9-22-24 Fly Fishing Comp #3

This weeks comp was located on Fishing Creek in Pennsylvania. I don’t have much experience on this stream, but it looked a lot like water I grew up fishing. I drew a beat that looked pretty good from the road and I was excited to start things off. I used my typical set up with a perdigon and an emerger, but the flows looked really low, so I sized down to .12 pierre sempe and 7x tippet. Taking my learnings from the prior week, I was focused on improving my landing ratio by tying better knots and staying relaxed during the fight.

I started off in the lower end of the beat and fished my way up. It was in the woods with great drop offs and overhanging branches. I felt like it was perfect water for some wild browns. I started fishing and worked the first section pretty thoroughly but didn’t get a take. I slowly worked my way upstream and casted in all the different water types but still didn’t have a fish to show. On top of that, I must have caught about 5 trees and had to rerig multiple times in that small section. There was a lot of good water in the beat and I didn’t want to waste too much time so I kept moving after I covered a section well.

I made a cast to the far right of the current along the bank in some really soft water, as my flies came around and joined the outside seam, I had a super fast take but didn’t get the hookset in time. That was encouraging. I kept working upstream to a nice deep run that went underneath a large tree. I made a cast at the end of the run and had another quick take but didn’t connect. I moved up a little bit and got down on a knee and side-armed a cast under the tree and immediately hooked up and landed a brown. Finally on the board. I made a few more casts under the tree but didn’t find anymore interested fish.

I looked upstream and noticed a giant log jam and had no idea which way to go. I walked all the way around and crossed the river upstream, then hiked back down the other bank to fish the nice pool in front of the log jam. I thought the fish should definitely be stacked up in that area. I made a cast and saw the sighter twitch a tiny bit so I set the hook and sent a trout flying, but fortunately it stayed hooked and I was able to get it in the water and into the net. A tiny native brook trout, didn’t even know they were in this stream. I continued to work the area but wasn’t able to find any other willing participants. I moved up a little higher where there was a good sized boulder that created a nice pocket. I casted into the pocket and landed another brown. Three in the net and somehow I was already halfway done with the allotted time.

I came around a bend with some nice fast water and made a cast into it. The sighter stalled and I was able to get a good hookset and stayed nice and relaxed as I fought the fish, patiently bringing him into the net for fish 4. Unlike the prior week, I really focused on staying relaxed and not trying to force the fish in. It was also a bit easier on a small stream with low flows compared to the West Branch.

On the other side of that run, was a nice depression. I casted above it and saw my sighter twitch but I was too slow on the hookset. I didn’t think I stung the fish so I gave it another cast and this time was able to connect and land my fifth fish. With about 30 minutes left, I looked upstream and saw nothing but really flat, clear water so I decided to skip it all and go to where there was more gradient. This was the top end of my beat and there was some really good water. Unfortunately, I spent most of my time breaking off into trees and tying on new tippet and flies. At the end of the allotted time I was pretty frustrated with the number of trees I caught! I wish I spent a few seconds checking my surroundings before casting but I just had tunnel vision on the water. Fortunately I didn’t let my mistakes ever reflect in my fishing, I just stayed focused and kept going back at it. My controller thought the 5 fish would hold up pretty well, but I knew I wasted a lot of time and didn’t get to cover some areas as thoroughly as I would have liked.

I was really looking forward to controlling my same beat in the next session to see how a much better angler does it and I was not disappointed! Fishing after me was Mike Komara, he is a member of the US Fly Fishing team that just finished the worlds with a bronze medal. I also took a lesson from him earlier this year to learn more about competitive fly fishing and his presentation tactics.

One of the main things I notice when I watch really good anglers like Mike fish is how efficient they are throughout the entire process. To begin with, the casts are accurate and hit the target, where it might take me 3 casts, they do it on the first try. The cast also sets up the drift perfectly where they are in contact immediately and fishing a great drift the entire time. Most of the time it takes me a few seconds after the cast before I’m in control. If they need to set up a new rig or change flies, it doesn’t take long at all before they are fishing again. Over the next two hours I watched Mike put on a clinic and learned a ton.

