The Sipper

 

The Sipper

5/26/22

 Brian and I were smallmouth fishing top water up river from the campers. He was using top water lures with his spin rod and I was using poppers with my 6 weight fly rod. We came to an area of the river where quite a few fish were rising. The thinnest tippet I had was 4x with a 2x tapered bass leader. I did have a few caddis and nymphs on my fly patch and I gave it a try. They didn’t want anything to do with my caddis but I did catch one smallmouth on the sulfur nymph before I got snagged up. We both did catch a smallmouth or two before returning to camp for lunch. One of my last casts, before wading out, I casted a popper and was gurgling it back to me. A fish pounced on the popper from behind like a cat on a field mouse scampering across pavement. I played the fish to the net and was surprised it was a brook trout.

 

  After lunch and a nap in late afternoon I was ready to go try for the risers upriver. I happened to walk to the river to see if there was a hatch going on before gearing up. I saw one swirl midstream. There wasn’t a Mayfly in sight. When I saw the same fish in the same place sip something on top I just figured it was a small lonesome trout sipping the many midges hovering around.

  Back at camp I told Brian about the one lonesome sipper. I got my trout gear on and flies. I assembled my G2 Scott 5 weight and was deciding to go for the sipper before going upstream. I though maybe using him as an indication others might be rising up river. Kinda like when I saw the neighborhood ground hog out milling around. I would go ground hog hunting figuring other would be out.

  I knotted on a #18 para-dun sulfur because sulfurs have been coming off throughout the past few days. I told Brian I was going to get the sipper. He told me if I hook him to yell out “Got’em.” As I was crossing the road he told me to make’m rise.

  I waded through the shallow water just far enough to reach the sipper and far enough away from the bank behind me to avoid the tree line. I false casted to get line out and casted up steam from the last known rise. After 2 tries and no takes I casted elsewhere not to spook the sipper. Within a minute he rose again so I changed my course and tried for him again. I watched my para-dun drift towards the sipper and he rose and sucked it in like he had no doubt it was another tasty bug on the surface. I’m sure when I yanked back the rod and the line tightened he was in a surprised shock! With a couple of head shakes he took off, taking line, across and down river to get away cause I think he knew he was in a heap of trouble. I can tell by the bent rod and force I didn’t have THAT little sipper. I chuckled, holding a stogie between my teeth and yelled out “Got’em!” The fish swam upstream and into the current. The sun was bright and it gave me the vision of this long fish I knew was a trout. He quickly turned away and went deep taking tensioned line out again. I could feel the G2 flexing into the mid section the whole time I fought the line tugging trout.

  During the battling action I had him close enough to net but the angle wasn’t the best. From behind I got his tail and up to his gill in the net, and feeling the net I suppose, he splashed water with his tail and shot forward out of the net. Instead of continuing upstream, to my left in which I was facing, he swung around me towards the bank. I only knew this is because all of a sudden I saw the leader right before my eyes. I immediately spun around with him with the rod high in the air not wanting to get caught up. After the pirouette act he swan down river once more but not as aggressive or heavily. Once again I played him to the net and this time I was going to make pretty sure he was going in head first. He gave up a good effort not to be netted, splashing, twisting and carrying on but I finally netted him. In the meantime Brian was on the bank capturing the last minute or so on video. The trout didn’t have the deepest colors of a wild brown but I’m sure it’s been in the river for quite some years.

 I still wonder, by the way he fought never wanting to give up, if he was ever caught before?

  After a couple of quick pics, and knowing all the energy he exerted, I just clipped the tippet and let him take the sulfur with him. I dropped the net and watched him swim free. He settled to the bottom with gills pulsating. After 10 seconds or more I slowly moved my foot towards him and he swam off never looking back.

  After that escapade I walked up the road and down into the river where Brian and I had saw the risers earlier. There weren’t many and the ones I saw weren’t feeding heavily. Though I didn’t see any mayflies drifting the few fish evidently were sipping something off the surface at will. There were two across river coming up quite often. I tried for them quite a few times but they were not to be fooled. In the meantime I got a few to rise on a sulfur and caught two brown trout on a #12 March Brown. One lengthy brown put up a good tugging match with me.

  By then it was around 5:30. I made a few more casts and called it a day. Time for dinner and a campfire.

 

~doubletaper