The O'Grady FlyFishing Adventures: Fish Herding......

Well it’s that’s time of year again and the fly fishing feathers are getting ruffled. The annual spring rainbow spawn can bring out the worst emotions in the gentlest of people. I have tried to be quiet this year and have not seen many issues one way or another and then just in the last few days I have heard about some near brushes with fisticuffs. One thing I hope we all try to keep in mind is that it is a personal decision and is totally legal. I have found many beginners fishing over redds because they had no idea what it was. Personally I do not fish to actively spawning fish for a few reasons. One is that typically they are not feeding and they end up getting foul hooked (yuck). Second and most important is that I look at fish as friends, and if I had a friend that his wife was only in the mood once a year, I would do everything I could to ensure his success during that time.

I saw something the other day and I was going to write about it right away but was worried the people I am talking about are readers and may get their feelings hurt. I had started fishing and walked by a couple of guys that were standing with their heels on two separate beds and casting into the rock structure that they had spooked the fish into. I know they were there for at least two hours and not sure how they were doing but did see them hook one fish. I told Cat about it and she started laughing and said “fish herding”. I was like what, and she said it was the newest craze where you round up the fish into one spot and lasso them with your fly line. I looked oddly at her for a second and then she finally busted up laughing, Cat is not normally that quick to the joke but I think nine years of being an O’Grady has paid off.

Now on to today, I ran up to Valco at about 3:00p.m. and was rewarded with a wonderful afternoon on the water. I started at the pump house and landed the best looking fish of the day on the second cast, a beautiful, hooked jaw 20 inch male. He was quickly followed by a 17 and then a 14 incher. I was satisfied after ten minutes on the water. I worked my way all the way up to the hatchery with varied degrees of luck. It seemed that someone had pumped some Barry White music into the water because I saw a lot of fish getting it on. It was kind of funny because I got to a spot where I know there is a red and I saw one guy fishing over it. I started in below him and quickly hooked and lost four fish, I moved up across from him and landed two with one of them being about 18inches. I moved back where I started and landed seven or eight with most of the in the 14 to 16 inch range. I watched out of the corner of my eye and only saw the guy hook one. Another reason I don’t fish redds(hehe). There are gobzoodles of fish that are not currently doing the “wild thing” and are just looking to be treated to a good dinner.

I moved back down and ended the day with one of the most enjoyable hours of fishing I have had in a while. I have not stayed late in quite a while but may need to add that time back to the repertoire. About 5:45 I was in the riffle above the money hole and the fish just turned on. Every third cast or so and it was money, my biggest of the day, a 21inch female, hit and ran me across the river and went airborne a few times before I finally wrangled her to the net. The sounds of very big fish coming out of the water and belly flopping could be heard from 50 yards. As I was nearing the money weir I heard a top water swirl that sounded like the one I heard from the big brown last fall. I saw where he was and moved in and casted, nothing for a few minutes and he swirled again on the other side. I quickly cast a few times and he nailed it, he hit it and ran so fast that by the time my heart even skipped a beat he was off. Sometimes you just have to smile; he kicked my tail “Big Time”. I headed back down to the pump house and picked up a few more and it was time to end the day. Flies of fury today were a tube wing and mercury black beauty in a size 24 and also picked up a couple on a caddis larva (the close to the dam, the smaller the bugs). The river was very empty today and like I said I could not believe how enjoyable that last hour was. Sometimes with all the hustle and bustle of the fishing I forget to really take in the sounds of the water and everything around me.

The spawn should be tailing off as we get later into March, if you have any questions to the ethical, biological or fishability of the river right now please don’t be afraid to ask. We are always willing to teach at the Drift. As always, thanks for reading, Winston, Connell, Cat, Alex and The Drift Fly Shop…….