Long hours and distance have been the main ingredients of my summer fishing. It is wholly a down year, with little in the way of summer hatches, the predictable low water conditions, and very few fish showing any evidence of their presence. I shared the water with an eagle yesterday, and even he looked a bit worn from extra hours of hunting. It was a week for fishing out of the way lies and changing tactics.
The trout should be hungry, but I believe many are ranging wider than normal due to the scarcity of flies. I think back to the morning I watched a little water snake get devoured in a terrific boil. Haven’t seen that before, not in more than three decades of wandering trout waters. Low water makes the approach all the more difficult, and casting distance and delicacy paramount.
It’s easy to get sloppy during a long, hot day, powering the rod too much for the distance so that the presentation suffers. I tend to do it when I get tired. Bamboo makes it somewhat easier to self-correct, but it still takes concentration to diagnose one’s failings and correct them. In tough conditions, you may get only one chance, and it is painful to blow that opportunity with a poor cast.
I went down to a three-weight outfit yesterday, a T&T graphite rod graced with a lovely little Hardy reel, and coached myself to ease up on the power. Faster, stiffer graphite rods tend to make casters punch them, and that really isn’t the answer to more distance.
I chose the three-weight to suit the conditions, and once I forced myself to maintain a light touch, I found what I was looking for – a chance to spin that little Hardy and make some of that special English chamber music!
Yesterday was sort of a training session for Dennis Menscer’s 8′ three-weight masterpiece to come on deck next week. There is no appreciable rain in our ten-day forecast, and the coolest day in that run is advertising a high temperature of 83. Fishing is not going to get easier.
When I get tired, I can take a break and look at it in the sunlight!
An old acquaintance could make an appearance as a backup too. Back in the day, Orvis was the last holdout to move to manufacturing fly rods with stiffer, faster actions and higher modulus material. The debuted their “PM-10″ rods in lighter line weights when I owned my fly shop, including an 8′-4” two weight that I eventually had to own. If the wind blows a bit hard for bamboo, that 842 might be reintroduced to the Catskills.
Bright Waters Catskill 