Friday, February 17, 2006

DATE: Friday, February 17, 2006

TIME: 11:00 AM to 3:00 PM

WEATHER: Low 30s

WATER CONDITIONS: 0 units

LOCATIONS FISHED: Norfork River, 2^nd island above Ackerman/Handicap Access through the Pool to Mill Dam Eddy and back

HATCH: Blue winged olive, two midges (one light colored and tiny, the other about a #22 gray)

ROD USED: Winston 10’ 4-weight WT

FLIES USED: #14 gray Norfork River scud, #20 Kay's Gray, #20 blue winged olive, #20 Dunn's Dun, #22 olive cockleburr

OTHER: I fished with Wayne. We have not fished together in some time due to my commitments at church. It was great fishing with the master again. We saw rising fish from the time we entered the water. There was a very nice blue winged olive hatch, #18 or #20, coming off. We threw everything in the book, and could not "break the code." We each would catch a couple of fish on a fly and think we had the pattern, then nothing. Upon changing flies, the same thing happened—a couple of fish would be caught, then nothing. Finally, I put on a Kay's Gray at Mill Dam Eddy and began to consistently catch 14 to 16-inch fish. Wayne also began consistently catching fish (doesn't he always), but I'm not sure what he was using. I ended up with a 17-inch cutthroat. Both Wayne and I missed a lot of large fish. A lesson learned is not to use Cortland Clear 555 fly line when it's cold; memory retention is terrible. I'd pull out the coils, just to have them come back in. It was two great days (yesterday and today) back-to-back despite a temperature change of 35 degrees.