"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."
-Albert Einstein
Looking at a Thingamabobber too long can drive a man insane. Don't be afraid to do things differently, you might have more fun while you do it.
I fish the same big body of water a lot. Some like to call
it The Hooch and don’t believe it to be a good demonstration of a Trout Stream.
I happen to love the Chattahoochee, since I can be there in 20 minutes.
Everyone that I have taken out on it can’t believe how peaceful it is, yet so
close to the city. The problem is, after fishing it for a while, it can be
repetitive. If I catch Fred, our term for stocker, from the same spot one more
time, I might feed him to an Osprey or Hawk. This is why I have recently
started changing it up and turning the same stretch of water, into something
new.
With the recent popularity of Czech Nymphing, I had to try
it out. With some help from a Team USA member in exchange for golf instruction,
I got pretty good at it. Once you have a fly resembling anything close to the
bugs in the water, and can get contact with your flies, it’s the most effective
way to fish if you want to catch a ton of trout and it also works great with
tricky fish in trophy waters. So after doing it for a while and catching 20-50
trout when I was going to the Hooch, it became boring looking at two colors of
mono and waiting to see it stretch a little.
This is when I decided to change up the way I fished. I
needed a new challenge because I couldn’t take looking at Fred (12” Stocker
bows) being pulled out by a 10-foot rod from the same spot anymore. Every time
I’d fish with a friend, we would talk about how boring the Chattahoochee was
becoming. That’s when I knew it was time to challenge myself with something new.
The first day changing back to short rods, fly lines that
actually came out of the guides, and dries was one of the most fun days I have
had on the Chattahoochee since starting to fly fish. Laying out casts with
distance and accuracy, along with getting the feel for mending a 14-foot leader
was all new again. You get to go full Ninja on rising trout from 40+ feet away.
They have no idea what you did until you set the hook.
Upstream from one of my favorite spots is dead flat water,
which we never fished. All the sudden a 14’ Trout Hunter leader, on a full flex
4wt makes presentation easy. The fish had no idea I was close. Watching trout
come from under rocks to eat a split wing dropper felt like it took 10 minutes.
It was hard not to rush setting the hook. The feeling of hooking into a rising
trout is amazing and like setting off a firework. There’s no coincidence all state lines around
Georgia have tons of Firework Stores that look like they have enough money to
buy a small island. I couldn’t wait to hook my next fish.
We have also been chucking a ducking a good bit. It’s a hard
way to get hook ups, but even a chase gets your heart pounding. Who doesn’t
like going through a streamer box full of articulation and dreaming that the
next State Record brown is near and hungry? Takes a big fish to eat a big fly,
and one factor is in your hands.
From this change in tactics, I have hit tons of different
water that never get touched. If you only have time to hit water next to the
parking lot, this is the best way to fish. No matter what time you get to Jones
Bridge, Island Ford, Bufford Dam, or Settles, somebody has already dredged a
fishhook through every deep hole within eyesite of the parking lots. I bet you
nobody has fished a terrestrial by the bank or ripped a streamer through downed
logs yet. I can also tell you there won’t be anyone taking ownership of these
spots and calling them his hole. Some people forget parks are not their
personal property. These people usually only average catching 5 Fred’s a day
from the most prime water on the river.
All summer we have been fishing dry dropper or streamers on
the Chattahoochee. Watching a fish explode on Kelly Galloup’s Sex Dungeon is
one of the best experiences a trout bum can have. I have fished with every
trout rod I own from one I got 20 years ago, to the newest and lightest rods
made. They are like golf clubs; you can’t have enough fly rods in your lifetime.
Women have jewelry and men have fly rods and guns. She wants a new diamond, you
want a new Helios 2 and Ross Reel. It levels the playing field. I can finally
tell you about how the different fly rods cast since there isn’t a
Thingamabobber and two heavy nymphs attached. There is only upside to doing
things differently and makes you a more complete angler in the long run. You
want to go on a big trip somewhere and not be able to hit a riser with a dry
because all you do is drudge the bottom on your home stream? Use it, learn it
and take it with you on the river.
