Thursday, September 22, 2011

Whitefish Hunter

Today, during my lazy time in the morning, I got a call from my guide friend Graham to see if we can go fishing. I said "I'll go!!" before I wash my face. We floated from Carter Bridge to 9th St Bridge, just a short one around town of Livingston.
We saw a stonefly struggling for something. It seems it did come out of its nymphal shuck but wings looked immature to fly. Very cute. Is this what we call "Midnight Stone"?

Not only because I had to get ready in an hour or so, but also due to slow experience in last two floats with my outfitter and his friend, all I could think of is "NYMPHING" for my heart content!!!, period!!!! It's in the middle of transition of the season. Summer dry-fly actions were officially over but also it's too early, at least for me, to fish with only streamers. I simply wanted to see fish on the boat. I really didn't care if it would be trout or whitefish. If it happened to be a whitefish, I expect it would be over 20-inch!!
Today's hit fly was this Beadhead Crystal Serendipity. This used to be a "Brown Trout ONLY" but.........

I nailed lots of whitefish!!! See how strong I gripped it with my pride!!

NOTE: I'm not a "whitefish-hater" who performs "bank-release".


I felt enough so I changed my game plan a bit. Now I wanted bigger individuals or perhaps some trout. So I took out a huge BOBBER from my camera strip,


and tied on a larger Rubber Leg in black/coffee.


Withing a few casts after we resumed floating, the huge bobber sank, and I set the hook!! HUGE!!, I could tell. and it was an 18-inch WHITEFISH KING!!!! I'm holding it as if I'm working on cows' cervix when I breed cows but fish was safely released in the river.

My mission was accomplished. I'm happy!!

But also we were amazed by the Mother Nature of the LONGEST FREE FLOWING river. Section we floated used to be the main channel. But with the historical runoff of this year, now it became a side channel or should we say "old main channel".

Including that, I love 'Stone for sure!! Let's see what happens tomorrow.

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