You might have heard that your fearless editor has just returned from a real good trip to Chile West. Today’s post is one of a bunch that we’ll run as a result of that trip, and it’s a fish story, plain and simple.
The second-to-last day of our trip we did some walk and wade fishing on a fairly small stream near Coyhaique. We like this river not necessarily for the size of its fish – they’re smaller than average – but for the fact that they love eating dries, and they live in simple, classic water that’s easy to read and fun to fish.
Fishing started out pretty hot. I was fishing a rig that became a favorite during the trip – an Idylwilde Chubby Chernobyl for a dry with another Idylwilde fly, the 20 incher, as a dropper. Any water that looked good was producing fish, most often on the first or second decent drift. Hmmm, maybe this was going to be one of those days…
As I worked my way upstream I came across some particularly juicy water – a nice soft patch with some structure on the outside of a really well-defined current seam. My first cast landed right in the meat of the soft water, and just after the fly hit the water, a real nice golden shoulder turned right over the top of the Chernobyl but missed the fly.
OK, somebody’s home and it looks to be a decent fish. Another couple of casts didn’t quite float right, but three casts later, the dry hit the water and again that golden shoulder turned right over the dry and missed. I somehow managed to let the fly continue to float, and maybe a second later Mr. Brown turned on the dry and missed again. Finally, right near the end of the bucket, a giant toilet bowl flush dropped right beneath the Chernobyl but amazingly…no hookup.
3 failed eats on one drift – gotta love that. A couple of casts later, in mid-drift, the dry went down when this aggressive but not-so-accurate trout finally connected with the nymph dropper. After a few minutes of battle and a quick photo session, we sent him on his way. Not the biggest brown in the world, but respectable for sure and good for some entertainment!
There are some situations where we like to say ‘that fish just had to eat’. With 5 eats in 3 good drifts, yeah…he needed it bad.
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