A bank feeding trout. An impressive one. Spotted last week rising to a sparse hatch of Golden Stoneflies and other insects. It ate my offering then but no hook up. I returned this week to the same location hoping it would be there and watched the water under a heavy smoke filled sky. Hundreds of fires are burning west and south west of here. We need rain. A lot of it.
While stalking the trout a few angling boats drifted by. I protected my spot and pretended to watch the bank downstream of me instead of upstream where the fish had been. River traffic has increased the past few years. Sometimes you have to deceive other anglers while trying to deceive a trout. It’s getting tricky out there. A few days ago a Drone flew over my head.
The trout made an appearance mid day when the river started to liven up. It ignored the smaller insects but broke the surface for the mid-sized and larger ones. This time I made a connection. The large stone fly impression held when the fish went downstream through a series of fast riffles with me and a retriever in pursuit. A long 13 foot knotted leader and a steep embankment made landing it challenging. Seconds before netting it I had to grab my leader mid-way to guide the trout to within reach. It’s an angling move that can often result in a lost fish. I had no other option. I got lucky…
trout on dries 
Bob, you earned that one. Quite the embankment. By the way, drones make for wonderful pass shooting. May I suggest packing a nice side by side twenty gauge. One ounce of 7 1/2 shot out of both barrels should do. Your dog will love the retrieving practice.
Les: That drone, especially the high pitched sound it made, seriously spooked my dog. I almost threw a river rock at it. Some buckshot would have been better….Smoke down your way?
Pretty smoky here. Some days the mountains are completely obscured. And that’s the ones just a few miles from town. It was smoky around Yellowstone last week too.
Les: Thanks for the weather update and now to Sports….
Hi Bob,
Glad you got your fish. Seeing you caught it using a bigger fly, you probably had a heavier tippet, yes? I like your tactic, when other anglers pass by. Smart!
Vic
Vic: Yes, returned to the spot and waited hoping for an appearance. Bugs got going around noon. On that river I generally fish 5x as most bugs small and fish have lots of room to run and burn-out, few obstructions in water as you know. I fished 4x with larger stonefly impression (turned fly over ok) and also felt fish might run downstream into whitewater just below me. On those other tailwaters I fish I try to always go with 4x if can get away with it except in the slow, slow pools where the fish inspect everything for what seems like minutes!
On open (wide) water like that it is hard to protect a spot/fish….people can see you from 100yrds away.
See you Thursday. Border opens Aug 6th….good for business. Thanks for commenting.
bob
100% on protecting your spot (fish)!
I have a tactic that is a bit different; when a drift boat approaches I cast toward the middle of the river with purposefully bad technique. One look at my sloppy, sub-beginner casting and they turn away as I don’t appear to be anyone worth watching. I also have an advantage in that virtually zero anglers in my technical system ever approach a fish from below. Ha!
Rick: I like that tactic re: casting mid river sloppily. Gonna use that one…I now have another “arrow in my quiver”. Hope all is well.
bob