Not Being Picky
6/01/26
Clarion river has an assortment of fish in the river. The last few days I’ve been targeting trout with dry flies, nymphs and Woolly Buggers. I wanted to fish a different area along the river where I know smallmouth bass and trout both inherit the water. Not that the other place didn’t but I usually catch more bass than trout where I was going to fish. I usually use a 6 weight fishing the river for bass and tempt them with poppers more than streamers. My 5 weight Icon was already ready to go so I took it out of the truck and knotted on a Woolly Bugger.
I carefully made my way along the side of the road and down the bank to the river. Shin deep along the bank I took time to look the conditions over. The sky was light blueish with white puffy clouds that appeared to float above in no hurry if you watch them long enough. The sun was out and was warming the morning. The river flowed clear across without any visible obstacles above the surface water. I could tell the hidden obstacles beneath by the swirls in the surface current. Any hazards stuck to the bottom I wasn’t sure. Other than the birds chirping every once in a while I’d hear or see a couple of geese down river. I felt alone but there was a road on each side of the wide river and occasionally a vehicle would pass by. Other than that I was the only one on the river fishing as far as I could see.
I figured I’d start off casting the bugger in the faster riffling wavy water that didn’t look more than thigh high deep. I wasn’t sure how far across I would be able to wade so when I did I was careful about it and really didn’t get as far across as I wanted. No matter, I was out far enough that I had plenty of room for a long backcast which gave me plenty of distance for a forward cast. Casting out among the riffling waves and fast current I felt my bugger wasn’t getting down deep enough on the swing. I brought in line and added a small split shot at least 15” above the bugger. This might seem a lot but I wanted the bugger to swing without touching bottom and I also felt the bugger would swing more freely than the weight being closer to the bugger.
I was puffing on my cigar and was as relaxed as I could be. No rush to cast to any certain spot on the river. I knew there had to be fish in there and would only hook one if one happen to be hungry. I hadn’t seen anyone wade fishing the area and usually the fishermen in canoes and kayaks don’t usually have anchors. They may pull over in a back eddy behind a big boulder along the bank but there were none in the area I was fishing for them to do so. Though it is a Monday, with lots of activity on the river the weekend before, the fish are used to that and I didn’t feel they would be too worried about feeding. I mean I’m sure we all have been in restaurants were there was many unruly, noisy people but we still eat our meal and try to just tune them out. I imagine the fish are the same way. As long as no one is swimming near them or throwing stones near them they aran’t going to move much and if food passes by, if their hungry, they are going to grab it.
Slowly wading down river and casting out I had 2 hookups but was unable to get them very close at all to net them and I thought ‘here we go again!” A few days ago I hooked up several time in the faster current but couldn’t keep them on the hook. I know I was going to let them go anyway but I would have at least liked to get an eyeball on them.
One offer a fish grabbed the bugger as it was swinging. The line straightened on the surface water before I yanked the rod up and stripped the line in. The fish fought, tugging the line, where he grabbed the bugger before taking off down creek. Playing the fish towards me against the undercurrent was a challenge. I didn’t horse him in as I did the others but I wasn’t going to have him have his way swimming long. I got him to the slower water between me and the bank and got him netted. A nice brown trout laid in my net.
Continuing wading slowly and casting the bugger out, pretty much as far as I could, I caught a couple of nice rainbows that looked like they were well fed.
I was pretty much down creek from the faster riffling water where the water was a bit calmer and looked deeper. The bugger swung a lot slower which I figured was drifting deeper. A fish grabbed the bugger almost at the end of the drift. I lifted and yanked the rod back and the fish was on. I knew I had a husky fish and soon learned he wasn’t going to be easy getting to the net. I wasn’t surprised by sure glad I didn’t catch him in the faster current. We fought back and forth not giving each other much time to rest. It took time but I got him in the net safely. He was a nice bronze colored smallmouth!
By now the sun was up above the river and everything around me was quite lit up. The hillside downriver looked greener, the puffy clouds above looked whiter. The river water surface looked like a wrinkled satin sheet, shimmering under the sunlight, across and down river. I puffed on my stogie and relaxed a bit enjoying the scenery.
I wasn’t getting any hook ups down river any more so I went back up where I started and figured I’d spend another 1/2 hour or so covering the water I had already fished.
I was still swinging the Woolly Bugger with every cast. I was a bit out further than before in just over my knees. I was making long casts out and across though, because of the gusts of wind on occasion, I wasn’t sure where my bugger was going to fall. Being that I was in deeper water I would let the bugger swing straight down from me. On one occasion, after the bugger got to the end of the drift, down from me, I started to slowly strip it towards me. A fish grabbed the bugger as if it wanted to tear it apart, like a hate crime! After I tightened the line on him he pulled back with force and headed to the faster riffling current out in the river. I tightened my grip on the cork handle as line stripped through the guides and eyes as if an airplane took off the runway with a banner attached. The fast action rod arced into the midsection and I knew I had a good fish. It stayed beneath pretty much the whole ordeal so I wasn’t sure if it was a brown trout or a husky smallmouth. We had a good battle like two kids tugging on each end of a stuffed animal in the playground. Neither of us were giving in. The funny thing was both of us was going to lose if we both lost out grip on the toy we were tugging. He wasn’t coming in very easily and trying to disrupt his fight I would move the rod towards the bank. When he followed and tugged, I’d swing it back to my right. I guess I was trying to confuse him but doing So I wasn’t able to get him closer to me. I backed up towards the bank so I was in water just below my knees. I was coaxing him upstream in the riffling current. When he got, just down from me, I swung the rod towards the bank and lifted it. I had already had my net out dangling from the elastic cord to my belt. I grabbed the net with my left had and as I raised the bowing rod, he came up from the bottom shaking his body to no avail. I netted him cleanly. He was a nice brown trout that looked like he lived in the river for quite a few years!
Downriver I was casting a bugger in the slower water. I was waiting for my cigar to burn down before wading back up river and to the place I entered the river. I made a couple of long casts across the river and let them drift into the slower current. I saw the end of my fly line dip down and I felt a nudge. I lifted the rod quick with a hard wrist set. The line came off the water and the line tightened. I felt a head shake and then the line took off down and away. I knew I had something with some muscle. He didn’t head shake or twist and turn quickly like a trout but used his muscle and weight to guide the line and rod tip where he wanted to go. We had a good battle and I was glad we were in the slower current. Eventually I got him in the net. Another fine bronze back got its picture taken.
By now the sun was high above and in full view. I swear it was getting hotter by the minute. After that I made a couple more casts but called it a day and headed back up to the truck.
~doubletaper
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