March 20Th

[hookinear]

Got up around 2:30am and made the 3+ hr trip from southern illinois for the montauk mens trout tournament. Ive never fished in a trout tournament, but if it got too complicated i figured id just fish like i normally would. Went to the dam to fish the fly waters all day. Started the whistle off fishing with my ultra light and a small black/yellow jig. Nothing. Switched to white, then ginger, then pink with the same result on all of them. Didnt even have a follow for the first hour. Not the way i wanted to start off the morning. So i got out the fly rod and headed upstream a couple yards and tried out a tandem rig with a BH prince nymph 6 inches under and indicator, and i had a chamois worm tyed a foot below the BH. Didnt have a single hookup with the BH, but they seemed to like the chamois worm on the bottom. Picked up 5 or 6 12 inchers, nothing to brag about but it was better than getting skunked. Got out and walked upstream. Fished between the blue hole and hudson corner with a few small trout here and there. The take was very soft and i was getting a little tired of missing fish. So i decied to try something a little different. I took off the indicator and out on a small pheasant soft hackle and they couldnt resist it. I would take it and throw it perpendicular to the current and get it as close to the bank as i could. Letting it dead drift in the current i got quite a few strikes, but it was hard to feel them. So i would let it hit the water, drift for about 5-10 secs and then start to slowly strip it back upstream. It was fish after fish for 5 straight hours, and on the same hackle. I was a lot of fun stripping the hackle for a change, instead of dead drifting all day. The strikes were hard and the fish seemed to have more fight in them when caught with the hackle. Didnt do too bad in the tourney. If i heard right i finished in 2nd place by 6 or 7 ounces. There was only 1 big fish caught all day at 6 lbs. My biggest was 2.5 lbs. The rest of the entrants said that most fish were dinks. Cant wait to go back down for an entire weekend in June. Until next time, good luck and tight lines.

Hookinear