3/23 report & ?

Made it out fishing on Sunday for the 1st time since September. Sure was a beautiful day. I caught about 25, but almost all were around 8″. Used a prince and FB PT almost the entire time. Never saw a rising fish the entire day. I caught 90% of them on the PT.

Largest i caught was 14″, but I did manage to land 24 inches worth of fish at the same time. Had my first ever double. The second fish was swimming around while I played the first one I hooked. I saw it open its mouth a couple times so I tried to hold the first fish in place a little better, and the second fish took the trailing nymph. Reminded me of smallmouth fishing where it’s fairly common to get a buddy swimming along.

I finally had to quit because I got frustrated. It got really windy and I ended up with a couple really bad tangles that forced me to cut everything off and retie. It happened twice in 3 casts after having no problems the rest of the day. I did fish for a little while with a bead head nymph with no split shot or strike indicator after that and I couldn’t believe how much easier that was to cast. My casting was more accurate and the line layed out much better. That made me question my casting. Is there something I might be doing wrong when I’m casting 2 files, a split shot, and a strike indicator? I know that is naturally more error prone, but I was wondering if I should do or concentrate on something different when casting with all that stuff on?

I had the same problems on several occasions Sunday, and I fish A LOT. I think the main problem is that you were using two flies on a windy day. The room for error in this situation is not very high. One thing I find with wind is that you need to remember to get enough line out to actually carry your flies, so make sure when you’re false casting that you definitely have enought line out. I’m not sure I answered your question, but that’s just my two cents.

Dave,

Thanks for the advice. I’ll keep that in mind. I’ve been fishing for trout in SE MN for over 40 years, but just started fly fishing last year. Luckily I’ve had some good people to help me get started and speed up the learning curve. I really appreciate all the personal help I’ve received as well as what I’ve picked up on-line from places like this. Thanks again.