Fly Fishing in High WaterWritten by Cameron Larsen
A long, long time ago, I remember waking up at 3 a.m., on a Saturday. I say waking up, although I don't think I ever went to sleep. It was opening day eve, as good as Christmas eve, in my seven year old way of thinking. Our destination was more than three hours away, to land of huge trout, and lots of them. Silently, in light of moon, my Dad and I climbeed in his Ford Falcon and began are ardous three hour journey to land of Big Fish. Thta magical mysterious place was, across Cascade Mountains at legendary Deschutes River. Home of montser trout. I dozed somewhat on drive over, waking up to donuts and hot chocolate, as we rambled through forest. At last, we descended on flat juniper country of 'East side', and finally began our twisting descent down canyon to mighty river. With my dog, I pressed my nose to window glass, drooling with anticpation. As we crossed over, I didn't notice off-color water or river spilling here and there over it's natural banks. But I did notice my Dad's groan. We stopped, stretched our legs, used bushes, and then I heard my Dad say, 'blown out.' I was curious and inquired, and learned river was 'blown out', flooded, too high to fish. Each exclamation of river more seriuos than last. Until, I realized fishing wasn't going to happen today. As bad as life gets at seven, as bad as no Santa Claus. We threw rocks into roaring mess, walked around some more, I learned about rock formations, local flora, and then we were off, back to home. Today I live two blocks from that legendary river, and have learned a thing or two about high water fishing. I have had success here and on other rivers using some very simple techniques. Where to find fish: If current is raging, fish don't really want to be out in it anymore than fly fishers do. They tend to hole up, in slower water, and luckily for us closer to shore. Look for pockets and pools, close in that will provide likely water. Riffles that are normally too shallow, will provide a feeding lane in high water. The nice thing is wading is not required if fish are lying close to bank. A word of caution here, high water wading can be extremly dangerous. Water is murky and visibility can be nil, underwater footing can change dramatically. Even if fishing familiar water, under water terrain could have changed since last fished. A wading staff can help, but fishing from bank is better yet. Fish behavior: As mentioned above, fish don't want to be in heavy current anymore than you do. But they don't stop feeding. On contrary, spring run off brings with it speeding of fish's metabolism, and likewise their desire to eat. Although rising fish are much less likely, fish eat up to 90% of their diet sub-surface anyway. So unless there are peculiarities to your particular river, prepare for sub-surface fishing. This can be disappointing to some diehard dry fly fisher's. But because fish are close in, you may not have such easy access to large fish again, entire year.
| | Angler's AttentionWritten by Cameron Larsen
There is something that I have called 'angler's attention'. It is developed after you have been fishing, and in this article we will be concerning ourselves with fly fishing, for years and years. You can usually tell those that have it and those that don't. Quickly rigging up your fly rod, and racing to a likely fishing spot, solely concerned about yourself and your gear, are telltale signs of someone not possessing angler's attention.I spent many years, especially when I didn't have much time to fish, ignoring angler's attention. If I could steal away even an hour or two, racing down to river I would go. In a virtual panic, scouring out my favorite fishing spots, then cursing to myself, when they were taken. Frantically I would find a spot to fish, splash out there, and heave out my line. Fishing, at last, my heart would race, I would set hook on any minute bump, and then have to untangle my line from a tree lurking behind me. Never paying attention to fly I was using, there wasn't time to change it, wheter my tippet was proper, what was happening on water, nothing of sort. Just get me to water, and let me wet my line. Maturity probably plays as much a part in developing 'angler's attention' as anythin. Although I have seen many young angler's very deliberately observing and then selecting their approach. Besides natural aging what really changed things for me, was actually observing a fellow fly fisher. Actually it was more observing him, observing me. I was fishing a small stretch of fairly remote river. Although this particular spot became 'discovered' sometime in 90's, it is still relatively pressure free after mid-June. Happily csting to rising fish, I happened to spot a gentleman stading on bank watching me fish. He was quite a bit older then me at time, but his presence somewhat annoyed me. Feeling watched, I gave it another five minutes or so, then headed in. The next thirty minutes or so were spent discussing fly fishing with this gentleman in ways I had never thought of before. The knowledge this man possessed and frankly lack of urgency to wet his fly were astonishing. He seemed quite as content to stand and talk about fly fishing as he was to actually be out doing it. He discussed with me clouds and mayfly hatches, current time of Callibeatis hatch, onset of Giant Stonefly hatch based on elevation, water flow, and air temperature, need to have your fly drift naturally. The benefit of watching naturals on water, effect of line drag, etc, etc. After I had finished my lunch, did he finish talking. And then asked if I wanted to give it another try, motioning out to water. I told him to go ahead, it must be his turn, and he said there was room for two. He was definitely a talented caster, one of best I had ever seen, gracefully placing his dry fly expertly in feeding lanes, on edges of deep pools, and right below large rocks that were all favorite holding places for trout. Stopping when hatch slowed and beginning again when hatch began.
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