The Endless Moment

[reevesr1]

I was fortunate enough on Friday to be able to tag along with hawgstoppah in a couple of bodies of water that were new to me. Many things happened that made this trip memorable, among them the biggest dry fly rainbow I've caught to date. But one moment struck me more than others.....

 

Brian and I had been hard at it for 6 hours or so. The fishing had been fairly tough as we mostly were looking for snouts and not really finding many. We were having a bit of success nymphing, but that's not really what we were there for. We started working our way up the river, with Brian a bit in the lead when I noticed he had stopped and was sitting on the bank. Finally! I thought, and worked my way up. When I reach him, he points out a couple of nice fish rising, and he says "go get them", but I tell him that I need to change flies and he should go. Well, long story short, he works the fish for awhile (they were not being all that cooperative) before he finally hooks and lands a screaming hot 20" rainbow.

 

The next fish is mine and I work it for a bit and finally hook....a 13" rainbow. Not exactly the fish I was looking for, but fun nonetheless.

 

Brian starts working the next couple, and they are being very picky. After about 15 minutes I decide to skip up a bit to see if I can find some far enough away not to bother Brian. I don't see any fish actively working, but I do see the prettiest little run that screams "fish here!!" So I throw a cast into the choppy run and struggle to see my fly, when I see a big swirl and silver flash.

 

Now, I don't know about the rest of you, but for me time does some pretty strange things between the time you see a fish strike and the time you set the hook. A million thoughts run through your head in that seemingly endless second or so. Was that on my fly? Does he have it? Geez, he looked huge! Take your time! It's only 5x, don't slam it home! And foremost, when the rod is coming back "PLEASE, OH PLEASE LET HIM BE ON" and then that exquisite moment when the rod bends WAY back, and you know you are in for some real fun. And I was, as the big girl gave me one of the greatest fights I've had on a fly rod (on my 3wt!). Several minutes later I was releasing a beautiful 22" slab of a rainbow.

 

I sort of have a mental list of my 5 or so favorite fish, which now has a new member. But I really think I'll remember that endless moment more than the fish. Who would have thought so much can be packed into such a short period of time.

[Hawgstoppah]

That pretty much summed up a fun day out there! After you left Rick, I went back down to that side channel... and was into THREE more biggun's!!! Landed one at 21"... the other two got off and one was signifigantly larger than any of my other fish by a long shot. It was one of those endless moments for me when seemingly stationary and doing nothing, the hook just popped/slid out of him about 1 minute into the fight while he was holding unmovable in about 3ft of water, in plain view. All I could do was go "wow".

 

so when ya coming down again?

 

Oh and PS: today sucked. switch day. bad weather tommorow. the fish knew it. I got one early but the rest of the day was tough. Neil got a couple smaller ones.

[cheeler]

Nice report!

 

Unfortunately my moments didn't seem to last past the time it takes to say "Oh *hit!" to myself. But I'll know better for next time!

 

 

[Taco]

Sure is a different Rickr than the one I fished with... seems to be way more poetic lot less swearing nowadays, must be coming to grips with his own mortality.

 

I did my best old Rickr impersonation Friday. Ran across a extremely picky big pig of cutty rising along side a log jam, in a friggin' cross wind in the only friggin' approach. Left over a dozen flies stuck in a 4" log and the BP refused anything that I finally did get pitched in there until I was down to a sz20 pmd and then I overset gawddamned fly. Think I heard timber poppin' afterwards.

[Hawgstoppah]

Taco that sounds like a spot on the upper OM that I go to sometimes. Check for some of my 3 or 4 grey drakes that may or may not be on the same log

 

And... that was the one rickr got. He showed his better side on the ones he missed!! LOLOL.. There were birds spooking out from streamside vegitation taking flight.....

[reevesr1]

It's all about passion. Positive outcomes elicit more poetic responses. Conversely, negative outcomes elicit more earthy, monosyllabic responses.

 

And while we are being earthy, where are my *#&$in pictures?

[Taco]

Could be Brian, ain't that far below the falls and a decent hike from the obvious access, seemed to me there was some extra ornamentation to that stupid log and now it's got a goodly portion of my klinks etc.

 

Oh yeah..... great original post Rick, love it when things come together and bounces ya of the trees when it don't but it's all good.

[Hawgstoppah]

And while we are being earthy, where are my *#&$in pictures?

 

what pics? LOLOL...

