Alright.... I'd like to compare some notes here. Say you've been trout fishing for 5 years. Say 3 of those years have been on the same stretch of the yakima. Should you be able to go out in practically any "fishable" condition (excluding floods and wind storms) and catch a fish? I say this because early in my fishing career on the Yakima I was getting skunked about half the time. Then, I feel like I turned a corner when I started repeating the same drift year over year. I knew where the fish would hang out at different flows and at different times of the year. I knew what bugs they were obsessively feeding on subsurface after being an asshole and pumping stomachs. I knew what rock to cast towards two or four times until I got that perfect drift that the fish would make a lunge for. Is this the same for most guys who have been hitting the same river for a couple of years or did I just jynx myself into a skunky 2013?
Jesse, I would say it depends. If you fish the with the methods you've discovered the fish want you will do good. If you try and "force the bite" by making the fish bite the method/or fly you want to fish you may have a jinx.
I think the bigger question is, does pumping stomachs actually provide you with any information and is it ethical to do so when removing the fish from the water will get you hemmed up?
My experience on the Yakima is similar, although I only wade. I found the Yak to be a bit difficult to read on my first several visits. I think this is likely to be true with most big rivers or tailwaters, where the fish-holding water is not obvious at first glance. I was more familiar with mountain freestone streams. On such streams, I think that once one learns the basics of where fish will lie, one can be successful on first visit to a new stream, and the learning curve is much shorter. Dick
I think it is unethical and if someone did it to me I would be pissed. It was eye opening though and now I catch a lot more fish because of it. Soooooooooooooooooo... yeah, maybe I'll keep on pumpin'
Especially if they held your head underwater for a couple minutes while they did it. Oh wait, that's called waterboarding . . . K
You keep this up and you will soon qualify for membership in WFFC. Oh wait.... that's already happened. I had to say it and remember, I already "liked" your post.
I say... if you know how to read water at any CFM level, you should be able to get into fish. I had a quick learning curve when i started to fly fish. I was bait/gear fishing for years before i grabbed a fly rod. I know from pulling plugs, back bouncing bait and float/jig fishing where fish hold and travel lanes etc.
I had a late start paddling today, not leaving myself enough time and tide to fish all the water I'd originally planned on fishing. So I powered straight back in 3 or 4 miles to a tidal creek while dragging a baitfish pattern, heading to one pretty good hole that is often the first reliable holding zone in that particular creek. Its got some submerged logs laying on the bottom, next to a small row of pilings, and you can't see the bottom in the deepest spot at low tide. Its usually good for at least one searun cutt. My goal had been downsized to thoroughly fishing that one long hole. I paddled in thru the tailout dragging my mini-anchovy on a clear intermediate line, scoping out the lay of the hole, and noticed that it hadn't changed at all from last year. I tried to give the logs a wide berth as I paddled by, but then I aimed my U-12 back out in the current above the logs after I passed them. This way I could let my fly swing back close to the logs and draw a strike as I eyeballed my usual spot to anchor up for some casting. Bam! She hit like she was one of those stationary logs, and for an instant I thought I'd snagged up and bungled my entrance, but then my rod started throbbing with a nice fish. I drifted right back down over the logs as I fought her, and she was diving down in between and under them, but I kept her from wrapping me up, and was able to net her as I drifted down out of the tailout. Fat 13"+ and a real gladiator on my 4 wt! I often get two nice fish here, so I paddled back up to the top of the hole and anchored up in my preferred spot where I usually begin casting and working the hole. I popped my beer and ate my sandwich, giving the hole a rest before switching to my other 4 wt with a type 2 sinktip and a #8 Polar Shrimp Reversed Spider. I worked down over the submerged logs and around every piling, but it wasn't until after I had lifted anchor a few times and worked the entire hole all the way down to where I was below the last of the deeper holding zones and casting upstream to the last good spot behind a stump that I got my second strike. For a ten or eleven inch fish, he fought pretty hard. He was a stout little bugger. I got my two fish, and still had just enough time to troll in the fishy zones as I booked it back to my put in. It all went down according to the script my memory had provided. Like deja vu!
Jesse, it's called fishing, not catching. If we were all assured of consistent, reliable results, we'd get bored.
