Fishing Bamboo on the Norfork

DATE: Thursday, 10/20/2005

TIME: 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM

WEATHER: Low 80’s, partly cloudy

WATER CONDITIONS: 0 units

LOCATIONS FISHED: Norfork River, McClellan's near Ace in the Hole

HATCH: #20 cream midge, #16 crane fly

ROD USED: Leo Eck custom made 8’ 3-4-weight bamboo

FLIES USED: #14 gray Norfork River scud

OTHER: I fished with Rod and Mel, two old fishing buddies from the Memphis area. A cold front was moving in, and fishing was a little on the slow side. However, we all caught fish. It took me a while to get "organized" with the bamboo rod as it is VERY SLOW. While I caught about a dozen and a half fish, I hooked and lost another 8, and missed hookups with another half dozen or so. I ended up cutting the Cortland foam strike indicator in half, and was able to hookup more frequently. No big trout were caught, and we only observed one other fish caught (self-proclaimed Mr. Sowbug, Fox Statler, brought two clients in above us, and Fox talked the entire time. Fortunately, he didn't stay too long. His poor customers spent their entire morning moving back and forth from place to place, and likely didn't fish but about an hour. One caught a fish, but that was it; surely, they didn't have to pay much for this trip—yeah, sure.