Hooked Three, Zero to hand

Last Monday my friends James and Gary and I made a trip to Macks canyon, which is about 15 miles north of Shearer’s bridge. We were after some hogs but unfortunately all three of us struck out.

The weather report stated that it was going to be a very wet and cold day. I'm not sure how much meteorologists make.... but its way to much!! It was sunny and 57 degrees and didn’t drop any precipitation on us until 4:30 when we were getting out of our waders.

I started fishing on an island that I had to wade out to. And when i got to the spot that I had spotted from the road it was a very fast current. So at 830 in the morning i had my first fall into the water luckily I caught myself and only drenched my left arm. The spot I was fishing from was fairly shallow and with a very fast current. I had a large purple and pink mole leech on and I ended up snagging my hook and line up 5 times before i decided to try a new section of river.

I moved about a quarter of a mile down river and found a nice wade able section. I switched to a purple stonefly nymph with a egg trailing behind it. Other than almost hooking myself a bunch of times and ending up with some crazy wind knots in my line I still hadn't felt any bites. By this point it was nearly 12:30 and I was getting a bit agitated and didn't like the feeling of being skunked. I met back up with James and Gary and had some lunch and discussed our next game plan. I decided to put something bright on so I switched to a sandy spider (at the top of the page). On my first cast and drift with that fly on I got a hard bump by a fish. So I cast to the same spot and got another nice bump. On my third cast the fish took the hook and as I reeled him in he popped off. Now I was made throwing a fit in the water!! The same thing happened for the next two hours I would get a few nice bumps and then it would grab the fly with its mouth and let go. Unfortunately the only size I had in that fly was a size 2. Probably a little big for these Red Band trout I was playing with. All three of us left without ever bringing any fish to hand. But that’s how it goes more times than not.

This Coming Monday James and I will be traveling to the John Day River. Stay Tuned.