Español
Manual de Lanzado
Sección de Carlos
The Downloads
Falsecast
Monday: Paul Arden
Tuesday: Harps
Wednesday: Bernd Ziesche
Thursday: Mr T.
Friday: Ray
Saturday: Viking Lars
Sunday: Bruce Richards
|
The world's best flyfishing site.
|
No blondes
|
Thursday 29th October, 2009 We all dream of that once in a life time trophy fish, and for most of us in the case of a Brown trout it is one over 10lbs. Not all waters are likely to produce such a fish, but you never know. From small streams that produce average fish of 10 to 12 inch, there is likely a monster lurking in the many pounds. Now my dream came true when l latched on to a Brownie estimated to weight 200 lbs. We were not able to weigh the fish accurately, but hey who cares, l got a picture. 
More to the point l got this fish while working in the Roscoe area of NY, which has a great historical value in fly fishing history. It was here one Theodore Gordon made a very significant impact here in North America. Considered to be the father of the American Dry fly fishing cult, all be it his initiation was largely due to his correspondence with Halford, who as many of us are aware of became probably the first FF to be termed as a purist. If that word existed before related to a means to fly fish let me know, as l have as yet not found otherwise. What took place was Gordon realized that the species that Halford attempted to imitate were not those found in the Eastern regions of the US. Consequently Gordon furthered many fly patterns, one of the best known the Quill Gordon. 
This particular region of the East like l say is very interesting for many reasons. Historically many well know fly tyers lived in this area and contributed many fly patterns that are to day still favored by many. Largely the domain of Brook trout before Brown trout were introduced in the late 1800s, which dramatically changed the way fly fishing for this species changed the ways of thought. I had made a visit to the Catskills some years ago, at which time fishing was not a option, l had gone to visit my dear friend now passed away, Poul Jorgensen. Poul was special friend; we had worked together at many world events, aside from the times that Poul had stayed with me at my home in Wales. I have many treasured memories of our times together. My office wall is adorned with one of the limited edition lifelike mayflies that Poul tied, in fact l watched him tie it for me. 
At any rate my visit to Roscoe this year allowed for me to fish a number of the noted rivers in the area, out of all l did fish the one that held a special interest to me was the Neversink, for it was from what l am given to understand the river that Gordon favored to fish. It is a lovely stream no doubt, and the Browns are not easy to catch, but success came my way with a good number of fish during a Hendrickson hatch. No l did not fish the purist way either, for me it was dead drifting soft hackles. Deadly, sunk spinners also did the business. And it was very likely that l fished water that Gordon had done near on a 100 years ago. By the way, the 200 lb Brown was found in the Catskills museum of Fly Fishing, well worth a visit if you are in the area. Back to the trophy Brown scenario. Now my river is noted for its world class trophy Browns, and many who come to fish here have a intention of hooking into one of those fish. To be honest the saying here is good luck. There are days if you do it right the odds are with you, for others, again good luck, but you never know. Clients for some reason often believe that a guide has the ability to enable that trophy fish to be caught. The truth of the matter is this, 3 factors have to work. Granted the guide has to know how to catch them, that on the day in question the odds are with you, and thirdly the client has to have some degree of skill. If one or more of those factors aren’t there then the odds are greatly reduced. But as we all know at times such fish do shit that is totally unpredicted. 
My client here Dave Jones had fished the river many times and as yet had not managed to hook a trophy Brown. So it was on the day he fished with me the odds were good. I knew the location of a number of candidates; Dave was a pretty good angler. We worked the known zones that held a number of good fish. After many smaller Browns and Bows had taken the selection of flies we presented finally luck was with us as a trophy Brown moved from the shallows to nail Daves fly. l saw the fish take the fly before Dave knew it, told him to set the hook, he did, and finally Dave was able to hold his trophy. He was a very happy man and so was l. Tight lines all. Davy
 
|
