Three of us set out at four am in the early morning dark to head out for a day of testing Dave’s new drift boat in the lakes of the high mountains in Arizona.
It turned out to be a beautiful day, but we did have strong blustery winds that made rowing for Dave hard work. Thankful we had an electric troll motor with us that saved the day.
We ended up in the morning fishing the East southern end by the dam, we found shoals of Tiger trout mixed in with rainbows. It was a day of sight casting as they moved around. So much fun we used dry flies, hoppers, we stripped green woolly buggers with copper john nymphs behind all worked.
On more than one occasion, we all three had fish on, it was nothing for two of us to have fish on at the same time! Dave’s drift boat is wonderfully stable with a lot of room for three bigger guys.
Marc is left handed and I am right handed so we both fished from the bows with no interference form each other lines, although on occasions he would have a fish on and i would and we would cross over or under each rod, crazy fun. Dave was at the stern at the back dodging fly lines all day!!!!! No not really we all fish sequential with each other, waiting our turn to cast when the other was in the water or changing flies or taking off fish !!!! It was one of those days you dream about, for the purist they are probably shacking their head! that’s not what it is about!!!
Let me tell you, what ever you feel or think catching between us well over one hundred plus fish is crazy fun as it does not often if at all happen!!! I am being conservative on the catch rate!! There were other boats around us doing exactly the same thing! In fact on one of the other boats his dog caught four fish!!! Honest!!! That’s a fish tail by the way.
Later in the day we moved off to the North West part of the lake which was sheltered from the wind, far up we came to the end where it gets very shallow and narrow. The fish were rising all over, we all put on Hoppers of different sizes and we were back into the thick of it, a take just about every cast.
The interesting thing was that often they would hit the fly then chase it down three or four time, sometimes you would hook other times they were gone. On the bank over looking our casting area there was a crowd of people watching and spin casting almost on the edge and the trout were still feeding like crazy. They were not like the spooky stream trout we usually chase.
The fun part was putting out a long cast and as the fly hit, bang, strike on landing, other times they would come and nudge the fly then strike.
At around two thirty in the afternoon we called it a day, we were all tired arms and wrists feeling all the casting, a day to remember and reflect on when we are back to normal chasing spooky fish with little to show.
This was a day of catching and fishing!!!!
Flyfishingwhynow 