A lot of ’small’ talk
December 8th, 2009
By H3l
With our current cold snap there’s a lot of talk about how to fish a river in these low and clear…AND FRIGID…conditions. The common theme among speculators and doers: Go small. Microscopically small.
I can recall a few years ago when there were several of these snaps in one winter season. 2005 maybe? This particular year was good to the fly rodders because the inherent nature of that method supports small presos the absolute best. They could offer those supple drifts along the soft seams sooooo smoothly.
This cold stuff makes me want to go fly roddin’.
A friend of mine put four fish on the bank yesterday in these conditions with his preferred float & jig method. Just an arskicking. I asked him how ’small’ he had to go…and unbelievably he didn’t go much smaller than an eighth ounce. Whereas another buddy of mine right before the snap when the water was already low and clear…he had gone to 1/32nds.
Go figure, right? Each river is different and reacts differently when fished during unpredictable conditions like we’re having. Documenting the methods that are successful during these uncommon snaps might be your best chance of repeating your success in the future. I have several people with team salmon that have employed this ritual. They are fishy, too. Fishy and dialed in. I should ask them…..’How small will you go?’
Chris Heller goes by H3llcat and writes exclusively for Allaroundangler.com under the umbrella of Team Salmon…a core group of PacNW river fishermen.
