Good day fellow fly fishers.
On Sunday, my friends Wendy and Chris joined my wife, Ellen, and I for a
short trip to the confluence of the Taylor River with the Middle Fork of
the Snoqualmie River.
While Ellen and Wendy took our dog Rowdy, a six month old Airedale terrier,
to explore the trail along the Middle Fork, Chris and I set about fishing.
Chris has just started fly-fishing; so it was time to catch his first fish
on a fly, if we could. I showed him how I kick at the rocks in the river
and scoop up the nymphs with my little aquarium net. There wasn't much to
show: just some #16 to #22 mayfly nymphs. The water temperature was 49
degrees.
We started out fishing nymphs with an indicator. I showed him how to high
stick through a series of pools. I had a #12 Copper John (which I'd just
tied up the night before; got the pattern from the Orvis webpage) with a
#14 Gold Ribbed Hare's Ear as a dropper and some added split shot to get
the whole rig down. We had a couple of nibbles but were unable to get the
fish in.
We then waded up the Taylor River from its confluence with the Snoqualmie.
Having no luck with the nymphs, and seeing some big mayflies popping off
(#10 or 12's), I switched to my #10 Easy Rider (ER) foam body dry fly with
a #14 Parachute Adams dropper. Almost immediately, I started to get hits on
the ER; so I removed the Adams.
I called Chris over and had him try my rod with the ER. In just a few
minutes he hooked his first fish , a scrappy, jumping 9-inch cutthroat
trout! It was sure fun sharing that with him. We got him set up with an ER
on his rod and kept on fishing.
I caught a couple of cutts on the ER and missed many more. There are some
nice pools on the Taylor. It was my first time fishing it.
As I was fishing up-stream, I snagged my ER across the river in some bushes
and lost it. I thought I might be able to wade the swiftly running river to
get it; so I marked the location and figured I would give it a shot on the
way back.
I was able to retrieve the fly. Back at the car, Chris asked if he could
have the fly that caught his first fish: it was the fly I'd just retrieved!
It was a pleasure to give him the fly.
There were lots of flyfishers up and down the Middle Fork as we drove out.
A good day to be on the river.
Rock and reel,
Danny McMillin
