Mr. trout wins more times than you may think, be glad of that.
Keep air in your spare and your dry flies dry, and every thing will be cool.
------ Original Message -----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Tue, Jul 10, 2001 1:51pm
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Each day on the water yields new lessons
I have fly fished for 26 of my 33 years yet I still learn or re-learn new things almost everytime I am on the water. During a recent trip to the St. Joe I had two lessons really get hammered home and thought I would share them in hopes that others would also add their favorite fishing lessons for all of us to share.
My father in law was working downstream in front of me and was having only minor success. I came into the hole behind him and worked farther out and across the river to cover more water. I had on a Stimulator and he had on an Elk Hair Caddis. Both were fine patterns for this river. He stopped to work a hole for a bit and I took two nice cutts out of the top of it. I worked in toward shore and came to join him. He had been working a spot between two rocks for about 15 casts. On my second cast through with a Stimulator, I caught a fish right in front of him. Next cast produced the same results. I gave him a stimulator and for the next 30 minutes we took fish or had a strike almost every cast. Lesson: Just because good cover looks dead doesn't mean it is. Try various patterns before you move on.
The second lesso is one I am guilty of all the time. As the day wore on I found my attention starting to wander a bit. Especially on the first cast or two in a new hole. Now I know this is the time that you are most likely to get a strike so I have no idea why I let myself cast without being ready and focused but I missed the same nice cutt twice. Going down stream AND coming back up. The trip back up was more of a case of having too much slack in my line but it was still a mental error because I was not ready to catch a fish. Lesson learned: Never cast until you are focused, your gear is in good shape and you have an idea how you are going to fight a fish in that area should you get one on.
So what are your favorite lessons?
Mike
