Like I really need another annual fly fishing trip…

Like I really need another annual fly fishing trip…  To my wife it seems like i have one every month.  But, I just couldn’t resist when a buddy of mine asked me months ago.  This buddy is Ken Foersch, president of my high School, Crespi Carmelite, an all-boys catholic high school in Encino, CA.  Ken told me this father-son all guys fishing trip in Bishop started with his dad like 30 years ago.  And they have been fishing the lower Owens river every year since.  I told him I’d be happy to teach some of the younger boys how to fly fish.  Little did I know that would be the most fun part of the trip.

Firstly, I knew that some of my friends in “the club” would be able to help.  I serve in the San Diego Fly Fisher’s club and there was a club trip to bishop just a couple weekends prior.  I got a ton of guidance from my buddies in the club on what to expect.  But, what I didn’t expect to hear is that a few really good fly fishermen from the club did not do well at all.

I did well.  Arguably really well.  I fished it Thursday, Friday and Saturday… I got out of there just in time in the morning yesterday before the huge storm hit.  The wind on the way home was crazy…and mammoth took 4 feet of snow!

So I did the dawn patrol Thursday morning leaving at 4am so I could be on the water in time for the hatch.  The rest of the gang (which I had yet to meet) was not due to show up until that night and I wanted to figure out the river before they got there.

I was also pretty excited to fish a new rod.  I broke my go to 3 Wt. last year and got a ton of guidance from Mark Boname of North Platte River Fly Shop on its replacement.  I ended up buying a Temple Fork Outfitters BVK from the North Platte River Fly Shop.  What an awesome rod!  It casts the dries so well now I want to fish it everywhere.  It weighs only 2.4 Oz!  which makes it perfectly balanced with my super lightweight Lamson reel.  The BVK is a light, fast action rod, but has a soft sensitive tips.  So, it’s easy to cast like a fast action rod, but the feel is more like that really slow load on a medium action rod.  So fun to cast!  And what a great rod for the price!  It’s the only TFO rod I own and now I’m a big TFO fan.  Honestly I cannot wait to buy another TFO rod.

I decided on the way to bishop, that I would go to the head of the fly fishing only section (below the footbridge at the south end of the campground) of the Lower Owens River just to see how crowded it was.  I have never been able to fish there because there are always a ton of fly fisherman there; usually shoulder to shoulder.  Last year, two buddies of mine from the club just killed there.  To my surprise no one was there.  And the midge hatch was on.  I saw some rises in the bait section so I threw a midge adult floater just feet from my truck and boom!  2^nd cast and I had landed a nice wild brown.  “Hmmm… this could be a good day.”  And I was.  I fished a midge dry trailed by a midge emerger and did really well.  And then the BWO hatch went off…. so I switched to a light green bodied size 18 BWO and man, was that fun.  Once the hatches ended, pretty much so did the good fishing.  But, I had hooked 25 or so and landed half of them by 1pm.  The weird thing was that every fish was a wild brown in the 10” to 12” range.  I was not catching big fish, nor was I catching tiny fish.

I met all the guys that night….great group.  Totally fun.  some of them had fished the stocked section in bishop in the afternoon and they did pretty well on bass and stocked trout on traditional tackle.

Well, the next day (Friday) I headed right back out to the head of the Wild fly fishing only section and parked exactly where I did the day prior.  No one there.  “No way!” I said to myself.  “Where in the world is everyone?  Do I not know something they know?”  The reality was the opposite.  There was no one on the 3-mile section of the lower Owens river and the fishing was great.  And no one knew it but me.  I did even better this day.  I probably had > 30 takes on the dries and landed more than half of them.  But, the same cookie cutter 12” browns.  All of them.  That is weird.  When the hatch died off and the fishing came to a halt around 1:30 PM I switch to streamers and did the 2+ mile walk downriver hunting for troutzilla.  And I caught a few….but the same cookie cutter 12” browns.  Troutzilla may have stuck me.  I got hit so hard on the swing it almost knocked the rod out of my hand.  But, he didn’t stick.  I’ll never know.

The next day, Saturday was one of the most fun fly fishing days I have had in a long time.  It was the best part of the trip and I didn’t even fish; I guided.  And not only did I get to guide, but I got to guide a newbie 15 year old high school sophomore named Austin.  Great kid!

And no one was on the river again!  A Saturday!  I couldn’t believe it.  When we started I told Austin and his uncle Ken (who asked me to teach him): “You are not going to catch a fish today.  But, a great goal is to make you a proficient cast and see if we can fool a couple fish to rise to your drift.  You won’t land them, but I’d love to see you hook one.”   I taught him how to cast….and he was doing ok…and he got better… and he missed about 5 takes.  Which was awesome.  I was happy at that.  then he started hooking fish….and missing them….  And then it happened…. Just like god looked down on us and took pity … he made a perfect cast in between two swift seams…right into soft water.  He mended and his drift was perfect.  Whack!  A 12” brown hit him hard and he set perfectly…. Before I could even coach him he had the fish on the reel.  At this point I was pretty much doing cartwheels in joy and screaming the f word “f’ing awesome!  woo!  Play him!  Don’t reel him in… f’ing awesome!”  he swung the fish to my net…. “Woo!!!! “ I screamed that so loud the whole owens valley heard it….   And then I apologized to him for getting so excited and saying the F word.  He laughed.

Austin with his first fish landed on a fly rod!