Friday, July 19, 2013

The Dropper Rig Part Two

I wanted to try the dropper trick again so I headed up to the "secret" lake this morning. If you haven't read the last post, please do so as it will explain a lot of what I did this morning.

Since it was supposed to be hot this afternoon I headed out at 0700 and got to the lake around 0745. Last time I fished over there by the dam.  

Over there on the dam
And as you know the dropper trick went down the toilet with the line wrapped around the railing and fly rod. In the picture below you can see how the rail is situated along the dam and also in the distance is where I went this morning. 

The inlet
I started with the same rig as Monday. A Prince Nymph with a Copper John dropper under an indicator. To understand what happened, I want to explain that the water as it comes out of the inlet circles around eventually swings back by shore. So occasionally I'd have to strip in the line and put it back out again.

On about the sixth time I cast out the flies again, they remained in the Blackberry bushes behind me. Just a note about flies in Blackberry bushes, impossible to find. Also no interest in the offering.

Re-rigged this time with a Pheasant Tail Flash Back on the top and a Beadhead Pheasant Tail dropper. Thought I'd try something else since I didn't get any interest on the other rig. After six or so turns without interest and with a little surface feeding, I changed to a big yummy yellow Stimulator.

I let the Stimulator float around out there (almost to the backing) for a while and still nothing. The only bug moving around was a damsel that looked like it was laying eggs. I didn't have anything in my box that would imitate that so I put down the fly rod and gave my little Okuma a try with some Kastmasters.

After a while I grabbed my gear and walked over to the dam and lo and behold Rick (from the last post) was back again. We gabbed about different places we've fished and threw some Kastmasters, but here again we were fishless.

With some chores to attend to because the temperature is on the way back up again, in fact the Valley is expecting 102 today and 105 tomorrow and even though I live higher up, there are still things needed to be done because of the heat, I headed back home. It's easy to run up to the "secret" lake when it's only 20 miles from home and fish for a few hours.       

I can see from my performance this morning that I need a lot of practice casting a dropper rig or any rig with an indicator for that matter. I was less than graceful bordering on pathetic, but it is something I'm determined to master. I just have to watch out for the Blackberry bushes in the future.

All thoughts and suggestions accepted, although I make no promises that I will follow them, but suggest away. 

Mark

7 comments:

  1. No suggestions Mark, but it did raise a question for me. Do you still/did you ever fish running water? Just curious.

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    1. The water coming out of the flume is running, is that what you mean? Or are you talking about nymphs in a creek or river?

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    2. Mark, I am curious as to what Howard was curious about too. If you see him will you tell him I am curious as to what he speaks of.

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    3. No guys, I'm assuming that throwing a fly or lure in the flume would be like throwing one into a faucet. I mean do you/have you ever fished streams and river as compared to lakes.

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    4. I'm confused Howard, do mean like the American River (Yes), Cosumnes River (Yes), Mokelumne River (Yes), like that? All with a fly rod. Oh, and the flume, 10 feet wide and 6 feet deep. No faucet there.

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  2. Bummer no fish but what a beauty of a secret lake. Hope your back is better.
    Tight Lines

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    1. Hey Callan. I was just at the doctors for my yearly checkup and told him that the back trouble was payback for 30 years in warehousing.

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