Had A Hour To Play

After taking a break from fishing for the Holiday’s I managed to get out for a short time the other day. We received a few inches of wet, heavy slop overnight and I wasn’t ready to trudge through the snow with only a limited amount of time to fish. I took a quick look at the river down low and saw no slush, Hmmmm, I thought, I need a transitional spot where a hot fish or two maybe resting and there is no shelf ice near shore to hinder me getting access to such a spot. I knew just the place, a resting spot just above some faster water with about 2 foot of depth across most of the spot with a 3 foot bucket with a big boulder in front of it.


So I strung up my switch rod, looped on a 3.9 ips poly leader and tied on a copper prom dress tied on a short tube and got set up in the top of the run. I started out fishing slow and close after working down the run about 20 feet, I was getting into a rhythm as my fly started to get close to the sweet spot. I cast, stepped down and just before the fly started to swing a quick grab…Damn, I knew one would be there…  I finished down thru the tailout and made a few extra casts just over the lip incase I backed any fish out of their lie.

Headed back up and tied on a Orange and Pink Trade Secret, started back down thru the spot and just as my fly gets to the same spot where I had the grab on the first pass, bang! A nice bright chrome fish jumps with my fly hanging out of its mouth. A couple of decent short runs and some near shore head shakes, I was able to grab the leader.