Fly Execution: Dry-Dropper In Pool Date: 02/07/23 Time: 12:15pm Air: 28° Water: 38° Elevation: 720’ I really enjoy fly fishing in the winter. The conditions are challenging - slowing trout metabolism, crunchy snow / ice, spooky trout, precision casting around ice, etc.. February 7th was no exception. I found a pool that I believed had the necessary qualities for holding a trout - sufficiently deep and slow water. The surface of the majority of the pool was slightly rippled, thereby distorting my view of the pool’s contents and a trout’s view above. Given that it is winter, takes can often be subtle. So, I rigged up a bushy stimulator with subtle colors - no hotspots. I had no reasonable belief that a trout would take the dry. Rather, I was using it as a strike indicator for the nymph I dangled off the hook bend. The beauty of a bushy stimulator acting as a strike indicator is that it allows the angler to come in under the radar. It lands quietly and provides great visual tracking. Like many small stream pools, this was a plunge pool. Fast water spills in at a particular point and quickly slows and disperses toward the back end before continuing along to another stream section. The ice made things tricky. Beyond serving as a beacon to trout when it cracks, it also causes additional obstructions for one’s flies, which can quickly get swept under an ice shelf. So, one must cast and remove flies from the water before they get stuck under ice. This reduces the normally short presentations to even shorter ones. In these photos, the arrows show the current direction in the pool, and the circle shows the slower water section where I reasonably believed a trout would be holding. The X in the last photo shows the location where I cast my flies. My goal was to drift my flies from the X to the back of the pool, an inconspicuous feeding and shelter lie. I cast my dry-dropper, kept my rod tip high so to allow my rig to float into the slower water in the back of the pool without any unnatural drag. As the rig reached the slower water in the back of the pool, my bushy stimulator abruptly disappeared under water, and I raised by bamboo rod to set the hook. A beautiful native (winter) brook trout.
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AuthorMichael D. Day, Maker Categories
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October 2024
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