On The Caddis Trail, Part 4
One of the great things about circular time is that it is always noon somewhere. This is of particular comfort to the fisherman when confronted with those extended periods on the river where the fish are uncooperative, and the cooler has cold beer in it. As the video shows, honor was restored towards the end of the day, but for the first few hours we were left scratching our heads as to what we had done to offend the fishing gods.
At the outset, the omens were good. There were plenty of caddis around at Rincon, our launch site. Additionally, there were rain clouds threatening, with the prospect of some good blue winged olive hatches later in the day. Indeed, about half an hour into the float, a rain shower moved through, and fish immediately started rising to the surface to the blue wings hatching. Pulling into an eddy, we quickly changed our flies to parachute adams while we watched a pod of fish feeding hard on the other side of the river. Just as we got the boat into position, however, the sun came out and as suddenly and definitively as a light switch being flipped, the bugs and the fish disappeared. This was the beginning of a long dry spell, at least from a catching point of view. We floated several miles through some great water, trying all sorts of different fly combinations with no tangible result.
Then, as the afternoon progressed, the wind came up. This had two effects: blowing the bugs off the water, and making it increasingly difficult to get the fly on the water where you wanted it. Right now, with so many bugs around, the fish are not moving far from their feed lanes. In other words, they expect room service, meaning that a fly cast six inches from a feeding fish in most cases isn't going to cut it. Compare this to July and August, when you can tease a fish three or four feet out of its lair with a dancing hopper, for example. Surprisingly, the wind also saw the fish finally start to feed consistently on the surface. Our patience and good humor were rewarded with some great action in challenging conditions. So there are a couple morals to the story. Firstly, you take what the river gives you. I love hearing all the theories about how and why fish behave the way they do, but at the end of the day, that's all they are - theories. Secondly, the most important piece of equipment a fisherman can bring along with him or her is a sense of humor.
That said, the fishing is pretty good on the river at the moment, and with the increasing warming trend as the week progresses, I think we will see the hatch spread considerably up river beyond Salida. The river flows came up quite a bit over the weekend as a result of the rainfall we had, but at least as of today these have stabilized at around the 550 - 600 cfs mark. This is great for floating and wading, although a little care needs to be taking at this level when wading out far from the bank. Our best flies were once again parachute adams and black foam caddis, and while we weren't breaking them off on sticks, rocks and each other, bead head pheasant tails.
We will probably have another ten days or so of fishing before the river starts to rise inexorably towards runoff. In the meantime, there are bound to be a few pulses of murky water passing through, but don't let that put you off getting out there. It ain't over until the river is running the color of chocolate milk.
Wednesday, May 6, 2009