A Satisfyingly Slow Day

 

 

It was a satisfyingly slow day.

With my new “minimalist” approach, I brought to the Swift just one small box of flies.

I spent a lot of time visiting parts of the river I’ve not yet fished before. I took my time to look for a trout I could target. I looked and looked and finally saw some fish. They were scattered and few. The rainbows I did see seemed lethargic. Makes sense since these are the savvy survivors. And, the water was 39 °F. No bugs.

Then, I saw a fish that I thought I could approach without spooking it. I crept up and cast a big Prince Nymph, wondering if I could get the fish to take. I was determined not to switch to my go-to small flies and just keep at it. I wasn’t using an indicator. As Ed Engle writes in Fishing Small Flies, “The best indicator?  The trout.”

I cast over and over. Then, the fish slightly turned its head. I lifted the rod and felt weight.

The trout immediately bolted for a log, taking my line under it.  I thought I was doomed.  Fortunately, I was able to coax the trout back under the log, and the fight then resumed.

It was a 13″ brown (see above). I was pretty pumped. I landed two brookies later in the day.

I at the end ran into an angler who has fished the Swift a few times and has yet to catch. He was pretty down. So, I gave him a bunch of flies and gave some suggestions.

It was a slow day, but very satisfying.

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8 thoughts on “A Satisfyingly Slow Day

  1. Did you fish the pipe area? Glad to hear you caught a few fish. I am hoping to sneak off and fish soon also. Did see many other anglers?

    Mike

  2. I agree about the weather – crowd correlation at the Swift. I was there yesterday and it was packed above and below route 9! I did catch 3 good size rainbows well downstream of the Pipe but sorry to see that the catch & keep crowd has in fact cleaned out a lot of fish. However there are still fish especially the little Brookies. My personal highlight for the day was catching an 6" Brookie on a dry fly at the bottom end of the tree pool. The fish were actively rising to teeny emergers so I think it was a mistake but I'll take it.

  3. Sounds similar to the bow I caught there last Tuesday. Had to hit him on the nose and it was just a head turn then tight line. I want to get back there and do more exploring both above and a lot further down past the pipe.

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