So Wednesday finally arrived, the wife and I had the car packed and the kids were at their respective places for the week. All was good. In an effort to squeeze in some fishing, we left around 1 which meant that we arrived at Harman's around 3:30. It always amazes us how long the trip takes going out compared to the trip home. It also amazes us how close this beautiful place is to us. I am always amazed at how much my wife bitches on the way out because she wants to get there.
We arrived, checked in, unpacked and I headed to the stream. We were staying in cabin 12. This was the first cabin we ever stayed in and we love it. I like it for the hot tub and quick access to the water. The wife likes it for the hot tub, the tub inside and that it is closer to the water which means further away from people. Here is a photo of the cabin:
As I walked down to the stream, I could already see a difference in the water levels from the last trip. I could also see trout everywhere! And big ones at that. I knew it would be close regarding the time. When we booked the trip, we both forgot about daylight savings time. So, I only had a couple of hours to fish at best. I tied on some 6x tippet and a black woolly bugger and gave it a whirl. Here is how the stream looked upon my arrival:
As I was looking at the water, I could see big rainbows hugging the bottom. Their coloring of silver/slate gray made them stand out against the rocky bottom. In the next couple of hours, I lost 8 fish. The 6x tippet just wasn't cutting it. I did manage to land one fish for the evening. I drove 2 and 1/2 hours to catch this guy:
I have no idea why blogger rotates the photos. Does anyone else have this happen to them? If so, is there a way to fix it?
Alright back to the evening. So I lost 8 fish. All rainbows. I could see them chasing and fighting over the bugger. Right at dusk I saw a big boy follow it. I threw it back out and he slammed it. I fought him for what seemed like 3 or 4 minutes before he finally broke me off. WTH? I couldn't believe my luck. I was hoping this wouldn't be a sign of things to come for the next few days. I only brought 6 black woolly buggers with me and I just lost three of them. I was also using a 3wt rod. This rod simply wasn't strong enough to battle the fish. I told the wife that when we come back next year, we will be coming back in October and I will need a bigger rod with more power. I lost the fish because I couldn't turn them on a few occasions. By bigger rod, I mean like a 4wt in 8'6 or so. The 3wt I was using was only 7'. I found that a short rod equaled less power.
So another day at Harman's added to the log book. I was planning on getting up early Monday morning to chase the trout. Stay tuned to see what I caught.
One beautiful place; I know my wife and I will make the trip once she retires. Was the bugger the only fly you tried? Did your wife fish with the fly rod? My wife will need me or someone else to teach her how to use a fly rod before we go. Thanks for sharing
ReplyDeleteBill,
ReplyDeleteThe bugger was not the only fly I tried. Stay tuned and you will see what they were biting on during day 2. The bugger worked only for the first day. My wife doesn't fish. She only ties flies. She actually hates fishing. Go figure!