Easterncaster | Thursday, 12 March 2015
It's an annual question that gets mulled over and reexamined many times before reality provides the answer. We try out answers while in line at the cashier, while half listening to business meeting jibber jabber, while on the way to work in the subway or car stuck in traffic. The Question is not "What's the definition of Creep?". I'm referring to a question that many of us first started asking many years ago, when we were children.
"Where am I going fishing on Opening Day?"
Answer: A river - I'll let you know which one after it has happened, after April 1st.
I do know this:
Given this winter's snow pack, the water is sure to be high, cold and dirty. High water? ... the fish will be pushed close in. Cold water? ... the fish will be lethargic, maybe tucked in down deep but then perhaps not, maybe located in shallow water warmed by the early season's welcomed solar power, a catalyst for Early Dark Stonefly activity. The kicker is dirty water. That focuses The Where, as well as which fly.
I'll look for the river's soft edges where the silt flows into a separating seam, enabling stationed trout to see food come by the filtered side. It'll be 2 or 3 ft. in depth, now a water covered undercut bank, that later in the year will be an exposed bench of grass hummock where I'll sit waiting for a spinner fall to commence. The location will look like this:
Dirty water tells me to swim a dark fly, or bright one, no a dark one... damn this is hard work... decisions, decisions. It'll have some weight to assist in piercing the surface and then keep it down. It will look like this:
Before it looked like that ^ it looked like this:
I'll have a few on hand just incase friends need or I blow my anchor.
Given this winter's snow pack, the water is sure to be high, cold and dirty. High water? ... the fish will be pushed close in. Cold water? ... the fish will be lethargic, maybe tucked in down deep but then perhaps not, maybe located in shallow water warmed by the early season's welcomed solar power, a catalyst for Early Dark Stonefly activity. The kicker is dirty water. That focuses The Where, as well as which fly.
I'll look for the river's soft edges where the silt flows into a separating seam, enabling stationed trout to see food come by the filtered side. It'll be 2 or 3 ft. in depth, now a water covered undercut bank, that later in the year will be an exposed bench of grass hummock where I'll sit waiting for a spinner fall to commence. The location will look like this:
Dirty water tells me to swim a dark fly, or bright one, no a dark one... damn this is hard work... decisions, decisions. It'll have some weight to assist in piercing the surface and then keep it down. It will look like this:
Before it looked like that ^ it looked like this:
I'll have a few on hand just incase friends need or I blow my anchor.