Handling The Tuck

Handling The Tuck

4/17/25

 

 Evidently they didn’t release a bunch of water out of the dam the night before like they had been the last few days which caused high water and increased water flow. This morning we looked out the camper window and the conditions looked pristine.

 It was still chilly out so we took our time eating breakfast before suiting up. We were the only ones in the 5 row RV park and no one was staying at the club house. The camper overlooked the Tuckaseegee River just 25 yards or so down the grassy bank side. We were able to see the water level and clarity right from the camper window. The boys did well hooking up just across from the camper and down river some yesterday evening while I was tying buggers in the camper. The day before my youngest son and I caught a trout now and then early around the camper area and drove up to the project area and caught a few more. It wasn’t easy but we managed. 

 Most of the trout we’ve been catching were brook trout but every once in a while we’d catch a tugging rainbow. Nothing in the ‘BIG’ range but we were catching fish.

 After breakfast my youngest son and I suited up for morning fishing. It was around 10:00 and the sun was warming things up. The sun was over the tree tops by now and shining on the river water. The small surface waves looked like silver tinsel reflecting sunlight in a breeze. My son Giddeon was taking his two girls to their grandparents an 1/2 hour or so away but he’d be back by noon.

 My youngest son, Jesse Pete, entered the water and started fishing where the boys left off the day before. Heck, I figured those trout still had sore lips so I walked a ways upstream. There was a nice run of wavy water that deepened behind a flat shelved rock that barely broke the surface water. The rough waves gradually settled down, after the deep pool and flowed for about 20 yards or so before it got shallow. On the far side of the run was a smoother flow of water to the distant far side of the river. It wasn’t as dark as the water after the rock shelf but looked deep as I was able to see bottom under the glowing sun. 

 I started casting a bugger across stream and letting it swing. I switched offerings now and then without a strike. I knew there had to be trout in this long section of water but they just weren’t hungry yet? After a half hour I was starting to talk to myself, not out loud of course, but my thoughts were wondering why were the trout so picky? I put on an olive Woolly Bugger and was determined to wait them out till the breakfast bell rang.

 One drift, almost at the end of the swing, I saw a flash about where I figured my bugger to be. I didn’t feel a bump but I thought maybe a trout was interested. At the end of the swing a trout grabbed the bugger and I yanked back the rod to set the hook. As the 4 weight 9’ rod bowed you would of thought I snagged a floating log when the line tightened. Line shot threw the guides like a line attached to an arrow shot at a carp. The spool spun and spit out fly line in a jiff. Being that I cast and reel with my right hand I’m able to adjust the drag as needed with my left. I clicked the drag a couple of clicks but it didn’t slow the trout down right away. I wasn’t sure how far he was going but he definitely was in a hurry as if he was late for an important date. Downstream he rose to the surface and tugged and head shook spraying water everywhere. After this display he went under and surged up river. I reeled in line keeping the line tightened. 

 He got about right across from me and then raced downriver. I had to let line out as he was too strong to hold back. He surfaced again and splashed around before going deep and swam just about directly down from me. I moved my rod upstream and guided him into the flow as I reeled in line. He was too strong to force him my way so I moved the rod down stream to put side pressure on him. I let him swim with my side pressure without forcing him towards me because I knew the side pressure would help tire him more. Once he started coming my way I kept the rod level not wanting him to rise in the faster surface current in front of me. He turned with the current and swam downstream some. I didn’t give him free line but kept finger tension on the fly line. I turned the rod towered the bank trying to get him into slower current. He followed for an instant but didn’t like swimming in the slower current. He spun around, jerked his head like ‘over hear’ and swam just down from me as I moved the rod up river. He was getting closer so I got my net out and was ready for him. He surfaced and while splashing the surface water I scooped him up. What a nice rainbow for my first trout of the day. 

 Well that deserved a cigar. 

 I kept casting the Woolly Bugger and it was if someone rang the lunch bell at school. I started picking off trout here and there swinging the bugger. The rainbows were hitting the bugger on the swing and the brook trout usually were swatting at it at the end of the drift. Sometimes I was able to get a hook up but other times not. It was if the brookies were swatting at the bugger like a cat swatting at a hanging toy feather.  

  

 I started casting the bugger upstream in the deeper wavier current. I was following the drift as if nymph fishing watching my line. The line stopped upstream in the current and I reared the line back to set the hook. The line tightened and then went limp for a second so I lifted the rod up and back to keep tension. The line tightened again and cut through the water surface like a stainless steel wire cheese cutter through cheese. Once pass me the trout took off down river. He kept on going as if he was high tailing it out of trouble. Fly line peeled off the spool as the rod bowed and pointed and flexed down river. I had a feeling I had another good size rainbow. He wasn’t as strong as the first but he had a lot of fight. I got him swung around and after a bit got him netted. 

 I caught a few more before the water started to rise. The current got stronger and it was time to break for lunch anyhow. 

~doubletaper 

Rainbows on the 3 weight

 Rainbows on the 3 Weight

4/05/25

‘I didn’t camp along a trout stream to look out the window at the rain and cold while tying flies all day. I came to fish!’ 

 Wednesday, when I set up my camper, Tionesta Creek was pretty low and clear. From Wednesday through Friday, despite the occasional showers, the creek rose some with still good visibility. The sun shined most of the time and the air stayed moderate.  Saturday was another story.

