The Alaska Board of Fisheries recently
passed a ban on felt-soled wading boots to help stymie the spread of invasive aquatic organisms. This, along with the fact that my wading garb has been in various states of disarray for quite some time, made it great to receive a new set of
Simms G4 wading boots for my birthday.
Since these boots won't catch fish by themselves, I headed out after work on Friday for some flexible rod sampling.
Evan's aggressive wading:
The venerable FMF:
I caught my first fish, a smaller rainbow, almost immediately stripping a FMF. After hooking and losing another two quick fish using the same technique, things seemed to go stale and I spent a while trying different flies. Flesh patterns: nothing. Black leeches: nope. Hare's ear, prince and yellow stone nymphs: nada, nil and zilch. Ultimately, I went back to the FMF but, instead of stripping, I let it dead drift below an indicator. Almost immediately I was back into fish, landing a couple more rainbows and a nice grayling. Lesson learned: never doubt the FMF.
Here's one of the rainbows getting an up-close-and-personal view of the new boots:
And one last parting shot of Sam with another fun rainbow:
5 comments:
Glad you learned your lesson, the FMF rules with an iron fist!
Was the FMF the only fly to land an adult fish?
-Josh
Yup, for me anyway.
While I certainly admire the prowess of the FMF, I landed my adult fishes on a copper/orange colored ottis bug!
And that, my friends, is how there came to be only two flies of consequence in southcentral Alaska.
Nicely done Sam. And agreed Austin. While i am biased, I think those two flies account for around 95% of my anadromous fish successes.
Tight lines,
Josh
><((((*> ><((((*>
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