July 30, 2016

July 31, 2016

THE FISH THAT COULDN’T BE HOOKED . . ?

The other day I encountered a large trout that was sipping Trico spinners against the bank, far away from the pod of fish which were gorging themselves on the quantity of spinners in the middle of the creek right behind my trailer. Such isolated bank feeders or, for that matter, trout feeding on the margins of the Trico stream (on the sides or in front of the pack) present great opportunity to hook trophy trout. I had already landed two fish on my friend Tom’s Trico Sparkle dun with an elongated shuck so I stuck with that pattern. I made over 20 casts to the brute without any reaction on his part. It occurred to me that I might be facing The Trout That Couldn’t Be Hooked and in my mind I began to map out a blog entry on that theme. In the middle of that musing I was distracted by the sight of a beautiful butterfly to my left when the trout came up and took the fly. Of course, I over reacted and struck too firmly, dragging the big fish’s head to the side and the fly popped out. For me, it made my morning.

That morning the hatch of Trico mayflies lasted but 45 minutes but it was intense. It was followed by a dense Blue Winged Olive spinner fall and a #20 BWO spinner pattern was the key. I landed 3 trout, ranging from a 3 inch Rainbow to a 17 inch Brown. These days, I have been seeing an increasing amount of Callibaetis duns by the trailer, so I am confident that soon the Callibaetis will become the dominant hatch, followed closely by small BWOs.

Doug Andres, Stream Keeper, Double R Ranch