 

 Friday night it poured down into early Saturday morning. By 8:00 the creek rose a lot and visibility was getting worse. I got out by 8:30 into the rainy morning. I was hoping to get into some trout before the creek turned too muddy and high. I assembled my 9’ Icon fly rod and headed to the creek. Out in open water my third cast landed my Woolly Bugger 2/3rd across creek. On the swing I felt a hard strike and set the hook. While I was playing the trout towards me is when I realized I may only have 6x tippet on the end of my tapered leader being I was fishing dry flies the week before. Near me, in the fast undercurrent, I took out the net and was ready to net what looked to be a 15” brown trout. The brown trout took off and the tippet snapped leaving me with a straightened 9’ rod and limp line. There was no use standing in the cold water and rain trying to tie new 4x tippet on. I waded out to the camper and proceeded to correct my mishap. By the time I got back in the water the creek rose some more and the cloudy conditions got worse. I fished for another few hours anyhow. There were a few other fishermen that tried their luck. I didn’t have anymore strikes and never saw anyone catch anything! 

 Later on I drove and checked out other smaller creeks and found they where high, muddy and running fast. I went back to camp disappointed but figured Sunday, if it doesn’t rain any more, the smaller streams should be well enough to fish.

 

Sunday 4/06

 I was up early and after a hot oatmeal breakfast I dressed warm and headed to the smaller creek. I already had my hip waders on and wading boots. I checked the thermometer before I left and it read 41 degrees. It was a misty sprinkling rain but I was going fish’n. 

 At the narrow creek I fitted the 3 weight 7’ Hardy rod sections together and attached a Woolly Bugger. I put my Ausie rain hat on and grabbed a few cigars. I walked right to the creek from the truck and stepped into the water, it was cold. Bare limbed trees over hung the narrow stream like a row of soldiers reaching out their sword towards each other, high above them, in the presence of the queen walking through. The creek had come down considerably overnight, not flowing so fast and with good visibility yet cloudy enough trout shouldn’t be too wary of an intruder. Though this was the second day of the opening season I doubt many fish were caught the day before because of miserable conditions, so they should have been unmolested. It turned out I was right. 

 On my third cast out I watched my fly line arc on the surface water as my Woolly Bugger swung down creek. At the end of the swing a trout struck the bugger so hard it nearly took the rod out my soft grip. I grasped the cork tighter and yanked back quickly and my first trout was on the line. It wiggled, fought and battled into the current all the way to the net. By 7:30 I had my first rainbow. 

 Each rainbow after that came in wildly like hyper kids at a birthday party, in a Bouncy House, after eating cake and ice cream. The trout rose to the surface splashing and kicking up water. I was catching one after another like it was the first day and the trout had no idea what a fisherman or fake bait was. In the next half hour or so I gave a lot of the local trout sore lips before another truck parked along side of mine.  

 I looked down creek and began my way to a section of water I knew was deep and usually held a good amount of trout. 

 I gradually fished my way down creek casting Woolly Buggers and streamers in deeper runs. I only caught one rainbow before I got to the section I was wanting to take time fishing.

 It didn’t take too long before I was hooking up very frequently with buggers and Triple Threats. The rainbows were just as wild jumping and carrying on like neighborhood kids taking turns jumping on an outdoor trampoline. They tossed and turned every which way trying to free themselves. Even in the net they squirmed around! 

 It was if they had no idea the mess they got themselves into getting hooked and fighting furiously against their will. I was picking off rainbow after rainbow with the streamers until the bite slowed down.  

 

 Being that all the trout I caught were rainbows I knew that rainbows liked red. I figured I’d fish beneath under an indicator with one of my bi-color San Juan worms. I had a bead head pink sucker spawn on my fly patch so I figured the UV yarn would get the fishes attention in the stained water and give the trout two choices of a meal. It was if I yelled out the door, to the neighborhood kids, it was snack time. The rainbows grabbed the combination without fear. My indicator would be pulled below and I’d yank the 7’er  up and set the hook followed by a tugging wild fight. I figured that lasted another hour or so before I lost the pair in a branch hanging from a log across the creek just up stream.  

 I dug another San Juan from my box of tricks. I didn’t have anymore bead-head sucker spawn but had a six pack of glo bugs I use for steelhead. I picked a pretty pink one out and tied it to my tapered leader. I knotted an a strip of 5x tippet and knotted on the San Juan. I lit another stogie and dipped my boots back into the creek.

 Casting up creek and letting the combination drift it was Deja vu all over again. Maybe not as quick and often but the rainbows liked the pink glo bug enough that after a while it looked like a glob of pink lint from a dryer filter. 

 It took another hour or so before I couldn’t get another strike. I knotted on a Woolly Bugger and caught a couple more hungry trout before heading back upstream. I caught one more trout in a semi-deep run before I got to my truck. Just for the heck of it I decided to try the pink glo bug right where I started from in the morning. I knew a couple of fishermen had fished the same spot while I headed down creek earlier but maybe they didn’t hook them all or didn’t have the right bait. I knotted on a pink egg pattern and crimped lead about a foot up from the egg to get it down quickly. I attached an indicator so I could adjust the length of line to the egg pattern as needed. The current was unsteady but with the indicator I was more sure the drift would go with the flow than without. Being that the current was fast and wavy I didn’t want my egg pattern to actually drag bottom as it might without the indicator plus there looked to be a rocky bottom. The indicator would keep my pattern above the rocks and looking like it just got swept under the current and heading down creek naturally. 

 ( Most of the time I try to figure things out according to conditions. It’s not that I might be right but it gives me confidence when I think things out. I believe confidence and patience catches more fish the dumb luck! )

 Well my thought process worked. Rainbows were taking the pink egg pattern like kids sharing pink cotton candy off a stick. One after another took the egg pattern. All I had to see was the indicator go under and I yanked the rod up. The indicator would follow with a tight line controlled by a mighty fighting rainbow.  

 

 By 3:00 I called it quits. I had fun for the day and it started to get chillier out. I undid my waders, wiped off and packed the Hardy Demon back in its case. I was ready for a hot bowl of chili back at the camper. 

~doubletaper