Friday night, my daughter had a lacrosse game. I was glad to be able to go to the game, although she is less than 100% after taking a stick to the wrist and thumb a couple games ago. But, going to the game gave me another option. When the game ended a little after 6:00, I had time to sneak out to fish for a couple hours. It was cold and windy and I headed for the main branch of the White, in the Royalton area. I fished the same area where I caught a wild brookie a few weeks ago, but I expected different results this time, because the river had been stocked a week earlier.
Because of the windy conditions, I pulled out my older Sage RPL+ (5 weight) and rigged it up with a 6 weight line. This was my go-to rod for many years, but I simply don't fish it much any more; it's just too stiff.
It didn't take long before the stocked fish started to strike at my flies. I was fishing a 3-fly rig - olive woolly bugger, Montana Prince Nymph, and a small attractor soft-hackle nymph. Over the next 2 hours, I hooked fish on all three of the flies. I probably had about 20 strikes, I hooked 5 fish, but I only got 2 of them to the net. That is one of the big disadvantages of the super stiff rod, especially with barbless hooks and smaller fish. It's hard to maintain the right amount of pressure on the fish and they are frequently able to escape. No big deal though. It was a fun 2 hours, even if I only caught a couple fish.
The next evening, I headed out on the Third Branch of the White, looking for browns. This river had been stocked just days before, and I deliberately avoided the logical stocking spots. I was looking for wild fish. I did a good job of avoiding the stocked fish, but I also managed to avoid all of the fish. I fished two normally production stretches of water, although one still isn't the same since Hurricane Irene. That stretch, by Camp Brook, will likely never be what it was just a few years ago.
Sunday, I met up with another local fisherman to fish the Dog River. The other guy, Jack, has been fishing the White River for 28 years, and fly fishing for 40 years, but he had never fished the Dog. We worked 5 different stretches of water over 8 hours. This is an un-stocked river with a reputation for big browns, but I honestly catch more rainbows than browns in this river. It's been a few years since I last caught a brown. I even catch more brookies in the headwaters of this river than browns.
We were only 30 minutes into fishing when I briefly hooked a beautiful rainbow - probably 16" and brightly colored. I turned the fish when I set the hook. It then jumped and threw the hook. And then jumped once more to laugh at me, I assume. It was a pretty fish and I know where to look next time. After that, things were quiet for a few hours.
The water was low and clear and we did sight fish to a few nice browns. One even took a bug off the surface, but we couldn't draw them up.
Finally, after almost 8 hours on the river, I think we were getting tired. But, I suggested we still had one "must fish" spot to go to - a spot that was also damaged by Hurricane Irene, but one that still produces nice fish on occasion. Because I was playing tour guide, I let Jack take the first casts in the nicest part of this stretch. He had decided to try a dry fly, and he enticed a fish to take it. It ended up being a really fat, beautiful rainbow, about 18". That was the nicest fish I've seen out of the Dog in quite a while. The Dog is a wild and challenging river, and we managed to hook just 2 fish in over 8 hours on the water. But, both of the fish we hooked were beautiful wild fish - the kind of fish that most fly fishermen dream about.
Next weekend, I'm fishing in the White River Open - a 1-day fly fishing tournament with over 90 miles of river to choose from. I really have 2 choices. I can target stocked fish and try to compete for the overall title. Or, I can go to more obscure spots and target bigger, wild fish, knowing that I might easily get skunked for the day. I'm still not sure how I'll approach things.
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