A Saturday Afternoon On The Weber

OK, I finally got out fly fishing again. Last Saturday was just too gorgeous to pass up. I headed to the Weber River like quite a few other fisherman. In fact, the first access point I drove to had what I considered a crowd so I drove to another. I noticed the other fisherman at this access point had headed upstream so I headed downstream. I worked my way down to a spot where the river was quite shallow all the way across and crossed the river. I went upstream a bit from there to a deep hole that I had noticed from the other side. The sun was out and I could see midges on the water. I tied on a Rainbow Warrior to imitate the hatching midges and a scud imitation to imitate, of course, the scuds that are always present. Scuds are always in the stomach pump samples I take from the trout I catch in this river. After adding 2 BB size split shot I was able to get the flies to reach the bottom and was rewarded with a strike. This ended up being a large 19 inch white fish just as I expected to catch a lot of in the winter. Two other fishermen using Rapalas were working their way upstream. I inquired as to their success, and they mentioned they had caught a couple of 16 or 17 inchers. I assumed this meant 16 or 17 inch brown trout although in the next hole they caught a 16 or 17 inch white fish. I was amazed that the white fish could fit a Rapala in its mouth.

Soon the sky turned cloudy and the browns began to feed. I lost track of how many I caught. Upon catching one particular trout, my leader ended up being tangled more than I had the patience to undo. I cut the line and in a hurry tied on a larger, size 18 Rainbow Warrior on a 3X fluorocarbon dropper. I then tied on a smaller; size 22 Rainbow Warrior on 4X fluorocarbon as the point fly. I immediately caught another brown and noticed it had taken the fly tied on the 3X tippet. This situation often makes me wonder how much I can get away with in regard to tippet size. Will I catch more fish on a 4X or 5X, or will I catch just as many on a 3X? How about a 2X? Of course the immediate advantage of using the thicker 3X would be fewer tangles. Another advantage is that if I happen to hook a fish that would test the strength of my tippet, the 3X would hold up better. Theoretically the advantage of the 5X would be the ability to fool more fish. The trout certainly weren’t shy around the 3X this day, even with the water low and clear.

Soon the sky cleared up again and it was nice and sunny. Or, should I say yucky and sunny as the trout stopped feeding. Even in a particular stretch where I can always count on a good trout or two, I only caught a white fish. It was another large white fish which I kept for smoking along with two others. All the trout I immediately released after a good fight and maybe a picture or two.