Thursday, January 13, 2011

The Pink Squirrel

Deschutes river style.



You know you are no longer a trout guy when you have exactly one scud hook in the desired size. Thousands of hooks in my kit and literally one in the appropriate size. It figures. Still, not being a trout guy has it's advantages. Chief among those is when I show up to the river on Saturday and proceed to spend the bulk of my day cursing the tangles caused by my two fly rig and being thoroughly out fished by my companions I can simply say, "I am not a trout guy." First off...the water moves. A lot, and fast. Once upon a time I could peer into that moving water and spy out that tiny change in depth and current, then deftly drop my nymphs in place and pull a feisty trout out. Those days, the days when I set the hook without thought or reason are long gone, but the company will be great, the river pure and the fish (if I catch them) beautiful. So, I cobbled some flies together from bits of fluff and feather, on hooks scrounged from the depths of my gear bag and stripped of the former components that made them attractive to trout. And with that...we will see how it goes.

The nymph box (still pretty stocked) of a former trout guy.




5 comments:

Unknown said...

Once a trout guy, always a trout guy... in some little special place in your heart at least.

Just out of practice.

Bigerrfish said...

just like riding a bike

John Montana said...

I hope you guys are right! Honestly, I am excited to go and just be out on the water, but I won't lie. I do want to catch at least a couple of fish! I used to be a pretty good nymph fisherman, so we'll see if i can remember how it is done.

winonaflyfactory said...

You'll pick it up right away. Might deal with a tangle or two. Take it in stride, nice looking nymph box for a guy who isn't a trouter. If you need anything and don't want to tie it up let me know and I'll ship it out but my dry flies kind of suck. Need to work on those.

John Montana said...

nice offer WFF. your flies are money. we fish about a size bigger out here, 16s where you would go 18 for the most part. i'm set for tomorrow, and that will likely be my only trout outing of the year, unless i sneak out in Feb for some BWO action.