Enduring Overwhelming Beauty: To Truly See A Trout in Eleven Mile Canyon

I know I don’t see things as I ought. I see “dimly as through a glass”.  If I have a weakness in regard to my “vision” it would not be my inability to sight fish or to see the fly but rather it is my inability to truly see and to deeply appreciate the beauty around me. And so today, while I was in Eleven Mile Canyon guiding, I could plainly see the trout rising to tiny tricos but I had a sense that I was missing something. I was seeing but only dimly.

I have often wondered if I truly could see the beauty of a person, a sunrise, or a single fish, that such images would overwhelm me. Perhaps my nervous system would not be able to handle it. In C.S Lewis’s fantasy book, “The Great Divorce”, a group of people  have left a bus begin to notice how different nature becomes as they make their way up the allegorical heavenly mountain. The sky becomes bigger and wider. They observe a water fall with such a thunderous roar that they conclude that if such a water fall were back on earth they would not be able to endure it. It would be too “big”. C.S Lewis writes, “A waterfall was pouring. Here once again I realized that something had happened to my senses as that they were now receiving impressions which would normally exceed their capacity. On earth such a waterfall could not have been perceived at all as a whole; It was too big. Its sound would have been a terror.”

I think of the poet Rilke who seemed to understand the power, wonder and even the terror of beauty, “Beauty is the beginning of terror… and threatens to annihilate us”.  I wonder if some things in life are so beautiful and wonderful that we cannot handle them. I think of the old scripture, “No one can see God and live”.  And again of Rilke who wrote, “Even if one angel pressed me suddenly against his heart: I would be consumed in that overwhelming existence.”

I know there have been times when I have stood looking at a river at sunrise watching mist come up off of the river and the image is so beautiful that I almost cannot endure the experience. I almost have to look away or change the channel in my head or focus on only one aspect of it all, such as trying to catch the rainbow rising on the far bank.    

I wonder if in the end if we are to ever find our way up to the heavenly mountain that we will have to be changed in order to endure such overwhelming beauty. Then I might truly be able to hear and see a river. And be able to truly see and endure the beauty of a fish.  

For now, I can still see those tiny tricos falling in Eleven Mile Canyon. I can still see fish rising to them. I never had a problem with that kind of vision.  But, I know if I truly saw even a single trico mayfly, one of the tiniest of bugs, that it has enough glory to overwhelm me and I would not endure.

How to Nymph Fish Rock Structures On Pueblo's Arkansas River Tail-water

 

I fish these structures in circles. If possible, I literally walk a circle around the structure casting and getting drifts in every direction imaginable. I fish every possible drift line.  I always encourage folks to fish these structures carefully and thoroughly. On a rich river system such as the Arkansas Pueblo tail-water chances are that there will be fish on all sides of the structure. Treat each section as a different “hole”, and keep moving in circles around the structure making various casts. Be sure to move your body to stand in the best position as possible to make the best cast and drift. Sometimes I cast up and across, down and across and every angle in-between. Fly fishers can become impatient and make casts from places where they have no business casting. Take the time to take up the best position and set up the best cast. Be strategic. Stalk and plan. Move.

Many of these structures hold fish downstream of the boulders,(which is obvious to most fly fishers) but also along the sides,  and in front of (upstream), and in-between. Try to systematically cover every drift line. Some of the drifts will be short others will be longer depending on the structure and the drift line. Be sure to hit the seam lines in-between faster and slower currents created by the boulders. When it comes to fishing seam lines, often the difference of a few inches makes a huge difference. Once again, fish these seam lines thoroughly. If you are not hooking fish make adjustments such as the amount of weight or the type of nymphs.

Often beginners make the mistake of NOT fishing in front of the boulders or upstream of the boulders as this approach seems to defy logic. We usually think of a rock structure as only providing a break for the fish that lie behind or downstream of the boulders. But in reality, the hydraulics can be such that a fish can lie in front of the boulder and be in a good lie. Also, by being in front those fish have first shot at the food that is coming their way. I have caught some of the biggest fish by fishing in front of the boulders or upstream of the boulders. I learned how to do this effectively years ago on the Taylor River tail-waters where monster trout lay in front of the boulders. But realize that you can’t just run your nymphs straight into the rocks. Know where your flies are through out the drift and know when it is time to pick up and cast again before you snag. With some experience you quickly learn to wait to the last second to pick up right before you hit the rocks. Or, better yet, the fish takes the fly at the last second before you hit the rocks. . 

Have fun!  This is the essence of fishing the edge. This is nymph fishing to structure and problem solving at it’s best.

