Its Been That Kind of Winter.......

When we started the fall and thinking of all the heavy rains we have had over the past year, and how now we are getting that consistent "El Nino" pattern of storms, one right after the other, I remembered thinking last October on a guide trip that this year we could be returning to winters the way they used to be. The past several years have been so mild its hard to remember that what we have had lately is the real 'normal'...and that its been a while since it has been that way.

I mean we've had a snow here or there, including a 15 incher back in February of 2000. I remember that one as we were getting ready to open a fly shop and had planned to open mid February but lost two weeks due to bad roads and two large snows back to back. Lake Brandt Road here was impassable for four or five days, as 15 inches of snow became 7 inches of hard packed snow and the plows simply couldn't do anything with it.

As far as fishing the last real winters I remember, or should I say real bad winter, was the winters between 1991 and 1993. In fact, during that time the famous mountain 'blizzard' of 93 was a historical event. 24-28 inches of snow in the high country and over 30inches on top of Beech Mountain...I remember that one well. That was the year it was so cold that everything was either frozen totally and unfishable or the TVA tailwaters were generating..and there was no fishing anywhere for almost six weeks. I almost went crazy.

I can remember at that time the game saver was the blackfly hatch at the Jackson River in Covington, VA. That once blue ribbon jewel below Gathright Dam held thousands of trout. I have seen bitter cold days with hundreds of trout rythymically rising as though they were rising to a sulphur hatch in May. I have fished it on days when the air temp was 9F -11F and caught rising fish on dry flies. Wild, stream-bred rainbows and browns up to 20". Air temp was that cold, the ground was covered with anywhere from 12 to 20 inches of snow, and there were 8-10ft long icicles hanging from the cliffs that bordered the canyon like walls of the river gorge. Simply, it was one place the sun never touched from late November through March. It was the coldest place on earth ....or at least it seemed.

So how much more winter do we have? If its like most years like this we still have four to six more weeks of it............Can you stick it out?

Don't Have A Bad Day Like Tim......

A Last Resort For the Really Desperate Angler...

Okay, maybe not what you were expecting but here's what the last month and half has served up to us weather wise..... a fairly good snow in early December, followed by a doozy storm. We got almost 10 inches here, the mtns got between 14 and 22" depending upon elevation. In fact, on the 22rd of December Allen Allred and I were on a trip and we trudged though 2.5ft of snow to get to the river....he caught 20 fish and made a great day out of it. Then the mountains got a damaging ice storm Christmas Eve and Christmas day. Hwy 16/163 confluence near Glendale Springs looked like a war zone with all the downed trees that fell under a heavy burden of ice and snow. Big trees....like 18" in diameter and larger.

Then came another snow, then another, then another, and then the snow of the past weekend that dumped about 11 inches here and 10-12" in the mtns....and it would have been one of those 18-20" snows here and a "two footer" in the mountains had a warmer layer of air at 5500ft not sneaked into the mix and changed the snow to sleet, which accounted for about 6 -8 inches less snow than we would have gotten. Then two days of 45F weather and a big melt, then last night's snow of about 3-4 inches, followed by a quarter inch of ice....and almost two inches of rain/freezing rain during the day.....and we are still waiting on the changeover back to snow and the inch or two that might be left for us once this storm exits our area late Saturday.

Could it get any worse for fishing....any type of fishing?...Probably not. Well, maybe fishing in an aquarium isn't such a bad idea after all.

Desperate...........?

Desperate yet? A lot of people are......I love winter and love winter fishing...but hey I am getting there too. We have had two big snows, a sleet/freezing rain event, and two huge rains (deluges!).......if you were to come up with a forecast full of dire or din I don't think you could do it.

I could hear the snowplows today on our street finally exposing pavement for the first time in almost five days. We have had about 3 inches of hard packed snow and ice, what was once 8 or 9 inches packed as tightly as it could be...so much so that scraping or plowing had been a joke...until today. I walked outside and the first thing I noted is how pleasant the temperature was, and how much melting was taking place. I walked to our backyard and even took a gander at our small rock pond (pictured above). I thought to myself, I am almost desperate enought to take a few casts into it......hey, what if the neighbors see me I thought for a moment...... Of course then I thought again, maybe seeing me casting in the street and yard for years confirmed my mental state to them already. But when I looked at the pond I thought "......you know, that's not much less of an opportunity than any we have had lately with all this snow and ice. I mean right now it would be just as productive as Lake Brandt....and Brandt actually has fish in it."

Well, I pondered it a bit.......but didn't cast. Guess I will save this fishing hole for the weekend just in case we get the next storm coming through and the 3-5 inches of snow some are calling for....which is, in case you haven't yet heard, exactly what they are calling for!

On second thought, I think I'll go grab the rod and take a few casts into our rock pond........

A Winning Drive........

