Fly of last resort PT 2

Last nite I went back to a dam on the Mo to check out the large
rises I had seen from the dam walkover the nite before as I was
leaving. I spent most of the day tying flies and had made some
green neons with a small cdc wing and some olive sparkle duns.

I got there around 6 30 and fish were rising tho all I saw were
a sparse hatch of those neons things. I put on some 4x and a
dryfly and threw at them. This was big water as it was right below
the dam. Somewhat flat but with lot s of swirls from the strong
current which ran underneath. Basically it was throw the fly out and
wait. Well nothing took the fly and after about 10 mins I could
see why!

What I took for rises were actually salmon comming near the
surface and frolicing in this big pool. Some of them started to
breach and were they big , probably around 6- 8 pounds. I cut the
4x back to 3X and put the wooly bigger back on.

Deciding with the remaining daylight I d rather fish for trout I
hustled down the river moving quickly thru a couple small
riffles to get to the water I favored. In the beginning of the
riffle I picked up a nice fat 18" bow and soon after a smaller 12. I
moved down about as far as I could go and after a couple casts
threw to the right into some deep slower water. I was rewarded with
an immediate take and then it was off to the races. The line whipped
thru the slow water so fast it couldn t catch up with itself and
while part of it was still in front of me off in the fast riffle
to the left a large fish leapt clear of the water and tried to
shake the bugger. What a fish ! He ran all over the river and
eventually I played him back into the slower water and even then I
had trouble getting him to the net. He measured 22" and was very
heavy. He was exhausted and I spent 5 mins moving him back and
forth thru the water until he could swim off on his own. A fish I
hope I ll remember for a long time.

I headed back to the first riffle which I rarely fish as dark
was descending and picked up 2 more in very fast water. Usually I
by pass water running this swiftly as it s hardly worth throwing a
nymph into this sort of maelstrom but they seem to like the bugger fine
in these conditions.

It was now dark and a full moon was coming over the mountain behind
the dam. There was no wind and the nite was cool but waders and a
tee shirt sufficed. I decided to go back and watch the salmon for
awhile and smoke a pipe. They were swimming right next to shore and
porpising all over. Some guys were there fishing bait and I asked
them if they were after the salmon. They demurred and said they were
after the rainbows that were following them around. I still had the
Bugger on so I figured what the heck.

I threw at the fish sporting close to shore and sure enough I had a
take. I set the hook and whatever it was just headed out and there
was nothing I could do to stop it but hold on. Well into my backing
the hook popped out and never got to see what is was I had hooked
but whatever it was, it was big , strong and my imagination can fill
in the details for the future......


I did fish for another 1/2 hour or so in the dark without any more
takes. I followed some of the advice given here about keeping more
slack in the line so the fish could turn and hook himself and it
resulted in more consistent hookups. I m grateful to those who
offered this.

Tonite I m thinking about going back and using some of the PIke fly s
Chas Wade graciously gave me on the Glacier Clave. Perhaps the
Salmon maybe interested in them.....

MT