March 9, 2012

A tough day on the river

I went to the Black Canyon again today to test the Tenkara USA Ito. I will post my review of this rod in an upcoming entry.

The day was bright, full sun and thus the fish were pretty skittish. I had to approach very slowly and use a 5 foot 6x fluorocarbon tippet. Even with this I generally got only one, maybe two, casts per fish. There was slower than usual surface activity but there were many adult midges on the water. There were also some small BWO duns.

I did manage to catch few fish in the 10-12 inch range. I hooked them on #20 Stillborn midge (Roger Hill version), #18 olive Klinkhammer, and one on a #16 red zebra midge. The Hill Stillborn midge is one of my most favorite midge patterns. I first fished the pattern after reading Roger Hill's book "Fly fishing the South Platte River: an anglers guide" in 1994. That book changed my life and the way I fished small flies. It helped me greatly on the South Platte -- that most frustrating of rivers.

Anyway, a few fish hooked today, but I probably put down even more. Here is a video of some of the fish. BTW, the water was pretty clear and the sun angle was just right that you can see the fish under the water during their fight.  ...Pretty cool....! Again, it may be better to watch in Youtube.




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