fly_wright: a blog
July 21, 2008
The Blue Moon
Once in a blue moon, the river shows a rhythm that's absolutely out of touch with what's expected, with what an angler thinks is known. You'll recognize this event because many of the wits around you will say something along the lines of "that's why they call it fishing, not catching."
For example, an expectation of fish showing themselves for a mid-day hatch is reasonable if the hatch has been occurring regularly for the past several days or even weeks.
Wikipedia contributors, "Blue moon," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, (accessed July 21, 2008).
July 17, 2008
Summertime and the Fishing is Easy—Easier, At Least
This past week is beginning to show our rivers as the summer usually shows them: darned near clear and topped with a variety of hatching insects. The Middle Park section of the Colorado is a great example of that.
Fishing a few days ago with dry flies for six hours or so is the ticket, finally, to cooling 
any fever I had remaining from the labyrinth of winter; of winter, yes. While some fishing has been available for awhile, even here in the recently snow packed Rockies, my winter bug is not handled and conquered altogether until summer bugs are flying, hanging on the water, and pulling trout to the river's surface. I feel fishing is finally easy, or close to easy, when I'm for hours casting dry flies.
Casting Yellow Sally stoneflies, which in my experience is best imitated with a size 12 to 14 Stimulator, or any caddis pattern is radically different from pitching, say, a Sparkle Dun Pale Morning Dun imitation.
Fish set up for ambush, for lack of a better description, in one spot when floating mayflies are the meal. The tiniest unseen currents repeatedly float the hapless duns—we may presume they are urgently wishing to shed their shucks and dry their wings more quickly—to the waiting predator. It makes easy pickings for the fish. Caddis and stoneflies are another item altogether.
From the trout's perspective, these insects can get away. That is, caddis and Yellow Sallies appear to actively drive themselves up and out of the water. Each of the insects' blonde wings spend scant seconds on the water's surface before they flutter and wobble the bug quickly into the summer air.
The bomber wings of the Yellow Sally and the staccato flutterings of the caddis in just seconds rocket the little morsels out of trout-lip range. At least, most trout lips, because a good hatch at some point pulls a trout or two into the air in chase of the bugs. The caddis or stonefly that get off the water almost always escapes, as in the many times I've seen trout leap, only once have I seen a caddis caught in mid-air.
In any case, I am glad to be seeing at last this summer the fluttering, rocketing, and leaping on the river. Happy Days; it makes even me flutter and leap, though I'm not quite yet up to rocketing.
June 25, 2008
Sight Fishing Video a Sight for Sore Eyes
The video challenges of seeing a trout in the water are bigger than meets the eye, apparently. Half, or more, of respondents to the Sight Fishing episode of our 10-Second Video Series say they don't see the fish.
Some visual loss is caused by the digital challenges: various screen and monitor displays, small size of the replaying video, and just plain loss of data as the image was transferred from the wild river to the domestic digital environment. But, some failures to see the fish are the result of what the viewer is looking for.
Dawn Dobson, active fly fisher and member of the Colorado Women Flyfishers, says she saw the fish right away, and saw the video replay of the fish's open mouth, twice. In email, she writes:
I was just checking out your web-site and the 10 sec. video clips - they are great! Clever idea; by the way I could see the fish before and as he opened his mouth - twice even! I think folks have an image of fish from a sideways perspective - as we are all inundated with fish porn showing us this perspective...however, I have learned to practice looking at fish from the top and slightly to the side when I have them near to being landed as it is a whole different image - much darker shadowy effect than the shiny flash of silver that you might see only when a fish rolls under a dry or for a passing nymph.
I think she describes very well one of the techniques we can use to improve our sight fishing.
June 20, 2008
Site Sight Fishing
I expected that the sight fishing video—the latest addition to our 10-Second Video Series—would cause some visual consternation (that has nothing to do with stars, by the way), and it has. Trout in the clearest of water are difficult to see, and it's safe to say that the South Platte's Cheesman Canyon section is clear water.
That's where I took my video cam to shoot the Sight Fishing bit, among others you'll see in the future. But, I digress.
The point here is that seeing the fish in our video is challenging, just like it is on the river, but the Brown trout is there. The most visible point is the white flash of the fish's mouth when it feeds; I actually edited my video to show the flash twice.
A friend got in touch within seconds of the video posting and suggested that I might be trying to get folks to THINK the fish is there, even if they couldn't see it and even if it's not there. Then, he suggested, they'd want to book a day on the water with me to learn how to spot fish. He's much more clever than I.
Yes, I'd like to teach you to spot fish more easily, but there is a fish in the video, and he shows himself clearly by opening his mouth. That happens often in the world of fly fishers; some instances are just more difficult to see than others.
June 5, 2008
Mayflies and Caddis
I am Dan Wright, it says here. This is my first session of blogging for my web site, though I may view it more as note-taking, and call it a blog just this once. I'll treat it as an electronic diary of my fishing explorations—I've fished since before I started school, some decades ago, but I still explore.
The goal is to visit my diary about twice a week, sometimes more often, perhaps less often on occasion—when I'm away on my annual steelhead trips, for example. I'll always include a date at the beginning of each set of notes.
Most of my notes will have to do with rivers in Colorado. It's my home base, though I do fish elsewhere. In the past few months, I've been to Mexico for saltwater fishing and teaching, and to Montana, New Mexico, and Wyoming. Still, Colorado gets most of my fishing time.
Two days ago on the South Platte at Deckers something happened that I had not seen in over two decades of fishing there, and guiding almost that long: a dense, fish-moving caddis hatch.
For years, I've seen a few caddis pop off the South Platte in late evening, never enough to focus the trout on feeding. But, the hatch that's happening now just drives fish to chase them. It's a dense, feeding hatch.
It's happening as the Blue Winged Olives are ending for the spring, and just before the Pale Morning Duns pop up. But, the great number of caddis is amazing to all who think they know the river's hatches.
Do insect populations change in a river? As the organic material from the Hayman Fire becomes less stringent and is more just an effect, are caddis numbers in the river higher than in past years?
A professional entomologist friend tells me it's certainly possible. He said something along the lines of "...if it's brachycentrus (a cased caddis species), then they are filtering feeders and perhaps the additional suspended organic material being washed in may be a reason..." for more caddis than in the past.