The situation:
Silver Creek's "S-Turns." On the outside of one bend, across very deep
water and faster currents, lies a VERY nice trout feeding during a baetis
hatch but clearly on nymphs about 6 inches down.
The cast is longish, for spring creek fishing, and difficult as the fish is
in a slow water strip about 8 inches wide near the far shore and there is
much faster water on your side but close to him.
You choose a #20 Sawyer PT ( the kind with the copper wire thorax ) since
you've had very good luck fooling baetis eaters with it for years. After a
few trial casts to his rear, to judge distance and the effects of the
currents, to decide on a type of "tucky' pile" cast that is ugly but drops
considerable slack at the far end of the tippet, hopefully to avoid instant
drag.
You launch the effort and watch your fish. Nothing you can remember seeing
says "set" but something does and you lift to feel him and see him ****ed at
the irritation in his jaw.
He briefly turns away, towards the far shore, but then nearly instantly he
runs AT you and down into the depths between you, much faster than you can
gather slack. There he dives into deep weeds and you can feel him throbbing
through the rod, or maybe it's just the weeds in the current and he's
already broken the 6x and is gone. ?
You canNOT get to him, the water is too deep, nor above him or below him
directly, same problem.
You seem to be connected to a fish that would be "the trout of the season"
if you can land him but he has his ass dug into deep, heavy weeds.
The solution:
Mine wasn't one and after some waiting, tentative tugging, trying to get a
different angle on him and rather extensive use of bad language I grabbed
the leader and tugged until something broke and moved on down the lovely
stream.
Although, on the spring creeks that comprise 95% of my fishing, I encounter
heavy weed growth and fish that know how to use it on a regular basis, I
admit that I don't know "the right" way to deal with a fish gone to weed, or
even have a decent repertoire of "right ways" to try.
YOURS?
I'm all ears ... what would you do?
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