09-23 REELLIFE digital - Flipbook - Page 23
“The Dance Of Fly
Fishermen” - By
Matt Carey
There are so many moving
parts in fishing. Fly fishing
is no exception to this
interwoven connection
between man, reel, and fish.
On a trip with CrossCurrents
Fly Shop, owner Chris Stainer
even commented on my
happy feet when hooked up
on a fish. My rocking back
and forth on the boat didn’t
make it any easier for him
to row, no doubt. But, what
would you expect? I had a
blue ribbon trout on the other
side of my line! This was clearly
an added moving part to the
entire fishing experience. Line
screaming out of the reel, a
solid sized trout head shaking
and fighting, and me doing
my best to shift the weight in
the drift boat created some
man-made currents. All this
made for a memorable trip
on the Missouri River outside
of Craig, MT.
These swarms of bugs were
never annoying - no biting
or buzzing around your
head. They were part of the
ecosystem in such a simple
way that you might not
notice it unless an expert
pointed out their significance.
The battle between you
and fish is another dance to
experience, a jig if you will,
this time with your aquatic
partner. Once the fish has
been hooked, navigating
and steering it as best you
can through the water is a
balance of both strength
and finesse. Objects like
weeds can be a challenge
and weigh down the fish,
giving him “brass knuckles”
as you fight him into the
boat. Manipulating the fish
is crucial. During a fight with
a particularly nice rainbow,
maybe 18 or 19 inches in size,
it felt like I was pulling up a
10lb fish with the amount
Another graceful display to
of stringy green weeds that
take in during the whole
had caught the line, fly, and
process of fly fishing this
beautiful river are the ongoing fish. The same thrill can be
had when you’ve hooked
developing and vacating
into an unwilling partner: the
columns of tricos along
fish who wants nothing to
the river bank. These small
do with your boat or net. The
mayflys make up a large
fish who turns and runs and
portion of the diet for the fish
pulls line out for what seems
in the section of the Missouri
River we fished. Their 24 hour like a football field. These fish,
you respectfully allow the
life cycle made for an ever
opportunity to take as much
present food source during
our late July fishing trip. There line as they want. Perhaps
the most enjoyable part of
were columns of bugs 10-15
feet high swirling and moving this rhythmic contest is when
the fish takes flight. Seeing
about. Some columns were
those trout leap out of the
next to one another, other
water with violent intentions
columns were isolated as if
and come splashing
they were exclusive to only
down is enough to hook
the best and most worthy
tricos.
SEPT 2023 | 23