Classroom of Fly-Fishing

September is often referred as the month of transition. As summer wanes, our life-styles change, including fishing......... This year, Sep is also very unpredictable!! Earlier in the month, as I posted, we had snow. Three days ago = 25th, we had almost 90F sunny day!! Now as of this typing, cold rain and wind are dominating and I'm tossing firewood to my stove!!

Anyways.............

Last week, on those two very last Summer days I had another visiting angler from Japan. I took him to DePuy's Spring Creek (www.depuyspringcreek.com). It was another classic case file of spring creek fishing, which would be somewhat too much for the first timer..........  This angler experienced two of most technical and mysterious situations on the same day!! 

Tiny midge hatches all day (click here for the past report).

Mystery Spinner falls (click here for the past report).

As the day went by, one was more prevalent than the other and then most frustratingly & challengingly, two got mixed up!! So trout looked keying on one action over the other or both!! 

To add more flavors, I observed 5 different colors of spinners (sizes were pretty much uniform = size 20 hook size)!! They were, in my note, clear abdomen, rusty, gray, dark olive, and black. Confused? If you were there or if you actually experience this in the near future, you will get confused more!! I was busy switching flies and directing the client so didn't have time to take pictures of culprits. 

I guided him till we couldn't see our flies any more yet I could still vaguely see trout rises!!

It must have been too much an initiation for him but I hope he took this experience as the lesson. 

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Next day I took him to Soda Butte Creek in Yellowstone National Park. Soda Butte and many other waters within YNP have their own characters and quirkiness. But my angler was progressed due to lessons from the previous day. He started hooking trout right off the bat!

Congrats for the first ever Yellowstone Cutthroat!

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I was again reminded the "mantra" I often quote "spring creek is the classroom of fly-fishing". That applies not only to clients but also to guides as well. Not to mention "Learning & observation will never end". I could get by the other day but now I have started to re-organize and re-stock the spinner and midge boxes. Soon Fall beatis = Fly-Fishing Supremacy is coming!!

I'm ready for it!!