A little time on the Swift

Played hooky last night.  Rosemary had taken the kids to the beach, so, looking at a mound of work for the next 3 months, and knowing this may be my last shot to get to the Swift, I took a shot and went out.

Opted to use my long rod.  The flow's are up on the river which sometimes lends itself to high sticking with a worm anchor and tiny nymph suspended above... So the 11ft 4 wt was my choice.  I can throw big dry's on this stick, and that's a major bonus given August/september is an awesome time to fish large terrestrials here.  It's a river known for #18-24 nymphs and #20-32 dry's.  Its a river, who's upper reaches are basically sand or a bit of moss.  It's BWO's, small ones... Midges and some caddis or other mayflies like sulfurs.  But August and September is the fisherman's revenge..  You can drop the 7-8X tippet, and tie on a Chernobyl ant on a #6 streamer hook and catch fish consistently.  Nothing like seeing an 18" rainbow that for months would only look up at a #28 puff of thread and cdc drifted perfectly... Now attacking a 2" long foam bug like a pike to a 2/0 deer hair slider :)!  FUN.

So, I set up with my midge / larva box at the ready, but with a beetle on a #10 as the first option.  Had a few attack it and I missed... So, time to go bigger, because these fish were looking up :)

I'd tied up these chernobyls recently (below).  Two were given to a friend, and two dropped in my bag... Some how, I'd forgotten my box full of them... so I had two on the day.  Probably caught 5, missed several others and had two break me off - which stunk.  one was a poor knot to the fly on my part, the other a poor knot to the micro ring I was trying rather than tying leader to leader.  Ugh.  Out of big dry's, I tried a few small nymphs and caught one.  then a small black hackled dry with a bright orange body that I learned about in a Brittish fly fishing mag last year.  That was just a totally random "what the heck lets try it" deal.  I finished up back to the beetle and caught a couple more and missed several by setting to soon.

The pic was taken with my phone, in a sandwich bag.  Considering that, it came out pretty good I think :)... This fish was about 18" long, he's flexed nicely in there.  The fish were fat and all in the 16-19" range I'd suspect.  Big, fat, and strong fighting in the low 50's degree water that flow's here.

 

On the way in, I'd noticed a car I suspected belonged to a local guide / fly fishing "celebrity" who's got a book and last year had a nice write up on her series of flies based on one created on the Swift she named the Jail Bird.  Her name is Marla Blair.  When I got back to the truck, she was packing up to go, so I grabbed a little bug that I've had luck with that's a hybrid of the Jail Bird and another larva I like.  I brought it over, introduced myself, thanked her for the great article in Fly Tyer last year and gave her a bug.  She was real appreciative and friendly, and I headed back to the truck to pack up.

Then I look up, and here comes Marla, and she graciously gave me a Jail Bird she tied.  Very cool to see it tied by the originator.  Thanks for the kind gesture Marla (if you ever bumble into this post :)), I really appreciated it!

One final point.  Matt Grobert always wraps up his great blog Caddis Chronicals (http://www.caddischronicles.com/) always signs of noting to sharpen your hooks.  Ill agree, but suggest checking your knots.  I thought i'd done well, but, clearly had not.  And it cost me some nice fish... So, tie good knots when you fish!

Keep well
Will