I seriously can't find my camera right now

Have not emptied the car out competely, but doing that tommorow anyways to pack it up for school.

[fisher26]

Great report/story rickr!

[Hawgstoppah]

Rick. Found the camera. PM me your e-mail addy

[reevesr1]

A fish worth waiting for:

 

 

[SteveM]

Ayup, that's a beaut, fer shore!

Didn't I tell you that this was gonna be your "summer of the dry fly"?

 

Great story, BTW. Your prose is 'bout as flowery as my pictures...

 

 

[reevesr1]

Your prose is 'bout as flowery as my pictures...

 

Crap. Note to self: Stop writing like a gay guy. Not that there is anything wrong with that.

[fishfreak]

sweet southern AB rainbow!

[flyangler]

You have a way with words rickr.

 

May I also nominate:

1)The moment between a hard fight and the agonizing ping of the tippet when you have time to realize that no, you are in fact, Not Angler Enough to land that fish. It is the time to know in your aching forearms that you should have honed your patience as well as your muscles. The mental space is arising in which you can fit the words "if 2x was good, wouldn't 0x have been better?" You know, that moment?

 

2)Also, I nominate the endless emptiness from the loss of The Big One and time time it seems to take to get another chance.

 

3)There is the allotment of crap from your significant other which includes "I told you so", "you should have adjusted your drag" and "didn't you check your tippet for abrasions" and the like which also seems to be pretty long lasting.

[reevesr1]

Ok, Here are a few more:

 

Fish is screaming out into the river and you see your line just about to wrap behind you reel seat, hooked on your lanyard, whatever. You know how the story ends and you are powerless to stop it. That moment seems to stretch.

 

You have been fighting a big fish for a awhile and can feel it tiring. Then you feel the abrasion of your line around a rock, or stump, or whatever big fish has found at the bottom of the river. Again, you know how the story will end, it just seems to take a long time to actually happen.

 

Fighting really fast fish coming right at you. You strip as fast as possible, but can't keep up. The prayer filled moment when you think you've caught up and hope you feel the line tighten again, knowing you probably won't.

 

And my personal favorite, thought it has only happened once: The time it takes your line to break once you have hit the knot at the end of your backing. That takes hours.

 

 

[Hawgstoppah]

the moment you make your first cast over very active rishing fish... and your fly is drifting towards where they are, and you KNOW it's good..

 

the moment AFTER you pull back too soon on above fish when one very large fish slowly rises to your fly...

 

ps. nice fish rick... wanna try this coming saturday?

[dutchie]

the moment you make your first cast over very active rishing fish... and your fly is drifting towards where they are, and you KNOW it's good..

 

the moment AFTER you pull back too soon on above fish when one very large fish slowly rises to your fly...

 

ps. nice fish rick... wanna try this coming saturday?

 

brian and dick or rick

i'll be seeing you both on saturday as i'm all done and now free after the 17 sept , and sad you can't make it steelhead fishing this year brian , LOL , Roddy and i will be thinking of you as we pulling them pigs in

 

[Tungsten]

as i'm all done

 

The moment you realize that there won't be a power drifter in your spots anymore.

[reevesr1]

the moment you make your first cast over very active rishing fish... and your fly is drifting towards where they are, and you KNOW it's good..

 

the moment AFTER you pull back too soon on above fish when one very large fish slowly rises to your fly...

 

ps. nice fish rick... wanna try this coming saturday?

 

Can't this weekend. Will be stalking cutts in BC!

[DutchDryfly]

Casting to a big riser, everything is perfect, the cast, the way the fly is approaching the zone.

You see the big fish turn from the bottom and slowly rising to intercept the fly.

And then, just before the big one is ready to eat your fly, a little fingerling beats him to it.

 

[Noud]

Seeing a bow wave arise behind the muddler that you are stripping through the surface...From the until the moment the fish takes seems endless enough to me....Add still my heart stops when the water explodes although I am expecting it to.

[osprey]

the moment you make your first cast over very active rishing fish... and your fly is drifting towards where they are, and you KNOW it's good..

 

the moment AFTER you pull back too soon on above fish when one very large fish slowly rises to your fly...

 

ps. nice fish rick... wanna try this coming saturday?

This reminds of a moment I had in August, with you watching, Brian. I think I was cursing to loudly to hear what you muttered to my brother as I missed the 2nd good fish of the day.