Friday, May 4—Too Many People and a Rude “Neighbor”

DATE:  Friday, May 4, 2012

TIME: 8:15 AM to 11:00 AM

WEATHER: Low to mid-80s, mostly sunny, some wind

WATER CONDITIONS: 0 Units

LOCATIONS FISHED: Norfork River, Mill Dam Eddy to Riffle above the Island below McClellan’s

FLIES USED: Brown Wayne’s Fly, #20 red/silver Zebra Midge,  #16 Elk Hair Caddis

ROD USED:  G. Loomis 9’ 0” 3-weight custom-built IMX

HATCHES: Midges, caddis, sulphurs, crane flies

OTHER: Fished solo.  I walked in relatively early as I was only going to fish a couple of hours, and wanted to fish dries while the weather and river conditions permitted.  A couple of guys from Dyersburg, TN, were on the island walking upstream as I walked upstream, and they asked about the fishing.  I provided information on fishing conditions the last few days, and by coincidence we knew some of the same people—folks who had worked with the Corps that lived in Dyersburg.  They continued wading upstream, while I stopped off at the tail out of the riffle above the island, and using Wayne’s Fly and a zebra midge, began fishing.  It proved to be a slow start, with only a few fish caught.  The first caddis came off about 9:45 AM, and fish immediately began keying on them, and then some small nearly white sulphurs began coming off and fish keyed on them as well. I fished a caddis and caught a few fish, but missed a half dozen on a small parachute sulphur.  I switched to a larger fly and finally caught a couple of fish.  Switching back to the caddis, I caught several more until an obnoxious neighbor from our subdivision walked in right on top of me, saying he needed more shallow water to fish; he was only about 20 feet away, and he would cast over on my side of the riffle.  Fortunately, his guest stayed a decent distance downstream.  I must say this was not unusual for this “neighbor” as he’s always been selfish and arrogant, at least the 15 or so years I’ve known him.  This is the same guy that brought a guide, John, in through another neighbor’s place on the river that had been gracious enough to allow us to trespass.  What an idiot and AH.  Fortunately, he’s a rather poor fly fisher.  I continued to catch fish, but it wasn’t much fun, so I finally gave in and let him have the riffle, which is exactly what he wanted, and he immediately called his friend to come up.  I moved downstream on river left, and asked myself what Wayne would do.  I tied on Wayne’s Fly and a zebra midge and caught 7 fish where the guest had been fishing before moving up to where I had been, and they were in full view of the hook-up, fight, and release of all 7 fish.  Satisfied, I waded downstream and called it a day.  A couple of other fishers were making their way upstream, so it was time to get off the water as people were wading up and pontoons and kayaks were coming down—too crowded for this solitary soul.