Its that time of year again......and the Super Bowl is practically upon us. There are two teams that were #1 seeds that are going to play for professional football's most coveted prize....the Super Bowl Trophy. There are two teams that have sacrificed, worked hard, put in long hours, faithfully put in the time in the rain, snow, cold, heat, you name it. Simply put, a price was paid for admission to this game. And if its like this year's game, and like some of the the playoff games, the team that has the ball last ends up winning. And they have to figure out a way to do that. Great teams and players do just that.....figure out a way to turn something into a win.

Such was the case with a recent trip with regular customers and friends Larry Tomar and Dan Camia. We've spent many a day on the water doing trips together, and in all types of weather, and Larry and Dan are pretty good at this fly fishing game. Whether good conditions or poor, they usually do really well. Give them the right set up, direct them to the right spot, and its a done deal. They know the game, and they get the job done.

We were fishing one of my private waters in Virginia, a stream whose limestone pools are stacked with twenty inch trout. Some are true leviathans.....some are 10lbs or more. The water was up, had some color to it, and I knew we'd kill them. A rare gift....this day was going to be one to write home about.......like, "get ready guys........we are going to whack 'em good today and you guys are leaving with sore arms." Well, that was the way a typical day usually goes.

But not today. We fished rigs that work well on this river I know well, I mean, I know where the fish are under most any conditions and can pretty much guarantee that the guys are fishing where the fish are....and in this river....its not a question of whether fish are there or not....'cause they are. At lunch we'd had several fish on, two large rainbows landed, both over 20 inches and one of them a 25 inch beast that took Larry 10 minutes to land, and one large Redhorse sucker. This is the dream stream....and I am thinking....what is the deal?

We had fished hard all over fish and they just weren't eating. We took a break for lunch and I had to think of something.....and just like either the Colts or Saints may have to do in the big game......something had to give and we had to put together a winning drive. I was thinking to myself, "this ain't cutting it." But I knew the rigs and flies we were using were right, and we were fishing the right places. I do this everyday, and fish like to do what they do and not change a whole lot if they don't have to. They are simple creatures with two goals in mind: 1) live to see tomorrow, and 2) get something to eat. Everything else is gravy.

We had a hot streamside lunch and grabbed our rods and headed back to the water. Within a few minutes we had three hookups. Landed one fish, then had two come off. Not stellar, but as much action as we'd had all morning. I had a hunch. What is a hunch? Well, according to the dictionary it is something like this. hunch : (hunch) n. an impression or intuitive feeling that something might be the case. Yep, that is what I am feeling. Okay, well what's intuition? According to the dictionary its an instinctve knowing without use of rational processes......well, that sounds right on. We'd already used all "rational processes"......whatever I was feeling, I said "Guys lets hop in the vehicle and run upsteam while we still have some light left. The sun's been on that water all day. We ought to be able to stir up something there." It paid off....

So we headed upstream, and I had every intention of fishing the same way with the same rigs as we were before. Like a good football team, stick with what got you to the big game. And don't make any fundamental mistakes.......and be focused. We got in the water, Dan hooked up on three or four drifts in a row and landed a nice 20inch rainbow. Larry hooked up below us and it was a nice fish and broke off. Larry caught one rainbow, and then we moved upriver to another deep hole and he hooked a leviathan of a rainbow, what I believe might have been double digits....10 pounds or more that is. He did a great job playing the fish but it made a really powerful burst and broke off. But we were getting action...and a good bit of it. And to think we were doing what we had been doing all morning long.

We had about an hour of daylight left, we hit another spot. Larry got six strikes on ten casts and caught a couple. Again, doing exactly what we had been doing all day long. The last spot yielded several nice fish, 6 landed altogether, and several that came off. And as you might guess, we were doing the same thing we'd been doing all day. Thankfully we didn't spend the rest of the afternoon trying all sorts of crazy stuff and waste the time we had left, we stuck with what I knew normally works this time of the year and under these conditions, we made sure we got good drifts, were very intently focused on the drifts, and most importantly we didn't stop believing and give up. And we found a way to win....to put together a winning drive.

Maybe that is what is coming for the Super Bowl. The team that sticks with what got them there, stays focused, does what they do best, and who doesn't give up.....and maybe the one who has the ball last ......we'll see.

We didn't get a Super Bowl trophy or anything but the trophies we got are still in the river....just waiting for the next time......

Talk about Determination......

Sometimes in my fly fishing I let the little things get to me- - - less than perfect weather, a little too dry, too wet, too sunny, too cloudy, you name it ...its very easy when things are slow to find lots of things to get frustrated with and about.

