Mini TR: Getting ready for NC

[Disclaimer: The "trip" was mini, but as usual, the report is long
and wordy.]

I haven't been fishing nearly enough recently, so I figured it was
time for me to get some time on the water. I'll be heading off to
Nawth Cackalacky a week from Saturday, so I took my TFO 3-wt. for a
spin (so to speak). The target water was a medium-sized river barely
15 minutes from my workplace. I figured I'd do a little exploring on a
stretch I had never fished before.

I bought one of the Cortland "precision" lines (available in "half
weights") a while back to try it on my Scott S3, and was happy with how
it performed, but figured I'd check it out on the TFO, as I will
probably use the TFO at least as much as the Scott on the trip. (The
Scott is faster than I'm accustomed to, having cut my teeth on Fenwick
HMG's back in the early 80's. I figure the slower TFO will likely be
handy when fishing short like I expect to in N.C., and I won't be as
worried about it when climbing through rhodos and such.)

Anyhow, the stretch of river looked promising, as it had a nice
series of pools, some of which had been enhanced by obviously manmade
rock diversion "dams". The first one I came to was in the shade of a
huge cypress, and had a decent population of green sunfish that I could
see from the bank. I tied on a concoction of mine that somewhat
resembles a bee (#12 dry fly hook with a yellow body, palmered yellow
grizzly and yellow grizzly tail). This thing is sort of like
Wolfgang's fave the Pass Lake in that it's a dry fly except when it
wants to be a "damp" fly, and it seems about equally effective both
ways for sunfish. Also, I forgot to pack my Frog's Fanny, so it was
going to be a bit more damp than usual. Nevertheless, it worked fine
for those sunfish.

The TFO responded pretty nicely to the half-weight overline; I was
mostly rollcasting and sidearming under the trees with a short line
out, and the extra weight seemed to help give it more life. It
certainly liked it better than the Sylk 3-wt. which I had tried on it
and just didn't seem to load it enough, especially at short distances.


I was having fun catching little guys when I spotted a larger shape
in the shallows off of the feeding lanes. I expected carp, as there is
a large population of them throughout the river. But, this was a large
bass (for that river) of 14-15". He was slowly cruising the shallows,
seemingly indifferent to the presence of the sunfish (and myself, even
though I was less than 10' from him). Seeing that I hadn't yet spooked
him, I figured I'd try to fish for him. The problem was that I had
thrown a bunch of small flies for the 3-wt. in my box, and I figured I
didn't have anything substantial enough to get his interest.

The "meatiest" thing I had was some #10 parachute hoppers, so I cut
back the tippet some and tied one of those on. I plopped it out in
front of him and got no response. He didn't spook either, so I tried
approaching him from various angles. Nothing ... he just finned
himself and paid absolutely no attention to me. Eventually he moved
off to the deepest end of the pool where I could no longer see him.

I decided to rest that pool and continue upriver. Just for laughs I
left the hopper on and went exploring. The next stretch of river was a
series of long, shallow, wide runs over rocky bottom with very few
pools. But there was an undercut baqnk on the opposite side, so I did
a little wading to get at those spots. Once again, the green sunfish
were cooperative (I sometimes wonder if it even matters what you throw
at them if they are active). This stretch gave me a chance to let out
some line and see how the TFO would handle long casts with the line. I
was pleased to see that it really handled it well. So I think I'll
wind up using the Sylk with the Scott and the "precision" with the TFO.

Anyhow, I didn't catch any bass, and the sunfish weren't large, but
I got some stalking, casting and wading practice. Plus as I was
walking back out the clouds gave up a nice gentle shower; just enough
to cool me down a bit.

All in all, not a bad way to spend a morning.


Chuck Vance