The Last Fly Fishing Day of 2006: The Movie Edition

A Hollywood ending to the year would have seen me landing a plane loaded with snakes, fighting my way through the Pirates of the Caribbean and dancing along with a bunch of happy-footed penguins on the way to the Upper Sacramento River.

There, I’d go fishless until I pulled out the little known fly fishing trick taught to me by the master (wax on, wax off) which I’d use (as the dramatic music swells) to catch Big John - the biggest trout of 2006.

So Much For Mass Media Entertainment

Instead, Chris Raine called, the sky outside was dark and cloudy, and we both agreed that catching a single trout on a dry fly would be a slick way to end 2006. We geared up, met at his shop, and drove downriver.

Every step of the way, our cloud cover weakened. When we pulled up on the river, it was gone.

Nobody knows the sunshine we’ve seen. Raine casts at the only rising fish we saw.

Non-fly fishers never really understand the fly fisher’s fascination with cloudy, rainy days. They happily chirp that “It’s a beautiful, sunny day” and they’re genuinely surprised when you grumble and turn away.

Call it a recreational occupational hazard, or maybe just the first step on the way fly fishing grouch-hood.

Sunny Days, Chasing the Trout Away

After the first few BWOs drifted downriver, I took up station one a nice run, and waited. And waited. And waited.

It was literally the first time I didn’t see a single rising fish during a hatch, which was admittedly very light.

I broke down and - hearing Ian Rutter’s voice chiding me to get off my ass and least try to catch a fish - started launching a weighted streamer on a sink tip line.

It got me nowhere, but my tossing a heavily weighted streamer on a 5wt with a soft tip at least provided amusement for Chris Raine.

Cast Party

I noticed Chris was hunched intently and casting, so I waded downriver, and found him creeping up on a single, sporadically rising fish - one protected by two current tongues and an almost impossible drift.

The next best thing to working a rising fish is standing next to someone while they do it, and for the next ten minutes I endured the roller coaster of a tough fish secondhand.

In the end, the fish stopped rising, and - without a Hollywood ending in sight - I went home without making a single cast to a rising fish. And yet, I wasn’t disappointed.

After all, it was a beautiful, sunny day.

More to Come

I might be finished with 2006 (aren’t we all), but I’ve still got one more post in me - the Underground’s 2006 Year in Review post. Let’s hope I get it done before 2007’s over.

Stay healthy, fish often, and enjoy 2007! Tom Chandler.

[tags]fly fishing, fishing, trout, rainbow trout, bwo, upper sac, upper sacramento river[/tags]