Rolling thunder

Rolling thunder

Gary Meyer | Tuesday, 2 July 2019

I have little to report after this last week. Our typical early summer rains continued, and while sporadic, they left very little space in between for comfortable fishing. Calling the recent weather “rainy” does not do it justice. Quite frequently the gentle rains turned into downpours creating localized flooding, provided lots of exciting electricity from above, and even some miniature hail. I had to back off on calling some of my acquaintances who forgo fishing when it rains “sissies” because even I felt it was a rather good time to have a roof over my head.

The flooding did provide some unusual conditions that ended up being just what was needed. A gentleman had asked me to help him tune up his casting. He professed to be a trout fisherman, and after viewing some of his photos of said species I could not disagree. In fact, I was rather impressed and thought he was being quite humble and understated.

 

It turned out he has access to private water closely controlled by an expensive and exclusive club. While I am not fond of that whole idea, I realize that it is a reality and in a way I was relieved. The fish he held for the photos were in a completely different league of the few I have personally labored to catch.

 

It also turns out that he is always assisted by a guide who provides specialized tackle. The tactics employed have always been “Euro” style nymphing, and my student really was not a very good caster in the traditional sense.

 

The goal was to give an overview of traditional casting with an emphasis on presentation and small stream techniques. He was an eager student and a quick learner. He enjoyed using the “little” 9’ rods and was quite satisfied casting what he felt was a lot of line, like 20 feet!

 

And that is where the flooding turned out to be a blessing. We were able to work on roll casting - real roll casting as in on the water roll casting, while standing in a flooded park that is usually high and dry.

 

I learned long ago to fish the conditions that are given no matter how much you want to use a tactic or flies that you spent the last few weeks dreaming about. How you should fish is not always how you want to fish, but that is the way to catch fish. Sometimes the two scenarios work out and coincide, but not always.

 

This was the first time the conditions aligned just right for me for teaching.

 

Be it for teaching or fishing, I hope the weather gods do the same for you this week!