Trout Chasing The River Damsel? ~ Sunday Tippets, Damsel Style

It is true.  No lie.  Trout were chasing the River Damsel yesterday.  Every pool, every run, every riffle...there they were!  Lying in wait until they met eye to eye with the River Damsel's brown stonefly.  Then, chasing that fly and grabbing it like there was no tomorrow! It was definitely a "Troutrageous" kind of day.  The trout were after it...or after me, it seemed!   Last week, I wrote about setting your hook like you mean it.  Well, I set it that hook and meant it.  Only a few were lost, with most netted.  In fact...over 40 fish between two anglers doesn't sound too bad, does it?  = )

Yes...A pretty epic day, alright.  And what was funny was that I have wanted to fish this part of the river for awhile now.  But, last year, it was always high and murky every time I stopped by last summer.  But, last year we had an incredible run off.  And yesterday, it was a bit high and fast, but, I felt that some big trout were in there waiting for me.  Call it ESP, Inspiration, A Hunch.  My friend that came along, looked at it and said, "I don't know, it is pretty murky!"  But, I wasn't ready to turn around so fast this time...I just had that feeling.

An hour later, we were catching trout after trout.  We decided that the stonefly would be the fly of the day and it was!  Big time.  In fact, my buddy caught so many trout on his brown stone that it looked pretty weathered.  Then, at the end of the day...he finally had to give it up to the river gods...Bummer.  He was going to mount it on his hat at the end of the day.  Oh well.  Yes, the sun was shining upon us all day long.  And the trout were chasing us...instead of the other way around!  A nice change...

Everywhere I went, there was a trout around the corner.  I can truly say that I know the feeling of viewing firsthand, "Fish In A Barrel"!  Yes, Quill Gordon, I let my hair down and didn't have a care in the world.  I don't know if it can be repeated, or when it will be repeated...wait a minute!  Of course it is going to be repeated!!!  Where is my positive mental attitude???  = ) 

Some fish were of the smaller variety...

Some fish were "teenagers"...

A few "young adults" in the group...

 Even a "Whitefish" was thrown in the mix...

All in all, it was a very good day...two anglers netting over 40 trout...

Because we had the magic...two fly patterns that could do no wrong.

The trusted brown stone fly and the sow bug with flashabou.

Love my Mr. Brown Spots

Ok...So here is my "Tippet" for the day... One "Tippet" from me and hopefully some "Tippets" from my readers.  First...my productive day was because I finally fixed the problem of my fish breaking off.  I have gone to heavier leader and tippet when nymphing.  But, still they would come within a few feet and run.  Looks like RD learned a valuable lesson from my friend who came with.  Something that I learned a long time ago and forgot, I guess.  But, you have to keep that arm up the whole time that you are reeling in that trout!  Rod handle above the armpit!!   It seems that I have a bad habit of lowering my arm towards the end...thus, giving it a little bit of slack.  Problem Fixed.  Yay!

Now...for you out there that know your bugs a lot more than I do.  Here is the scenerio...

  I would say that 3/4 of our catches were on the stone fly.  The other 1/4 were on the sow with flashabou.  The fish were pounding the brown stone flies when they were trailed with the sow.  It was murky water, so we figured that the bright flash helped the trout see their dinner.  But, when we took the sow off...the stone fly was not touched.  Question:  If they liked the stone fly so much...why couldn't you mix it with anything else that had a bright color and still work?  Nope, only when it was paired up with the sow.

Any thoughts on this?