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Lateral view of a Male Baetis (Baetidae) (Blue-Winged Olive) Mayfly Dun from Mystery Creek #43 in New York
Blue-winged Olives
Baetis

Tiny Baetis mayflies are perhaps the most commonly encountered and imitated by anglers on all American trout streams due to their great abundance, widespread distribution, and trout-friendly emergence habits.

Dorsal view of a Sweltsa (Chloroperlidae) (Sallfly) Stonefly Nymph from the Yakima River in Washington
This species was fairly abundant in a February sample of the upper Yakima.
27" brown trout, my largest ever. It was the sub-dominant fish in its pool. After this, I hooked the bigger one, but I couldn't land it.
Troutnut is a project started in 2003 by salmonid ecologist Jason "Troutnut" Neuswanger to help anglers and fly tyers unabashedly embrace the entomological side of the sport. Learn more about Troutnut or support the project for an enhanced experience here.

Wbranch
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York & Starlight PA

Posts: 2635
Wbranch on May 4, 2014May 4th, 2014, 3:29 pm EDT
Went up to Clarks Creek today and it was as high, but good visibilty, as I've ever seen it. I decided to use my Carpenter 7' 6" cane rod with the vintage LRH. Well right off the bat the tippet got all wrapped around the tip section so I put the reel into the water. Well sand got into the reel and it sounded like a broken coffee grinder. So I took the spool out and rinsed the cage and the spool. I guess I didn't engage the spool retainer because on my next roll cast the spool fell out of the reel.

It was swift and just too deep to stick my arm into the water. So I said "What the heck am I going to do"? I figured I'd have to let all the line, and backing come off the spool and then shake it through the guides. So there I am letting 90 feet of fly line go down stream and another 50 yards of chartruese dacron backing. I'm so glad no one else was below me as it would of been very embarrassing. I was finally able to get the spool up in the water column and pulled it back towards me and retrieve it.

Then as I started to reel all the backing onto the reel I realized I had gotten the flies snagged on something over 200' downstream. So I had to walk down and reel at the same time until I go all the way down to the snag. I didn't want to lose the flies after all this so I stuck my arm into the water up to my elbow.

Oh, and no I didn't catch any fish either!
Catskill fly fisher for fifty-five years.
Catskilljon
Upstate NY

Posts: 160
Catskilljon on May 4, 2014May 4th, 2014, 4:40 pm EDT
Hey, look on the bright side...you didn't fall in! CJ
PaulRoberts
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Colorado

Posts: 1776
PaulRoberts on May 4, 2014May 4th, 2014, 6:03 pm EDT
That's a great story, Matt. One I know well, in many forms.

I came to call such periods, "episodes". They were seemingly so... improbable. And they happened just frequently enough (over the years) that I had to fix a label to it. That way I could catch an episode developing -like the perfect storm- and I'd say outloud, "Episode!", and I'd pick a log or boulder, sit right down and... essentially meditate -or as I described it, "Get my sht together."

It would take about 5 minutes of what amounted to deep-breathing exercises until tranquility and focus returned. Seems like a big waste of time, but an "episode" let run amok was worse!
Wbranch
Wbranch's profile picture
York & Starlight PA

Posts: 2635
Wbranch on May 4, 2014May 4th, 2014, 8:59 pm EDT
It was kinda comical and I got a good laugh from it! Pretty much showed me I'm not so cool and collected after all.
Catskill fly fisher for fifty-five years.
Crepuscular
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Boiling Springs, PA

Posts: 920
Crepuscular on May 5, 2014May 5th, 2014, 4:17 am EDT
Ah the dreaded "Episode". Hah! Thats the perfect descriptor for it Paul. Some days things just seem to go wrong. And for me it usually begins early in the outing with a tangled leader and from there quickly plummets into a series of events that somehow I always know it's going to be one of those days.

Jmd123
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Oscoda, MI

Posts: 2474
Jmd123 on May 5, 2014May 5th, 2014, 10:35 am EDT
Too funny Matt, though I'm sure it was anything but at the time. Such "episodes" do make great stories though.

I had one a couple of years ago as it was getting dark on the Pine River. I did have a successful evening, having caught and released 18 trout if I remember correctly. Well, after the 18th fish, I suddenly discovered that my trailing fly line had gotten all tangled up in my trailing net cord, and then the whole mess had gotten wrapped completely around me, and I think that the tippet got into the works too. I felt like I was caught in a spider web! It took some time to untangle and extricate myself from the mess, at which point I decided I had fished enough for that night...

Jonathon
No matter how big the one you just caught is, there's always a bigger one out there somewhere...
Oldredbarn
Oldredbarn's profile picture
Novi, MI

Posts: 2600
Oldredbarn on May 5, 2014May 5th, 2014, 11:48 am EDT
Sorry Matt! I know that wasn't what you were looking forward to. You and JohnW, and I were talking about you finding your Mojo and you start out like this.

