Tailing Loops

Managed to get out to the Loyalhanna today for a few hours (from about 1:30 to a little after 5) more to remind myself that yes, there is water in there, and theoretically, at least, there are fish in there, and that yes, in theory they can be caught...though not necessarily by me.

Fished from the swinging bridge down past the blocks through the next set of riffles first. Met a guy fishing nymphs just above the bridge who said he'd just gotten there and already caught one. After we returned to our respective cars (he, for gloves, and I to get my rod strung up), he got back to the water much sooner, and by the time I got there, he said he'd just released another.

"Great", I thought, "at least they're here and feeding. That's all I can ask for. The rest is up to me."

So, morale at the high point for the day (I didnt know that at the time, else I'd have made the most of it), I waded out a good distance downstream of my new friend and proceeded to work a laser egg across the rocky ledges on the opposite bank. Funny how the guy couldnt keep fish off the hook when I was in the parking lot...but now the creek was deader than fried chicken for both of us for quite some time.

Eventually, I got a tangle, as I knew I would. There are certain things that I was never meant to do in this life, among them dancing, singing, playing basketball, bowling, and flycasting a weighted rig with an indicator. When I try I get every last centimeter of leader wrapped around my rod, usually in opposing directions. Today was no different. After an embarassing few minutes, I got myself untwisted, and ready to fish once again. As I tried to get my line ready for another cast, it lurched erratically, and just like that, I was thoroughly re-entangled.

After a little muttered french, I set to work on my new tangle. Eventually, this one proved too heinous, and I just cut the line, snipped the fly and started from scratch. Seeing I had about 6" of tippet left, I snipped that too and tied on a new length of 5X. (My hunt for a good brand of tippet continues to this day, but right now the only ones in my vest are two spools, both 5X, one of Rio PowerFlex and one of Orvis Super Strong, this time, I'd opted for the Orvis).

So after re-rigging, I took extra care to avoid a threepeat tangle and executed an admittedly ugly lob out into the main current. That drift went smooth enough, though pitifully briefly, before drag set in and I had to flip upstream. When I did, you can probably guess what happened. Yep, three hideous tangles for one short drift.

This was all my bruised ego could take, and with a little louder muttering, I said, "You know what? F*** this." and chopped off the whole rig in favor of a weighted bugger that I started casting like a champ.

The rest of the day wasnt much better either. Lost close to a dozen flies with not even a bite to show for it. Got at least a dozen more tangles once I switched back to eggs, including one that claimed my leader in the name of chaos. Finally, after a backcast that tore my fly from the tippet, I gave the star-crossed day the final 'F- this' and headed for the car.

I guess its days like this that let us really appreciate the days where we're head back to the car in complete darkness, with the same leader and fly we left with, having caught 10 or 20 fish in the mean time.

I'm determined to salvage the day though: in a little while I'll be haded out to a little place with the best selection of imports and microbrews in the area.

Tune in...soon...for a review of a book I just finished reading this week!