 pearl and white
crazy charlie with a krystal flash tail for the last month on the theory
that there wasn't a whole lot of any one feed in the water. Saturday
evening, I got over a dozen hits and landed four on the pearl and white
crazy charlie. I believe the other guys were using clousers. John Abbott
switched to a pink shrimpy-like fly and picked up a fish immediately. Last
evening, there were seven flyfishers at Doc's and I believe I was the only
one who picked up any fish. I caught them all on a pink and white charlie.
Last evening, there were more fish rising than I have seen before.
Forgetting the happy jumpers, the riseforms of the feeding fish are
predominately small dimples and slow purposeful porpoising which indicate
euphasids and/or amphipod feeding. Besides the fun of fishing small little
nothing flies for salmon, Rick Bell and I have been working on another
technique. You might want to try this if the fish are doing their porpoise
thing, which is always in the current seams a tournament distance cast
away. Use a dryline and a long (at least 10 feet) leader to 3x and your
favorite small krill pattern weighted with beadchain eyes. Pick a spot with
walking speed current (think steelhead holding water), that is UPTIDE of
the feeding salmon, wade up to your elbows, cast the bejeezus out of your
line, quartering downtide, make an immediate uptide mend to slow down the
drift, and let your fly swing SLOWLY into the pods. Do not strip as you do
with clousers. Think (?) and act like krill and simply drift with the
current to the fish. You might twitch every so often to maintain contact
with your fly. This technique worked for me last March at the Narrows under
the same conditions and seems to be paying off again this year.
Leland.