He started at the bottom of the beat and fished his way up. About 10 minutes in he switched out his nymph for a mop fly and I was very surprised. The water was low and clear, these trout were wild and very pressured so I didn’t think they would go for a mop, and I couldn’t have been more wrong! It was incredible, I watched him hit little pockets that I didn’t even notice and connect with fish. At one point he crawled onto the logs where the log jam was and actually fished a channel between two downed logs and hooked a trout! At the end of his beat he doubled my count with 10 fish and even lost a few along the way. It was a great display of some really effective and efficient fishing, this is exactly why I signed up to do competitions, to watch people much better than me and learn. Mike does lessons and guiding in PA, if you’re interested I highly recommend fishing with him, his website is www.fringeflyfishing.com

My next beat was just upstream of where I finished my last beat. I know the first person that fished it landed 4 and the next person didn’t get into any fish. I walked the beat and noticed a lot of clear flat water without much current. In the middle of the beat was about 30 yards with some gradient before it went into another flat section. I’m sure there were plenty of trout to be had in the flat water, but I was catching most of mine in the faster current so my plan was to focus on the fast water and dabble a little bit in the flat sections.

After watching Mike fish, I tied on a mop that I found in a fly box sitting in my truck that probably hasn’t been opened in years. I don’t have much experience fishing mops either, so I felt a little better by tying one of my emerger patterns up high on a dropper tag. I started fishing the little bit of fast water at the very bottom of the beat but wasn’t able to entice a fish. I moved up to the tail out of the large flat section and worked my way upstream. I could see a lot of fish but none of them looked like trout to me. Before I knew it, I was almost over my waders in water, so I slowly backed out and walked to the upper part of the flat water where it had a little current. This water looked great and I tried fishing every little inch of it, hoping I could find a willing fish. I casted my rig right in the white water along the bank and felt a quick tug but didn’t connect. After a few more minutes of fishing, I decided to move on into the fast water. Somehow, I already fished for 50 minutes, but it felt like I just started.

I quickly moved up into the faster current and immediately hooked up on a nice brown that took my dropper. Finally on the board! I worked a few more pockets and took a few steps upstream where I found another brown that wanted the dropper fly, after an hour of nothing I quickly connected on 2 fish and only caught 1 tree up to this point! Probably the only time in the competition where I had more fish than trees, that didn’t last too long…I continued to work every spot that I could in the fast water and was running out of real estate quick. There was one great looking section that I casted into and watched my sighter through the run, nothing moved until the very end where it got really shallow. I assumed that big mop got snagged, but gave it a little set just to be sure. Of course it was a fish and my half assed set was not enough to keep him pinned and he popped off as I was reaching with the net.

I decided to skip the next flat section and run to the very top of the beat, I remember seeing some fast water up there worth inspecting. I wasn’t able to connect on any fish and decided to go back down to the section where I caught the two fish and work it all over again. I had about 10 minutes left when I got back to that stretch and started working through it. I got to the top of the fast section and didn’t have any takes. With 2 minutes left, I hooked into a nice tree and somehow got it out. There were a few frays in the line but with the final seconds ticking away I decided to fish it anyway. I made one cast into the tail out of the clear flat section above me. That mop fly was so visable in that clear flat water that I decided to just watch it, instead of my sighter, figured I would see the fish eat and could set immediately. Well, I totally forgot I had a dropper fly 2’ above it and as I stared at the mop, I felt a tug on my line and saw a fish on my dropper. I set the hook and my entire leader snapped. The controller and I watched the fish jump out of the water and go swimming away with a giant mop following it. Fortunately, it turned downstream and headed towards us, the barbless fly popped out and the fish was free. My time came to an end, with only 2 fish in the net I was pretty sure that I ruined any shot I might of had at placing in the top 3.

Other than the snagged trees, I felt that I fished that beat ok for my skill level. I know much better anglers would have been able to pick apart that flat water, but I couldn’t fish it effectively. Definitely something I need to practice and learn. A dry dropper might have been a good choice for that section, but I didn’t want to waste any time re-rigging my set up and I really don’t have much experience with it to feel confident.

I packed everything up and headed to the parking area where everyone met to tally the scores. They called out Mike’s name for first place, he landed 23 fish. Pat Weiss took second with 16 fish. Somehow, I was shocked to find out that I got third. My 5 fish in the first beat got me 2 placing points and my two fish actually ended up tying for 3rd, so my 7 fish actually got me third place. I will take it, but more importantly I have a lot to learn and work on. One more comp to go this Sunday and then hopefully work slows down so I can get to do some float trips with the kids.