Carol Northcut | Wednesday, 20 July 2022
I know that if I cast right … *there* … with an upstream reach mend and the CFS is below 200, I can get about a 4-5 foot drift and catch a brown or rainbow. In the early spring it’s with a #18 small black stonefly imitation. In the summer, it’s with a small flashy emerger on the dangle. In the fall, it’s my own CDC variation of a pheasant tail with a #20 zebra midge trailing 24” behind on 5x tippet and fishe d deep.
The other day Steve and I went to our respective “beats” on our home river. Yes, we even have our own beats and runs within the beats. Carol’s Run is the deepest. It’s hard to get around on my beat, and there are very snaggy boulders and sticks jammed between them. I know that drifting a team of flies downstream through one particular plunge is a nice idea but 9 times out of 10 will result in a snag, but sometimes I practice risky behavior hoping that the fly fishing fairies will bless the drift and I’ll catch the fish below the plunge. I was reminded that magical thinking doesn’t work in fly fishing, and I had to re-rig. So, it took me a while to fish my ¼ mile beat, but within a couple of hours I’d brought to net 14”, 12” and 8” browns, with some self-releasing fish and a couple of hit-and-spits. It confirmed how gratifying it can be to have learned water so well.
Now we are planning to move to new waters where we don’t even know for sure the genus of bugs that inhabit the waters, let alone the patterns for their different life-stages and when to use them. I mean, we know in general, but not in detail. Not only that, we won’t be able to walk into a fly shop and know the owner, staff and guides. I won’t have a casting mentor nearby anymore, nor will I have any casting clients. I will be forced to seine the water; forced to pay attention to my surroundings (grizzly) while fishing and not just focus on the water and where I’m stepping; forced to meet new shop personnel; forced to become better at video-ing my own casting and using OnForm; forced to figure out how to market myself. It’s humbling and daunting, while at the same time exciting.
Listening to a recent episode of the “Troutbitten” podcast, Domenick Swentosky and friends discuss how they learn a new river or creek (pronounced “crik” in Montana). They start at the bottom and work their way up, enjoying the process of discovery. Once they’ve done that, they do it again and discover new things. They talk about folks who ask what they caught, on what and where. These guys won’t divulge that information to non-clients, not because they’re holding it tight to their chests but because it robs the inquirer of the joy of discovery. An example of that type of discovery is Paul’s snakehead cast. Paul developed that cast fishing for snakehead, a species that, once upon a time, was new to him. No one told Paul; he figured it out(of course he’d had a lot of experience by then). THAT type of discovery is gratifying. THAT is how you learn.
So I’m looking forward to learning, and know I be more methodical and journal what I learn, not just huckin’ some flies out and hoping for the best and then repeating that the next time. Maybe that will be the subject of future articles as I take you on my journey. I will be honest and, although my casting is getting better all of the time, I will proudly wear Ben Sittig’s hat … when I’m not teaching of course:
Hat available at https://hugeflyfisherman.com/shop/