Fishing Report Upper River

[Sam Potter]

It has been a busy week on the water, with lots of fish in the net, but some were not landed on the Current River. I fished two days at Bennett Spring this week with some very good friends from the Kansas City area, and a half day on the Current. The other half of the day was with two eager fisherwomen. These ladies were excellent students and very patient with their new found hobby. Usually when someone learns how to fly fish, they don't start out with one of the hardest hatches to fish. But that is exactly what I did with them. We started with the Trico spinner fall and finished with elk hair caddis. Fishing the Trico spinner fall has frustrated some of the most seasoned fly fishing veterans, but these ladies managed to hook and land two browns each off of the fall. When the bugs were gone we switched over to gold ribbed hares ear, and only managed to pick up one rainbow, which surprised me because we did well with that fly last week. After watching the fish react to the indicator, I had them switch to elk hair caddis and they picked up three more browns. All in all they had a good time, learned a little about casting, presentations, insects, locating fish, landing and releasing fish and just a touch of herpetology.

I fished for three hours in the afternoon and caught about 15 small fish, mostly on CDC Caddis and a few on the X-Caddis. I prefer these flies, because they lay flat on the water. They are much more difficult to see on the water, but I have fished them long enough to be able to pick them out pretty well. They are not flies that I would recommend to beginners. The Elk hair sits high, does a fine job and it is much easier to locate and follow by the fisherman. I stayed in a size 16 olive/tan all afternoon. I did not try anything else. When I can get them to rise to dry flies I don't fish any other way. To me it is the ultimate way to fly fish, so why do anything else, and carry all those other boxes around.

"A bad day fishing is still a Great Day"

www.TightLine.Biz