9/2/06: West Canada White Fly hatch

Phew…letting time get ahead of me J. Bob and I headed up to TWCC at the beginning of the month to catch the white fly hatch. We headed to a spot in Middleville that’s downstream from our usual white fly spot in Newport. As it was, we realized afterward that it wasn’t as far from our usual spot as we had thought.

Bob had been there the week before to check things out. In a strange twist of fate, he had left his vest behind. Yup……his vest. Let that sink in a little. For a fly fisherman, losing his vest is much worse than losing a fly rod or maybe even having his car stolen. I’ve owned my vest much longer than my car. All those flies. All those gadgets. All that gear collected over the years, tucked away in a garment that becomes an old friend, eventually. Once you’ve been a fisherman for a few years, you gain an intimate relationship with your vest rivaled only by your spouse and closest fishing buddy. Don’t worry, there is a happy ending. In fact, he got it all back. Some nice, local woman who walks her dog in the area of the parking access found it and brought it to the local tackle shop. Bob called the shop on a whim just to see if someone happened to drop it off and sure enough, they had it. Nothing taken. Wow.

So, after chatting up the tackle owner, buying a few flies, and soaking up the old-time-tackle-shop-ambiance, we headed to the parking access that was practically around the corner from the shop. We arrived to find a couple fishing the spot at the parking area. Nice couple. We waded down stream to some very perfect water. The fish obviously didn’t care how nice the water looked, because we could only get a spotty rise or two. As dusk started to set in, I noticed a couple of white flies coming off. I switched to a cream variant that I picked up at the shop and hooked up a feisty little brown. That would prove to be my only one the rest of the evening, unfortunately. The hatch came off as expected – white flies everywhere like a silent blizzard. Fish rising, but impossible to figure out what version of the fly they were eating. Typical. Our nemesis fly hatch wins again. Did I mention the wings at the Hotel Moore are excellent?