Yesterday (Sunday, 1/23/2011) I tried for a repeat of last week’s success. Last week it was warm and clear. I hooked six fish and landed five — all on orange glo bugs.
When I got there, at between 1 and 2 PM, the clear blue skies lulled me into dressing lightly. But by the time I got to the end of the trail through the bear cave I realized it was rather cold by the water. And, standing in the water sucked what little body heat I had right out of me. I ended up starting to get hypothermic. My legs got painful from standing in the water, even with waders on. I couldn’t move my fingers enough to tie a knot. It was really amazing how long it took me to rig up after breaking off on a snag. And I can tell you this much, Rio Fluoroflex is not going to be in my vest in cold water/air fishing conditions in the future. Although I’ve had great success in warmer water with Rio’s Fluoroflex, in the cold I’ll be using Sportsman’s Warehouse house brand Fluorocarbon tippet. When cold, Rio is brittle, breaks from even the slightest tug, and does weird things while you try to tie it.
I ended up hooking into a really big fish in the pocket near the end of the tributary. I lost it after a pretty good fight. Then I went down stream for a while and caught nothing. Then back to the tributary to work my way upstream, wading was tough from the high flows, but I was able to manage it. I only caught one more fish, a 12″ rainbow. Both were enticed by PT Nymphs – small, like a #18.
I only had one glo bug, and it fell apart on the first or second cast. I did have some Troutbeads, which came highly recommended at Fly Fishing Specialties. But, those didn’t work out because I couldn’t get them to roll over on the cast and they kept snagging on either my thingamabobber or my leading nymph. I ditched the beads and went straight to a single nymph rig. When I use the Troutbeads again, I’m going to have to use a much heaver tippet and much smaller hooks. And I think I’ll mark a red yolk dot on them with a red sharpie.
I should have gone skiing. It would have been warmer! ;-)