Tails You Win, Heads You Lose

A few weeks ago I was fishing one of our northern rivers for Landlocked Salmon. The water was very high, the highest I have ever seen. After working hard all morning in slack water areas and behind boulders, without success,  I made my way back toward the car and met a few very interesting people.  Two Canadians, a couple who had just purchased property in the Great North Woods, and a fellow from Vermont named Mark Wilde.  After a longer time than I am usually willing to take from my fishing day, I'm not anti social but compulsively driven,  Mark and I decided to head down river together and fish a long straight run that is a staging area when the fish are on the move.  My good friend Leo was working his way down river caught up and the three of us made cast after cast and saw nothing at all.

Next we decided to give two different locations a go.  Leo and I went to the top end in the car and Mark wanted to try some of the middle runs. We would meet at 2pm to go to another river and fish for big browns.

Mark is a fishing guide in the state of Vermont and getting another river into my experience would be a positive on the day even if no fish came to hand.

Well let's just say I was a bit off the game.  I found myself sitting down on a big rock as Leo made a difficult trek down river to fish a few pools from river right.   Now close to 2pm I was hap hazardously throwing a few casts in the upper run when it happened.  Bang, I brought a nice nineteen inch salmon to net.  Leo showed up and while he was going to get Mark it happened again.  Another nineteen inch salmon.  I swear they were the same fish.

As Mark and Leo returned we exchange some info and I gave Mark the fly that was working.  Later he showed me the flies that work for him and the difference in the style and sizing was startling.   My box was full of small size 16 nymph like creations and his was chock full of leach looking stone fly  patterns in a number of colors.  The most interesting part of the fly was that they all keel point up.  They are weighted on the top and sides of the hook so that when in the water the hook point rides up and does not hang up as much.  This fishing requires a bottom presentation and this tying technique offers a way to fish more and tie knots a bit less.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention that we continued to hook a few fish.

So thanks to Mark I now have a piece of the puzzle confirmed for the next post.  Maybe I will call it "Loosing Weight One Shot At A Time"

Mark catches fish.  He is available as a guide and I recommend  that you give him a call.  He can be reached through this link: Uncle Jammer Vermont Guide Service.