Monday, May 21, 2012

Grannoms


Wow! Not sure where to start. It’s been way too long since I’ve posted last, and I promised a friend that I wouldn’t go as long any more. I’m going to try to break down some of the trips that I’ve taken in the time since I’ve posted last. There is just no way that I can do them all. I guess it’s just like back in school when I would procrastinate on my home work, and then try to catch up all at once, sometimes it worked, and sometimes it didn’t.  I am relying on the pictures on my phone for memory of order.  So here it goes.
I chased Grannoms a couple of times this year. The first time was right after a storm. There were rumors of Grannom caddis starting to come off on the little J. I met up with a couple of friends with hopes of a banner day. On the way to meet up with them I noticed that the stream, up above where we were going to be, was blown out, so I figured we probably only had a few hours before the rest of the stream was blown as well. 

The night before this trip I decided to try out a new nymphing rig. It’s a tight line rig with sighter material. Well…. It turns out the sighter material that I got was not the right stuff, it was a much larger diameter than what the formula called for. It ended up being a blessing, because the larger material held just enough memory in the line that I could see every little take. I’m gonna stick with this for my tight line nymphing for a while because I immediately notice the difference.

Blue Quill & Chocolate Milk
Small Stream
So we got to the stream and I immediately got into fish. I couldn't believe what a difference this new rig was making for me. But as time went on the water began to rise higher. The decision was made that we were going to try a different stream, one that does not blow out so easily. We hit the road determined to find good water, and possibly hatches and rising fish. I’m a sucker for rising fish.

When we got to the next stream it was chocolate milk. So off we went again, to yet another stream and found yet another blow out. We decided to stay at this one and give it a try. There were blue quills coming off all over the place, but the water was just too muddy to bring up any fish. I fished down stream for a little while then I gave up. On the way back to the vehicle I came across an extremely small stream (maybe 3’ at its widest). I figured, what the heck, why not throw a fly in it.  First cast wham! A 10” brown slams my fly (it may have been 9" but 10" sounds better). That was it for that small stream and I had to be back home soon, so we went back to the vehicles, BS’ed for a while then left. 

The next trip for Grannoms turned out perfect. I got to the stream a little early and the fish weren’t rising yet so I decided to start out nymphing. Within minutes I had my first fish and it wasn’t long before I had another. Then the fish stopped feeding underneath. Well….. they stopped taking what I was offering anyway. About an hour later (and maybe 10 fly changes) I started to see them rise. So without hesitation I switched to a dry and picked up a fish just before I had to meet up with some friends. 

Little J Brown
Average Fish For the Day
After my friends got there, they took me to a place on the little J that I hadn’t been before. We fished hard for quite a few hours. The hatch was on and off depending on the sun and the wind. Wind blows, hatching stops, sun glows hatching stops, clouds and it’s on. Up to this point we were having an O.K. day, but then, It started to rain, and we were having a hard time getting the fish to take our flies. So we decided to catch up with the other member of our fishing party. He was sitting in some frog water casting to rising fish, and just cleaning up. The fish were taking spent caddis and doing so with reckless abandon. He invited us to join him we did, and within minutes we were taking them with a regular consistency. It got to the point that we had to walk away because it was getting late.  It was a good day.

I’ll probably post about three more trips before I’m caught up, leaving out the less productive ones of course. So check back soon, and I’ll try not to get so far behind in the future.