First Comp of the Year

           Well I got my first comp of the year out of the way yesterday during the final event of the National Fly Fishing League’s Deep Freeze series. Fortunately for myself and a few other anglers who happened to fall into the water, the event did not live up to the deep freeze portion of its title. There was kind of a rough wind that made maintaining a straight sighter difficult, but other than that the sun was out and it shape up to a fairly decent day. The water on the other hand was pretty rough. The venue is already hard enough to wade during lower conditions, and the high and off colored water conditions faced yesterday was enough to send multiple anglers swimming.

           I got a late start on my first session because I showed up a little late and still had some rigging to do. I drew one of the better sections of stream. The bottom featured a fast riffle with two slack pockets along the far side. The middle up to the top was a long deep run from fast to slow with logs and over hanging trees on both sides. It was safe to say that the water looked fishy and it didn’t take me long to get the first fish on the board, a solid 35 cm wild brown that went leaping four or five times in the air before I sunk the net around it. The next cast after that I hooked another fish a little smaller, however I moved my rod from the downstream to upstream position too fast and allowed a moment of slack in the line which was more than enough to let the fish free itself of my barbless hook. I had hooked both of these fish at the bottom of the long run in the middle of my beat, as I skipped over the bottom out of the gate. I worked through the rest of the long run with no success. The water looked nice and with all the debris and slack currents I expected it to produce more fish. The first two fish I hooked where directly in the center of the stream and I didn’t move anything in the areas of heavy cover.

           After reaching the top of my beat at the end of that nice long run, I ran all the way to the bottom of my beat. There was a really nice slack section of water on the far side, but the current was too heavy to cross, and it was just out of reach to fish from my side. After taking one spill into the water, I wasn’t about to risk a second for only a chance at a fish. There was a nice slacked pocket a little ways above that spot though and I manage to hook a small brown. I have not taken the effort to properly set up my new net for comp fishing yet, so I was carrying my net by lodging it in my wading belt, instead of having it hanging from the back of my pack. When I went to quickly get the net out to net the fish, it was caught on my belt and I had to let the fish run for any extra fifteen seconds before I freed the net. At that time my line went limp and the fish had disappeared.

           I finished that session with just the one fish though I probably should have had at least two if not three had I not made a couple of mistakes. However, that session I finished much higher than in my second session. I fished my heart out my second session, working the water thoroughly and with confidence. My effort came up a little short and I failed to even touch a fish let alone put one in the net. That’s the way she goes sometimes, and I didn’t let that session shake my confidence, I felt I fished it well even though I came up empty.

           Overall, even when the fishing is sub-par its always enjoyable to hang out with everyone at the competitions. Good conversations with good friends and a fairly warm day in March; I feel as if asking for bunch of hungry trout too might be a little greedy. Either way, glad to have the first comp of the year under my belt and excited to fish more as the season progresses.