Yesterday I learned a lesson that I already knew. When fishing a new water you never really know what you are going to catch or in my case break off. It could be a species you didn’t know exist in the new water or it could be a fish much larger that expected.
I left work and headed to check out some thin blue lines I had located on Google maps running through public land not far from my house. Living in the area for 29 years I had never been down this road but the Google Street view looked like one or more of these small streams might hold trout. I knew they would at least hold chubs and fall fish so there would be some action. The first stream was a dead end as it was very shallow and was only about 3 feet wide. The second stream looked much better.
I pulled to the side of the road where it was obvious others had parked before me. From the truck I could tell I was going to be making a few casts so I grabbed my St . Croix 8 foot 4 weight and my vest from the back of the truck. I climbed down onto the culvert pipe that dumped water into a nice wide pool. Watching for a couple minutes I noticed a few bugs coming off the water but nothing rising. I decided to tie on my go to size 12 elk hair caddis.
As my first cast landed on the water I purposely piled fly line in front of me allowing the fly to drift straight away from me drag free. The fly drifted the length of the pool untouched so I started to strip it back to me. As the fly started to move upstream what I believe to be a very large brown trout attacked the flie on the surface coming partially out of the water. Now is where the problem starts.
For the last 6 months I have been fishing steelhead with 10 to 13 foot float rods. When the float drops you reach for the sky fast and as hard as you can. I always tell clients you can’t set hard enough. You have a lot of line out and a long very flexible rod all of which you have to transfer the hook setting power though. I had not given thought to the fact that I needed to remind myself that was no longer the case.
I had thought about tying on a new leader or at least new tippet but I didn’t. After all I was only expecting to catch 6 to 8 inch chubs or if I was lucky brook trout of the same size. That leader from last summer would surely hold up to those little fish.
As the fish I estimate to be between 1 to 2 pounds attacked my fly I slammed that hook home. The rod bent just long enough to feel the weight of the fish as the tippet broke and my heart sank. All of my mistakes ran though my head immediately. I knew better. I retied and began casting again even though I knew that fish still had my fly stuck in it’s mouth and wasn’t going to bite again.
I did manage 2 fall fish in my next dozen or so casts. I kept trying to convince myself it was a big fall fish and wasn’t a big deal it broke off. The problem was and still is I saw too much of the fish. It was definitely a trout.
There was some good that came from this day. I now have a new spot to fish that is close enough to fish when I only have a couple hours. I also will never forget when trying new water you never know what you may catch. Always prepare for the best or the worst depending on how you look at it.
If you haven’t already, change the line or leaders before you head out with gear you haven’t used in a while.
Today i went to another stream I hadn’t been to in many years but I know is full of rainbow trout. I was prepared this time for a big fish but unfortunately only found little ones. That was okay though. In about an hour I landed 5 fish and missed or lost more.
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