The plan had been to find a deep, slow stretch of water to try out a new strike indicator system I’d heard about. Although the days are getting warmer, I figured it was still a little early in the season to expect much of a hatch – that, plus the fact that with the sun high and bright overhead, the fish would likely be lurking deeper anyhow.
March is for midges from Hayden Mellsop on Vimeo.
So much for the theory. After drifting the indicator through a couple of feed lines with nothing to show for my efforts save a couple of snagged sticks ( the indicator worked fine, for that matter ) I spied up ahead a fish working the surface, rising every thirty seconds or so, and then another, a little further up in the run.
That was all I needed. The chance to catch one on top was too good to pass up. Off came the nymphs, on went a couple of dries. I couldn’t see any bugs on the water, so went small with my fly choice. The lead was a bright parachute tied by Salida’s own Fred Rasmussen, the trailer a little dark midge I could only pick out on the water every second or third cast.
I love this type of fishing. The takes are very subtle, often little more than guesswork, the sense of a swirl on the water’s surface in the vicinity of where you think your fly is, a gentle raising of the rod tip and the weight of a fish on the other end. An hour, five fish, and it was time to head home, the promise of more dry fly opportunities to come.
