“If the world were perfect, it wouldn’t be”.
-Yogi Berra
The last couple of weekends I’ve fished a local tailwater river 2 or 3 times. Hatches have been sparse with the bright sun. Due to the same weather conditions and clear water, however, spotting trout has been possible. And fortunately some have been willing to rise.
On my last outing I was with a friend, Roman, who was visiting the region. Early on he landed a great rainbow on a black cricket like pattern. Later on we located several large bank fish that were feeding inconsistently. They were picky and rejected most of what we tossed their way. Bug life seemed minimal and their feeding behavior was somewhat of a mystery.
Roman changed flies several times and then pulled out an old attractor fly pattern, a Royal Coachman, from his Magician’s top hat and started casting it with authority as if commanding the trout to rise. And they did. Mesmerized, they kept coming to the fly.
Then he reached out, his hand palm up and said, “try this”. It was another Royal Coachman. I tied it on and then magically, Presto, just like that, landed a large rainbow with the fly.
We missed several others that day but the fish we landed were very spectacular. All were caught sight-fishing with dry flies.
Here are some photos from the Royal Coachman day and from the weekend before when there was more cloud cover.
trout on dries 
Good stuff Bob, talk about low, clear water. For all of the “hot” new flies that are around, sometimes, no make that often, it’s hard to beat the classics. I caught my first trout on a leadwing coachman wet fly many moons ago. It’s used even less today than the royal coachman dry.
I still chuckle over the Yogi quote about cutting a pizza into four slices instead of six…..
Les: That Yogi quote is great and I still laugh too. I liked your: “please don’t tell my Mom…..piano player” one. Here’s another quote from one of my favorite ball players….”What was the name of that dog on Rin Tin Tin”—Mickey Rivers
Tight Lines
bob
ha ha ha ha. You forget to mention the part where I ask you, “what’s the deal with these Royal Coachman? I’ve never used them before”. Beautiful fish!
Roman; I now recall you saying that. Yes, real beauties…great day.
bob