Fly Fishing Sunday

I’m sitting in the living room writing this fly fishing post on my laptop while the L&T Nancy wraps Christmas presents.

I wrap presents like Borat picks up women, so I’ve been encouraged to write instead of jamming the present-wrapping gears.

On the radio, a woman is singing that life is short and that we all die so quickly, as if anyone needed a reminder of their impending mortality during the longest, darkest days of winter.

Still, even with winter freezing my breath in the air and death apparently fast approaching, I still find time to get out and fish a little, though the catching part is pretty tough right now.

Ron Fritzke carefully drifting a dry and dropper through slack water. For no good reason.

The Upper Sacramento is falling back into decent shape after the recent high flows (almost 5,000 cfs), but the flows upriver were very high, leaving few fishable runs.

Back to the Start

With Ron Fritzke champing at the bit to get out and fish, we discussed the possibilities on the phone, carefully weighed our options, and then chose the wrong one.

It’s not as if we didn’t know the risks, but getting to the water we chose requires a little commitment, and even if things look a little grim when you get there, you’ve already invested the sweat, so you stay and fish.

Streamer Madness

I don’t know at what point I started channeling for Ian Rutter, but today I went straight for the rabbit strip streamer, figuring it was an all-or-nothing kind of gig (it turned out to be nothing).

Still, fishing the streamer is entertaining - watching it scoot around rocks and skidding sideways in the eddies - and there’s always a chance you’ll witness that sudden flash and the disappearance of the fly, a moment guaranteed to pump a pint of adrenaline into your system (assuming your heart’s still beating).

Sure, that moment never came, but neither did it come for Ron, who fished a dry and dropper combo that he drifted (to no effect) right through what little good water we could reach.

Just Happy to be Here

Even though we both went fishless, the part of the river we fished pretty much pegs the needle on the “spectacular” meter, and with death apparently approaching fast for both of us, a little beauty is a good thing.

I fished an 8.5′ 7wt bamboo rod built by Tennessee’s James Beasley on a Payne Canadian Canoe taper, and was pleasantly reminded what a great taper it is.

It’s been below-freezing-all-day-cold the last couple days, though the forecast calls for a warming trend this week.

There’s not a lot of snow on the ground given that we’re halfway through December (none at all in town), and while the local ski resort has opened, that’s due largely to manmade snow.

In short, it’s another El Nino year, with all the weather weirdness that implies.
As usual, more as it happens. Assuming mortality hasn’t claimed me yet.

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