Being a fly fishing guide for a living has its set of challenges...always at the mercy of the weather for one. One day the river is perfect and your clients do well, then a two or three inch rain comes in the night blowing all possibility of fishing. A lot of times we call it well before the day arrives, mostly based upon my past experiences with certain areas, the way they respond to heavy precipitation and runoff, a knowledge of the watershed and how much it is developed....all these variables go into it. But then there's determination....and also a 'hunch.' Its that 'gut feeling' that, you know what, for some reason I feel like we might be able to make a go of it today . So I call my client and explain to them the conditions, explain forthrightly about my opinion about our chances of doing well or poorly, and then propose either 'go' or 'stay.'

Occasionally where determination meets a hunch you catch things just right and have a banner day. Such was the case when Mark White and I went on May 27, 2009. Mark and I had communicated by phone and email and we rescheduled a time or two- - -and before our trip we got one of those 2-3 inch rains in the mountains.....and here too, and wow , were things high and muddy almost everywhere. But I had a hunch that if we went exploring on some water I knew of , water that sometimes ran high but clear during weather like this, I thought maybe, just maybe we could catch it just right. I picked Mark up at his place in Germanton, and we headed up into VA and onto 58 West. We headed toward Mt. Rogers and everything we crossed on the way over was high and the color of Campbell's tomato soup. It was ugly. And with each mile I crossed my fingers a little harder that we wouldn't find the same thing where we were headed.

We arrived at the stream, and at first sight we came alongside it .....it was high but it was a nice color, ...."just perfect" I thought to myself. Inside my head the thoughts were going just like so many, many times before... I kept telling myself "when its like this we can have the day of days...". I knew fish not only fed during runoff like this, but that if you know the water well, where the fish hold, and how to rig and how much weight to use and so forth, the fish were not only very willing, but also quite aggressive and forgiving....much more so than at lower flows.

The result? We whacked 'em. Mark caught a lot of fish, probably 30 or more, including a couple of large fish, one of which was a citation rainbow. And to think....everyone else stayed home today.....and we had the whole place to ourselves! We both had a great time, and Mark not only got into a lot of fish, but gained experience in less than perfect conditions......adding to his bag of tricks for the next time he encounters a river in this condition and he's fishing on his own. Will he be able to do well? I'd say yes, as he did real well on this day.

So, sometimes when you get a lemon you can successfully make some lemonade. Yes, sometimes you'll get blown out and shut out and will have to concede that its a no go. And yes, it happens all times of the year and happens to everybody eventually. But often you get an unexpected break, as we did, and when you do it can be incredible...........sometimes so much that you won't dislike big weather systems when they come through but will be looking forward to them.

When you are a fishing guide, you have to find opportunity where you can. Fortunately its not like the guys above in the photo, that's real determination!!!!!

How To Successfully Spook more Trout.....

You don't find articles like this much, but here goes. Here's a funny how to on a very interesting topic: spooking fish. I can think of 10 ways you can become more successful at spooking trout. They are tried and true methods and work with near 100% effectiveness when done properly. Here they are:

1) Wear blaze orange clothing, like a nice orange hunting hat or toboggan and a long orange jacket. Make your clothing as bright as possible.

2)Run into the tail of the pool in such a way that it creates a ton of noise and sends a wave or waves into the rest of the pool.
3) False cast twenty five times, and only after 25 times do you let the line touch the water.

4) If #3 fails, allow several of the forward casts to slam the water or better yet, rip through the surface making maximum commotion.

5) For maximum effect, do #'s 2, 3, and 4 simultaneously, and hope no one is watching, at least no one who might know you. If #2, 3, or 4 doesn't get their attention this one, #5, certainly will. They will leave the area, leaving the fishing all to you. Of course the fishing is over, but now you have the solitude you wanted all week long anyway.

6) Get at one end of the pool and do #5 and have your fishing buddy go to the head of the pool and do the same, with each on of you trying to out do the other.

7) Have your fishing buddy throw a few large rocks and a handful of gravel into the water. But don't do this over stocked fish, they like the sound of gravel because it sounds like trout pellets smattering the surface and you'll fail to spook them properly.

8) Start at the tail of the pool hastily and noisily wading as quickly as you can through the pool, seeing how quickly you can make it to the head of the pool. The bonus with this is you'll get some great exercise, just like Sylvester Stallone in some of the Rocky movies.

9) Wear some of those new non-felt soled boots and fall in. Don't make it a half fall, the goal is to make it - - - as they say in the hills - - -a good 'un.

10) Have your fishing buddy get at the head of the pool and have him run back and forth, taking care to stir up as much sediment as possible, turning the pool into a nice shade of brown for you. One word of caution, if he takes the word 'run' seriously and takes you up on it, he may fall . ....but that's not all bad, he's fulfilling #9.

There are very few times that I'd say anything I do I would always 100% guarantee results but this one comes close. I promise that if you faithfully do one, a few, or all of the above you will be very successful at spooking trout!...............



In all seriousness, I am kidding. But you'd be surprised how many of the above things are the very things people do....I mean some of them are the most common errors in fly fishing. The goal is not to do them, of course. And the result is you'll spook fewer trout.....til next time