Extending Invisibility While Fly Fishing: Techniques for Stalking Big Wary Trout

Wallace Stegner was remembered for saying, “You don’t go to the wilderness to find something, you go there to disappear.”

In some ways this is what the fly fisher tries to do. To disappear. To not be visible to the fish. Big wary fish learn to pick up on cues that danger might be coming. The fly fisher’s task is to take the cues away. Make the system as invisible as possible. I have made these “invisible adjustments” to hook big fish on the Platte, Taylor, Frying Pan, Blue, San Juan and the Green Rivers.

When I am stalking big wary trout I try to disappear. Not just me, but also my gadgets; rod, line, leader.  I stand back. I try not to wave my rod over the fish. I do not mend the line when the line is near the fish. I stack mend the line far upstream of the fish so the fish will not see the disturbance made by mending. My mends are made partially at the end of the cast in mid-air, (reach mend cast) and then again as soon as the system lands on the water. After that point in time, the system drifts, usually drag free, and “fly first” without any additional disturbances.  

There are other ways to extend invisibility. Long leaders not only allow better drifts but they also extend invisibility by moving the flies farther away from the thicker more visible fly line. When I am fishing for big trout I take my strike indicator off and try to just watch the fish. I also increase the distance between the two flies I am using and extend the distance away from the weight, as the weight could be warning cue to a fish. All of these adjustments I have learned to make came from years of observing fish often move away from my more visible systems. “Failure” provides important data.  And then when the adjustments were made and I extended my invisibility I had the satisfaction of watching big fish take the fly.   

What else can we make invisible? Use the finest tippet you think you can get away with using to land that big fish you are stalking.  Clear fly line?  There are a few clear floating fly lines on the market.  Reviews are mixed but I will be trying one out next week.

Bottom line: Make your self invisible. And as you are stalking that huge trout you might realize that this might be one other way that fly fishing can become spiritually therapeutic for us. In the midst of such intense focus of the task at hand, and overwhelming beauty, we vanish.  We disappear, at least for little while.  

Below is a picture of a large Rainbow caught on the Blue this past weekend. The fish took a size 22 black beauty. Notice I am not in the picture. Invisible. 

Trico Trick (4): When You Can't See Your Fly, Guess! (Or, Learn to Guess Better)

Sometimes while fishing the Trico hatch I lose the fly. I just can’t find it on the water. But I catch a lot of fish by guessing. But it is not just guessing. I try to make somewhat logical guesses.  If you also lose your fly here are a few tricks.

 A well known trick is to use a larger lead fly so that you can spot the bigger and more visible fly. Keep in mind that your second fly, which is smaller and more true to the size of the naturals (but often not visible), will be somewhere in the immediate area of the first fly. I tell my clients, “Ok, follow a pizza pie size piece of water around your first fly, drifting down;  if you see a rise anywhere inside that pizza, strike.”  Or, you can use the first fly like a strike indicator. If it dips under, strike.  But keep in mind, (and this is perhaps a lesser known trick), if your trick of using a larger fly stops working you might have to take it off and only use the smaller fly. Every year toward the end of summer I have noticed that these trout will wise up to the use of a large attractor fly. It literally can scare fish away in the same way that large strike indicators can. So when the fish get tough, I go smaller and use other tricks. 

If after you cast and you can’t find your fly on the water try to guess about where it is “supposed to land” and follow that “piece” of water down with your eyes. Zoom in on a group of bubbles and follow it down.  If you see a rise in that piece of water, then strike. I have had some success asking my clients to look for the leader in mid air before it lands on the water. It seems this helps them better know where to look. It also helps if you shorten your casts!!!!!!! I probably say it a thousand times a season, “Shorten up your cast. Find your fly."  

I have also noticed that when a fish takes the artificial fly from the surface, often the rise makes a “greater disturbance” than the other fish that are taking naturals. I think this might be because the fish senses the leader or the hook and they kind of panic a little bit and make a “greater disturbance”. I just know that often while guiding others (or even fishing myself) and I see this “greater disturbance” , a more dramatic rise, but we cannot actually see the fly,  I will yell, strike, and often a fish is on.

Learn to use a parachute and reach mend cast. I will not take the time here to explain these casts but I am sure you can look them up on the internet. Both of these casts basically involve pulling the leader back at the last second allowing the fly and leader to slowly float down to the surface. With such a landing it is actually quite easy to see the end of your leader and your fly and where it is going to land and therefore it is easier to spot.

