Small Water

I know the subject of this blog is low country in shore fly fishing. I am getting to that, indulge me a bit. During that high country hiking/fishing trip I had a bit of an fishiphany.

Upon reaching the shore of the glacier gorge lake I set up my spinning gear. While my friend was still fiddling with setting up his fly rod I was already fishing. Spinners, jigs, changing lures, varying retrieves, covering water. I was catching nothing.

After about 20 minutes of my already fishing and probably making a couple dozen casts, the Fish Whisperer finally got his old two piece 4 wt sage set up and ready. He leisurely strolled out on a rock outcropping I had already fished, covering the water all around it. He made a few false casts and put a fly, blue wing olive or caddis, I can't remember which, about 30 feet out over some submerged timber. An instant top water strike! The Fish Whisperer was hooting now. Those high country trout don't get to big, living in water that's frozen over most of the year, but they are beautiful. This one had gold sides unlike any other trout I have seen. After a few seconds of staring at it, he was released healthy and a bit wiser. He should still be up there.

This was a an oddity, right? No doubt I warmed that fish up for him. Then a few casts later he had another. It went on like that until I realized my spinning gear was useless, heavier, snagged more so I sat and ate my packed lunch.

Later we bushwhacked through some swampy areas. finding and fishing small headwater streams. Only inches deep and only a few feet wide. Wild trout darted about and stealth was critical. Casting spinning gear is such waters was pretty much a waste of time.

The fly rod on the other hand could deliver quick, stealthy and very efficient drifts, time after time. This is when the clear advantages of the simple essence of fly fishing became clear. It is the moment went from seeing fly fishing as an elitist activitt to a sensible, practical and in some conditions a "best practices" system.

The next couple years I experimented, learned and progressed - a little anyway.

In mountain country I prefer avoiding the gold medal destination rivers and prefer the smaller more aggressive fish and solitude that comes with hard hikes to small streams.