Wind Knots And Tailing Loops

 The month of April is in the rear view mirror. Despite my complaints about not finding good hatches it was my third best April ever, in numbers of fish caught. The percentage of fish over 17 inches (36%) was down slightly from last year but the number of fish in the nineteen inch column (the 2018 year class) showed that many of them are still around. The most encouraging part of my catch statistics were the numbers of two and three year olds which appeared system wide. 

There were only three questions all month, I assume from this that you have all the answers, and just maybe I should be the one doing the asking.

Dennis wanted to know about articulated dry flies. I'm clearly not the one to ask as I thought they were a streamer type thing.

Jack McD  asked when the evening fishing starts. Some of the evening fishing is weather (temperature) related. Hendrickson and paralep spinners are apt to fall in the middle of the afternoon (warmest part of the day), in the evening on warm days and even in the morning if it's warm enough. The epic upriver flights of apple caddis occur in the evening with the spinner fall just before dark. The first evening hatch is probably the Gray Fox, followed by the Invaria (spring sulfurs). Wind interferes not only with casting but with spinner falls, so the best evening fishing usually occurs on warm quiet nights. I caught two big rainbows last night sipping spent caddis in a still water pool just before dark. 

Jim N. asked what changes I made to my equipment to cast in the wind. The simple answer is none. My eight foot four weight Winston is put together in April and taken apart in October. It is equipped with a double taper line, a twelve foot leader plus about three feet of six x tippet. I've bone fished on ocean flats for over forty years and the wind is probably less of a problem to me than the average trout fisherman. If there is a lot of wind I do try to fish places that are protected from the wind as much as possible. I also try to fish from the side of the stream where the wind is blowing the line away from my casting arm rather than into it. I'm still working on having enough patience to wait for a gust to let up before making a cast, (maybe when I get a little older).

With the questions out of the way, I want to thank everyone who has taken the time to report on their trips to the river. Your reports help keep us all up to date on what is happening throughout the entire river system. 

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