10-15-23 Exploration Float

It’s so easy to get into a comfortable rhythm, fishing the same section of water, with the same patterns and presentations that worked so many times before. The one thing I’ve focused on the last few seasons was getting out of my comfort zone by fishing new water or committing to a different presentation style. On this trip, I decided to float a new river that I’ve heard about from a few friends, but never actually fished it myself.

After reading a few articles and finding some information online, I picked a shorter float in a section that didn’t really look to be prime trout habitat. I did this for two reasons, first it would be less crowded and give me more time to really pick apart the water, the other reason was because it potentially held some larger trout.

My friends Dave and George joined me on the float and we all fully understood that the section we were floating was not likely to have many trout, if any at all, but the potential for a big one had us all in agreement to give it a try. We got to the boat launch at sunrise and when we returned from shuttling the cars, Dave told us that he was able to pick up a few smallmouth bass. That was great news, if we didn’t catch any trout, at least we had the potential to get into some feisty smallmouth on the fly.

The water was high and off color, we all started with streamers on sinking lines. I used a tandem rig with different colors to see if I could narrow down what the fish were after. The first two hours of the float actually had some really nice sections of water, we were hitting the banks and getting a lot of good presentations, but never even moved a single fish. As we approached a long run, we decided to stop the boat and wade fish for a little.

Since streamers didn’t produce any follows all morning, I took out my nymphing rod and went up to the head of the run to see if I could catch any nymphing. I knew if there were any fish, I’d be much more likely to catch them this way. The wind was pretty brutal, but I was able to get some great drifts in between gusts in a few sections without a take. Dave and George were downstream, closer to the boat using streamers and weren’t having much luck either. As I started working my way back to the boat, I decided to tie on a jig streamer, the wind was making it difficult to continue nymphing and the heavy jig streamer is a great option in those conditions. I use the jig streamer with the exact same set up I use for nymphing. I have about 30 yards of 4x sighter and then about 6’ of 4x tippet if I’m using streamers, I’ll downsize to 6x tippet for nymphing.

Dave and George just got into the boat, and as I was walking toward them, I noticed a nice soft break in the current that was surrounded by pretty fast riffles. I told them I was going to work a few casts in that seam and then we would head out. On my second cast, I felt a tap as I was jigging so I set the hook and was completely shocked when it was a fish. It was fighting like a trout, but at that point I wasn’t convinced, we were 3 hours in and fished some phenomenal water, thought it could be a smallmouth. As I got it close to the bank, we realized it was a pretty nice brown trout and George was able to scoop it into the net.

First fish of the day

Healthy wild brown with some girth!

This was a great feeling, we had no idea if there were any trout in this section at all, so to get one in the net got everyone amped up to keep fishing. I took over rowing and had Dave and George continue to work the rest of the water. George continued throwing streamers on a sink tip and Dave mixed in a little jig streamer action to work the very bottom of the water. Unfortunately, the next few hours were a lot more of the same from the morning. Lots of casts and nothing moving. As we approached an island, the water started to look pretty good as it created some great water going off both sides. At this point we were all a little hungry so we anchored the boat, ate some food and then picked apart the runs on foot.

George hooked into a fish that took off downstream and popped off, not sure what it was, but a great sign that there could be more fish in the area. I fished the back of the island in some really great water and continued to use the jig streamer. I had one good take along the bank at the tailout, but it ended up being a fall fish. George hooked into another fish and Dave ended up landing a fall fish (allegedly) as well. On my walk back to the boat, I went to the other side of the island and worked my way up. Got one more take on the jig streamer and it was a small brown trout. Our second trout of the trip. Back in the boat and off we went.

Fall Fish

As we worked our way downstream, the river became stagnant, not a lot of current or structure, so we just worked the banks. George (also referred to as “the Arborist” at this point in the drift due to his impeccable casting accuracy…) provided the cigars and even brought out a flask of bourbon which greatly improved the vibe as we pushed through a mile or so of frog water. We came around a bend and noticed some really nice water along the far bank, the frog water finally changed into a really long riffle and run. Once again, we anchored the boat and decided to wade fish that section. George went to the top of the run and I worked in downstream of him. I used my jig streamer and fished my way toward the prime looking water, just in case there were fish holding in the slack water. That strategy paid off because I felt a giant hit and simultaneously saw a huge flash in the water. Everything I saw made me think this had to be a brown trout, but I just couldn’t believe it.

I let the guys know I hooked into a good fish and that’s when things got a little crazy. Dave got into the boat and rowed it down to me so he could throw me the net. George came down to help net the fish, and at one point I looked down and saw his fly line floating right into the area the fish was in. Worried that he would get twisted into my line, I “kindly” yelled at him to get his line out of the way! At one point I had the trout subdued and figured I could net him myself. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to lift the net and the fish with one hand so the battle was back on. This time, George got into prime position and was able to net the fish right next to me. We all yelled out in celebration and were equal parts excited and surprised. The battle took a little less than 2 minutes(confirmed via cell phone video from Dave), we took some photos and let the fish go as we all smiled in disbelief.

Nice buck brown trout with a kype

The rest of the trip was pretty much a push to the boat launch, miles of frog water without any structure, but the fishing wasn’t over. George and Dave decided to have a competition to see who could land the most fall fish. It was a great battle and I’m not really sure who won in the end. But one thing is for certain, we all had a great time.