spinsheet
Well-known member
I finally got out today and tried out my new rod. Reality did not quite match expectations but expectations were probably a lot higher than they should have been. I do that a lot.
Had some problems with the casting. My level line was going further than my fly. I seemed to be piling line on the water with my fly only about 8' away from me. I kept altering my cast, less power, more power, 12 - 10, 12 - 9, ect. Sometimes my cast was perfect and I would try and do exactly the same thing and then piled line on the water. This will take a bit of work. Admittedly, the wind was heavier than ideal, not horrible, but enough to even bother me with my western rig.
I did find I would actually cause drag on my fly trying to get the line out of the water. I assume this will simply take time to get straight. I sometimes got some very good drifts and other times I made the fly look like a speedboat. Can't expect to get it all right first time out.
I did manage to get two takes on my dry. One caught me completely off guard and I simply missed setting the hook. On the other one I was simply late with the hook set, it happens. I was simply happy that I at least tricked two trout into at least tasting my fly. That in itself is success on this river.
Once the sun started going down the trico spinners were hitting the water and at times it looked like the water was boiling with all the rising trout. As luck would have it I had no spinner flies, only a few tenkara dries and some elk hair caddises. They were simply ignored. I saw about four other fly fishers on the river and none had any spinners and the general consensus was that the trout were ignoring anything that did not look like a spinner. Whether this was true or not at least it made us all feel better. I'll make sure to have some spinner patterns next time to test this theory.
I actually saw one other guy on the water with a tenkara rod and it was his first time using one. He was also new to fly fishing in general and had yet to get waders so he was stuck fishing from shore. He actually spent more time hiking around in the woods with his girlfriend than with fishing so I wasn't really surprised when he didn't have much luck. A few other fishermen noticed my rod and were rather curious about it. I showed it to them and they were actually a bit impressed. One of them mentioned that he had heard of those Japanese rods but this was the first time he had seem one. We all chatted a bit and a good time was had by all.
I caught nothing, got two strikes, made some friends, and only lost one fly to the nefarious tree fish, so all in all it was a successful day. There were those two fish that actually liked my fly. I'm going back to find them tomorrow.
Had some problems with the casting. My level line was going further than my fly. I seemed to be piling line on the water with my fly only about 8' away from me. I kept altering my cast, less power, more power, 12 - 10, 12 - 9, ect. Sometimes my cast was perfect and I would try and do exactly the same thing and then piled line on the water. This will take a bit of work. Admittedly, the wind was heavier than ideal, not horrible, but enough to even bother me with my western rig.
I did find I would actually cause drag on my fly trying to get the line out of the water. I assume this will simply take time to get straight. I sometimes got some very good drifts and other times I made the fly look like a speedboat. Can't expect to get it all right first time out.
I did manage to get two takes on my dry. One caught me completely off guard and I simply missed setting the hook. On the other one I was simply late with the hook set, it happens. I was simply happy that I at least tricked two trout into at least tasting my fly. That in itself is success on this river.
Once the sun started going down the trico spinners were hitting the water and at times it looked like the water was boiling with all the rising trout. As luck would have it I had no spinner flies, only a few tenkara dries and some elk hair caddises. They were simply ignored. I saw about four other fly fishers on the river and none had any spinners and the general consensus was that the trout were ignoring anything that did not look like a spinner. Whether this was true or not at least it made us all feel better. I'll make sure to have some spinner patterns next time to test this theory.
I actually saw one other guy on the water with a tenkara rod and it was his first time using one. He was also new to fly fishing in general and had yet to get waders so he was stuck fishing from shore. He actually spent more time hiking around in the woods with his girlfriend than with fishing so I wasn't really surprised when he didn't have much luck. A few other fishermen noticed my rod and were rather curious about it. I showed it to them and they were actually a bit impressed. One of them mentioned that he had heard of those Japanese rods but this was the first time he had seem one. We all chatted a bit and a good time was had by all.
I caught nothing, got two strikes, made some friends, and only lost one fly to the nefarious tree fish, so all in all it was a successful day. There were those two fish that actually liked my fly. I'm going back to find them tomorrow.
