A fish on a fly rod is better than a fish on a gear chucker rod. My apologies to those who are spin cast or bait cast rod & reel aficionados. Yes, I do own several spin cast combos. They sit idle beside the boat seat except for the very windy days when the other people in the boat are at risk from an off-course back cast of a large streamer hook. Of the approximately 400 fish I have caught this year, 385 of them are on one of my three fly rods.
But the point of this article is not on the merits of fly fishing (it’s just better). Instead, it is a quick recount of one of my favorite days on the lake so far this year.
Like any regular morning, I’m up before anyone else in the cabin. Some days I sit in front of my laptop and get some work done. But this morning, the lake was glass, the sky was clear, the late June sunshine at 5:00 am was already approaching an hour of shining. These days can not be ignored. I must fish. I must fly-fish.
So into the boat, quietly pulling away from the dock to avoid waking up the rest of the cabin and mid-trolling speed for a few hundred yards before I gave it some throttle and sped my way to the spot I was planning to start at. A few minutes later, anchor down, standing on the back seat (a.k.a. the casting platform), fly rod in hand, I began to de-spool some line and begin casting, working a bit more line out with each cast. Cast three was magic, landing just shy of the weed bed, a couple pulls, and the Walleye hit. Hitting hard for a Walleye, I thought it was a pike at first, but not the violent head shake so anticipation was high, and then a couple short runs as it stripped line, I had it next to the boat, and the spiny dorsal fin was on display. Rough estimate, 23 inches. Not the biggest Walleye I have caught but too big to keep. A dip of the net, hook removal, dysfunctional attempt at an actual measurement, and I was back to fishing.
The Pike took a liking to the perch coloured streamer I was tossing their way. The fly was tied by a friend of a friend and left with me a few weeks back. It was very popular. The next 45 minutes to an hour was spent casting, landing Pike, and releasing. Too much action to stop and take measurements and pictures. The Pike were feisty, the big catch of the day likely about 30 inches. Far from any “trophy” measurements. It didn’t matter. A 5 pound Pike on a fly rod feels like twice the size as on a spin cast rod. So now I’m at 2 species of fish, same rod, in the first hour of fishing. The count is something like 1 Walleye and 5 or 6 Pike. This is on my 9 weight rod. More then enough backbone in that rod to handle any of these fish. So I decided, “why not a third species?”
I pulled up anchor and moved approximately 50 feet, to the very edge of the weed bed I had been casting to and along. With a tiny bead headed Copper John fly, it wasn’t long and I had landed a small Perch, then a second, third, fourth, and fifth. Perhaps a total of 10 casts. This lake is loaded with Perch. Normally I will use my ultra-light 4 weight fly rod off my dock and catch many Perch in between other activities at the cabin. The 9 weight in my hand was vast overkill, but I didn’t bring the 4 weight in the boat.
Now this would be a great place for some pics of the fish I caught that day. However, I was first up and out the door so I was fishing solo and that makes the logistics of catching, landing, holding and photographing fish a few degrees of difficulty higher. I had full intentions. The Walleye, first fish of the day, was going to get measured and photographed. After removing the fly, and preparing to measure, she wiggled free and over the side. Lost opportunity but not lost thrill of a nice Walleye on a fly rod.
I have had other days of 3 species on a fly rod in the same day, but never within 50 feet. One day on a Southern Alberta stream I did catch a Brown, a Brookie, and a Rainbow Trout on the same stream. Other times I have cheated, sort of, by catching the Walleye and Pike from the boat, then returning to the dock for the Perch. So I’m going to call this my best 3 species from the boat morning.