If you learn to use these reach mend and parachute casts, not only will you be better able to spot your fly but you will better be able to see how you are achieving a nearly perfect drift so the fish sees the FLY FIRST and not the leader because the leader will be upstream of the fly. These “FLY FIRST” presentations are by far my most effective casts. It is the best trick that I know.

Why Are the Trout Not Rising (all that much) to Trico's in Eleven Mile Canyon (fly Fishing Report)

The fish are just not rising in Eleven Mile Canyon; at least not as they have in past years. Of course some of us are finding rising fish in certain runs on certain days and the dry fly fishing can be spectacular, but overall there is no comparison to what we have experienced in years past where it seemed like every fish in the entire river was up top sipping in bugs with their dorsal fins sticking out of the water. .  

By simply paying attention to the trico hatch over the decades my best guess involves perhaps several factors that involve energy efficiency.  There seems to be some innate “formula” that a trout uses to determine if it is energy efficient to rise to the tricos. A certain amount of energy is wasted as a trout moves to rise and suck in the bugs from the surface. Higher flows, as we have seen recently, can cause a fish to waste more energy than it is worth, and so, with an abundance of food being swept below the surface in the form of larvae, nymphs and annelids it makes “energy” sense to stay low and feed.

Visibility of the small tricos in the higher more turbulent water may also be a factor. It is just difficult for the fish to see the bugs when the current is up higher. If the trout are having a hard time finding the bugs (and keep in mind they need to eat  lots of them) once again it is just not worth it in terms of energy expenditure.

The fact that Eleven Mile Reservoir seems to be “turning over” which involves an algae bloom causing the river to be slightly off color also compounds the visibility issue. Since we are dealing with such small micro calorie bugs it seems that it does not take much to up-set the energy balance of the trout. In other words it does not take much to make it not worth the effort to feed on top trying to find tiny bugs.

Risk is also a factor. Why risk going up top to chase micro calorie tricos when the fish can lay low and feed more safely? This issue of risk may also be connected to the large number of fishermen pounding the water every morning. Are the fish simply avoiding danger? Ten to 15years ago, a short article appeared in the Denver Post titled, “The Pelican Brief”, which suggested that the fish no longer rise much in South Park because of the pelican population. Could the trout be learning to avoid fly fishermen swinging their hooks on the surface?

I think all of these variables are coming into play at once. I remember last year even with the super high  flows I had some of the best trico dry fly action at the “island hole” just below the first of the “double tunnels”. Fish were on the rise all over that run. But this year, even with a lesser flow, the fish are not rising there. So that makes me think the slightly off color is a significant variable.

I am hopeful that when the water clears up and drops we will see more fish on the rise. 

But keep in mind that as we see more fish on the rise we will also see even more fly fishers and that increase may become the more significant variable.  The issue of the fish rising or not rising makes me aware of the delicate balance within the ecosystems we fish. Small changes can have significant impacts. We should try to remember this basic ecological principle every time we step into the river and try to remember how we may play a big part impacting any ecosystem we fish.

Wrong Conclusions In Fly Fishing and the Spiritual Life: What Do You Conclude When the Fish Are Not Biting?

Sometimes while guiding a beginner, and he has been fishing for 20 minutes with out catching fish, he will then conclude. “The fish are just not biting.”  He might even come across as a bit smug in his conclusion feeling that he accurately accessed the situation.  

Often nothing could be farther from the truth. I have heard these words spoken while I have clearly observed numerous fish feeding below the surface on nymphs or almost imperceptibly on the surface.  The reasons the fish are not biting on his fly can be numerous ranging from bad presentation to not being able to cast the fly in the right spot to countless other variables.  Or, sometimes the fish actually are biting on his fly, but he is simply unaware and misses the opportunities.

Sometimes we can also make wrong conclusions in regard to the spiritual life. I might conclude, “God is not responding”; or, “God is not here”, and once again, nothing could be farther from the truth.  Maybe,  I just can’t see or hear as I ought or maybe God might be speaking to me with the experience of his absence and silence.

Beginners often make these kinds of wrong conclusions. And so do I.

Making such hasty inaccurate conclusions in fly fishing is really not a big deal and done rather innocently. I think what is way worse though is when I as the guide,  out of my own need to not look bad simply go along with this distortion. Going along relieves me of my responsibility to instruct and guide. It is quite easy to agree, “You are right, the fish are just not biting”.

And, perhaps still even worse, is when others make inaccurate conclusions about the Divine and we just go along with whatever everyone else is saying.  It is always dangerous, especially in spiritual matters, to deny the facts that are right in front of us and that we know to be true.

Few things distort truth faster than merely going along