The shadow knows ...

Sometimes the most tricky part of writing one of these posts is
coming up with a suitable title ... why everyone wants a title in a
suit I don't know. ;-)

A day spent fishing a creek can certainly wash away the effects of
seemingly endless exam marking, breast thumping and sack cloth
wearing students, thank god.

The creek is liberally laced with with rainbows and the odd brown -
the browns can be of kingly proportions 5lb plus and I suspect they
dine on rainbow which are generally much more diminutive. What
never ceases to amaze me though is how well these big fish blend in
to their environment. I picked one up 2.5 lb under the rod tip
last weekend and really only realised its size when it turned away
and I saw the gills flare. The dark undercut of a mid-stream rock
no bigger than the fish itself provided enough cover for it to be
invisible form above in 2-3 feet of clear water.
On release it made for the high bank and hid itself under a rock
ledge - well almost - while the ledge was deep and took the full
width of the fish easily - its tail clearly visible hanging out the
downstream end of its bolt hole.

Of course many fish are visible in the clear water and putting
nymphs or drys in front them is somehow more of thrill
than blindly searching the shadows in hope. Some of these fish are
quite simply dull-witted though. Several times we had multiple
takes from the same fish on consecutive casts - both nymphs and
drys.
Then again, you'll come across a fish that moves to your fly
several times and rejects it. One in particular moved to the
beetle I was using four times before I changed to a midge pattern
that he took first drift. On release this fish resumed station, it
was tempting but we resisted the urge to see if he'd have another
crack.

Walking back to the car, conversation briefly touched on the
quality of the fishing and lingered long on how lucky we were to
have the creek so close and relatively untouched. Of course "who
knows what lurks in some of the deep shadowy undercuts ..." crossed
our minds once or twice two ...



Emidgant (or Shallow Midge Pupa)

Hook: Curved caddis type #18
Tail: Single strand of pearl Crystal Flash 2*hook length
Body: Very very very sparsely dubbed with mid-green dubbing
on green thread.
Hackle: Paraloop style medium dun genetic cock saddle over thorax.

Fly should hang with tail and body submerged on the support of the
hackle. Only grease the hackle if you need to. With so few
materials to sop up the wet stuff it drys with a single false cast.

(Idea Scavenged from "Deep Midge Pupa" which is also a good pattern
downunder. Came via a mate who read about it in Flytyer (or its
latest incarnation) - the issue lost in the midst of time)


Steve