Fishing with The Boys
/My cousin's two boys are here in South Fork visiting their grandmother and of course, they have enough energy for several of us put together. Mom and grandma wore out yesterday and so I took the boys and we went up on Park Creek to try a little fly fishing.
Its so hard for those two women to take the boys up on the streams to fish and they worry too much about them and wont let them experience the frustrations and solve their own problems with lost flies, leaders stuck in trees and all the things you have to master on your own. They are 12 years old and its time they learn those skills if they are to master the sport.
We parked and after a coin toss to determine choice, one of them went down stream and one started at the truck. I drove on up the creek to a better access point for me an told them to fish up to me and see how we were doing at that point.
I stepped down next to the stream and immediately was onto a nice 10 inch brown. We had rigged up with basically the same flies before starting. A #16 Royal Coachman or #16 Elk Hair Caddis on top and #14 Bead Head Prince Nymph on the bottom. After I caught and released about 8 fish, I got a knot in my leader that I just could not work out and so cut my line and tied on just the caddis dry fly as that was what was drawing the most attention. Many times, in the smaller streams, two flies are just too much to handle and its just more productive and easier to fish with one fly at that juncture.
I continued up the small stream and ended up with 14 fish all but one being 10 to 12 inches. Not huge but typical of these area streams and great sport on a light rod and line. The boys finally caught up with me and had each caught fish so it was a successful outing. They had their problems with tangles and lost flies but such is dry fly fishing in small streams with overhanging trees set to snag every cast.
We only fished about two hours and its so nice to live close enough to the streams to be able to do that and get home for other commitments later in the day. I believe that the middle part of the day is best in those small streams as the longer we fished, the less bites and attacks on the flies. The warm sun on the middle part of the day signals small insect hatches and I am sure that triggers the bite.
Today long slow rainy morning and so I have not had a chance to get out much. Chores and writing duties keeping me busy and chatting with kids and friends on facebook keeping me updated on their lives. What a wondrous tool the internet has become.
These intermountain showers will continue through mid August and so one has to just be patient for those stellar days that frequent the area. Grab a rod and get out there on your first opportunity and get a few fish for me.