We have all been in those spots where we are happy to be alone...Maybe that's why we all fish so much by ourselves. :)

My first fish on the Madison in 1995 was one where I was happy to be alone.I had fished a good length of time and not caught anything and I was thinking in my head, "I'm going to be here for two weeks! How am I going to deal with this raging river?!"

It was a 20" Bow and off it went! I started to follow it and almost went in with my 35mm camera! It took me a few days before I started to feel better wading there. I finally got the fish near me and it was bull-dogging down in a hole rocking back and forth trying to get free.

I pulled my dinky Au Sable net out and stuck it in the river only to spook the fish. He shook his head a couple times violently and away he went. Ping! I looked around and was relieved that I didn't see anyone watching this comedy. On returning to Ennis I purchased a waterproof throwaway camera and put the good one away.

It is big of you to share this...You could of kept it to yourself. :)

Spence
"Even when my best efforts fail it's a satisfying challenge, and that, after all, is the essence of fly fishing." -Chauncy Lively

"Envy not the man who lives beside the river, but the man the river flows through." Joseph T Heywood
Wbranch
Wbranch's profile picture
York & Starlight PA

Posts: 2635
Wbranch on May 5, 2014May 5th, 2014, 3:47 pm EDT
Spence,

"It is big of you to share this...You could of kept it to yourself. :)"

Ah, I'm bigger than my pratfalls.
Catskill fly fisher for fifty-five years.
PaulRoberts
PaulRoberts's profile picture
Colorado

Posts: 1776
PaulRoberts on May 5, 2014May 5th, 2014, 5:53 pm EDT
...somehow I always know it's going to be one of those days.

That's why I sit down and … let some time pass. Kind of like a "restart" to the day -or at least to that moment in the day.

Successful outcomes in fishing (and hunting) are highly improbable events to begin with. They become much more so as we increase our skills and knowledge and refine our methods. Our expectations follow merrily along.

For me, an episode builds simply bc I'm moving too fast, hacking at a challenging world that won't yield to sheer will. Which, is why I just sit down, take some deep breaths, look off into the wonderful scene around me and just appreciate where I am. The fish can wait … a few minutes at least.
Jmd123
Jmd123's profile picture
Oscoda, MI

Posts: 2474
Jmd123 on May 5, 2014May 5th, 2014, 6:30 pm EDT
You know Paul, more often than not when fly fishing a stream, I just feel like a massive tangle waiting to happen, at any second...at the end of most nights I am thankful just to have not lost too many flies or broken the rod - or find the car missing!

Jonathon
No matter how big the one you just caught is, there's always a bigger one out there somewhere...
PaulRoberts
PaulRoberts's profile picture
Colorado

Posts: 1776
PaulRoberts on May 5, 2014May 5th, 2014, 7:23 pm EDT
You know Paul, more often than not when fly fishing a stream, I just feel like a massive tangle waiting to happen, at any second...at the end of most nights I am thankful just to have not lost too many flies or broken the rod - or find the car missing!

Jonathon

Thanks Jonathan, that made me laugh. And I've known that feeling.
Al514
Al514's profile picture
Central New York

Posts: 142
Al514 on May 6, 2014May 6th, 2014, 8:21 am EDT
It is funny to hear other stories of these common fly fishing mishaps!! I've had a few epic f***-ups, a lot of marginal ones, and it seems always the little ones. They have definitely seemed to decrease in frequency the longer I've been fly fishing, but they still happen. You gotta just try and roll with the punches and get past them!
Gus
Gus's profile picture
colorado

Posts: 59
Gus on May 15, 2014May 15th, 2014, 8:52 am EDT
Still beats my day!
"How do you help that son of a bitch?"

"By taking him fishing"

-A River Runs Through It

www.jsrods.com
Roguerat
Roguerat's profile picture
Posts: 456
Roguerat on May 15, 2014May 15th, 2014, 5:22 pm EDT
I've had my share of slips, falls, and water-over-the wader adventures, although one was strange enough to tell the story. I was on the Little Manistee last May, downstream of the campground at Old Grade. Working downstream I came to a narrows in the channel, 16' feet wide or so...it had a good current but not impassable so I went on through. A brown post was right in the middle of the channel, and since it was brown I figured it marked the edge of the National Forest. No sign, no markings, nothing- just a post. As I waded through the bottom was shifting under my feet, and I just figured it was sandy and the current was moving pretty fast. Couple hours later I worked my way back upstream, through the narrows and the same moving sand. When I got back to the campground the Host asked how I'd done and how far I'd gone. "Did you see the sign in the river warning about the quicksand?' he asked. Whoah, I said...he just laughed and cussed out 'the kayakers' who were prone to removing the sign.

Roguerat

I Peter 5:7 'Cast your cares upon Him...'

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