The weekend that was...

[leahcim_dahc]

Well...this concludes my first full weekend of fly fishing and I must say, I had an enjoyable time. Not every bit of it...but overall I would say it was a success.

I had some minor setbacks such as knotting up my leader a couple times, entangling my pontoon in fly line, and the errant fly that found its way into my arm. Other than that...I had a blast. My casting improved as the weekend progressed. I had only two days of actual practice (tossing around yarn) prior.

I had a bit of time today to stop and look at the water and see exactly what was going on...as far as the bug end of things. It is still as foreign as deciphering hieroglyphics...but I did manage to find a couple items that peaked my interest. One looked to be an exoskeleton of some sort of critter. Large eyes, long slender body about 1/2" - 3/4" long. I am still in the process of googling to figure out what it was/is.

A couple things I picked up regarding bugs, Saturday I had an onslaught of black flying ants kept bugging the heck out of us. Made a mental note...and picked up a couple of black ants with either a #12 or #14 hook. Tossed it around without much luck...however, I couldn't keep it on the surface as I thought it should be...which was lesson #6 learned. Bring floatant for the dry flies. The black ant wasn't a total waste...tossed it around some cattails and hooked a bluegill.

My best action come off a fly that for the life of me can't remember what it was called. May be some sort of woolly bugger or leech variant...not sure (see image below...the lighting sucks, but it is actually reddish-brown). I need to start carrying around a small notebook with all the different names of flies so I don't forget. I didn't choose the fly necessarily because I thought there was anything special about it other than color. On this particular lake, I have had more luck using anything in a reddish-brown color. Mostly the color of plastics I've used when jigging for bass. I couldn't get anything to bite casting into what I considered normal areas. Edges of drop offs, weed lines, in and around brush, etc., etc.. Had more luck trolling. Caught nine decent rainbows on Saturday and ten Monday. Of the nine caught on Saturday...I kicked them all loose, the only one's I took home, were the five I caught bank fishing with my friends from work. Of the ten caught Monday...three found their way into my cooler.

All in all it was a great experience...I hope to do it again soon. There's a couple fishy looking spots along the Cowlitz, Cispus, and Tilton rivers I'd like to try out once they open this next weekend.


Chad

[chironomid_guy]

Being observant is one of the keys to having a great flyfishing day. I always take a minute or two to look around at the boat launches and see what invertebrates are active or hatching (I always pays off).

I would expect your exo skelaton bugs were dragon fly larvae. They would probably be Darnners,,,,, maybe Gophus ( I dont know what water you fished?).

Its funny how after you caght yourself in the arm and tangled with your Pontoon that your casting improved (just proves that old dogs can learn new tricks).

The fly photo you posted looks like a wooly bugger. Trolling this at the drop off or "edge" of the lake would probably entice strikes. It would immitate the Dragaon fly larvae that were marching to the toolys and cattails in order to crawl up them and emerge as winged dragonflies.

Its also very important to remember that "A bad day of fishing is always better than a good day at work!"

Tight lines

[leahcim_dahc]

I would expect your exo skelaton bugs were dragon fly larvae. They would probably be Darnners,,,,, maybe Gophus ( I dont know what water you fished?).

I got to poking around the internet today looking for the critter I found. I ran across a video that shows what appears to be what I saw. I could be wrong...but definitely looks quite close to it. Check out the video, about 50 seconds in you will get a good look at what it appears to be.

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Its funny how after you caght yourself in the arm...

I took that as a bit of negative reinforcement...I keep a better handle when tossing those things around. I think the poke from the fly came from changing targets in mid-cast. As far as the tangled pontoon goes, I hooked a fish and didn't anchor down and while I was drifting and stripping line, it got wrapped around a pontoon and launching wheel. Other times while stripping, I would miss my basket and a bit would hang over the side...just in time to cut myself short when casting if I wasn't paying attention. I ended up stripping into a pile on the seat while I stood. Seemed to work out better.


Chad