Mid-Missouri Trout Unlimited
August 2005
President’s Message
Some of you may recall that back in November 2003 I had a heart attack and quadruple bypass surgery while visiting one of my daughters in Boulder, Colorado. I mentioned that event in one of these columns and noted that, despite this near-death-experience, I did not have any revelations or insights of cosmic significance. I was back in Boulder in early June of this year and this time I did have an epiphany.
Actually, this epiphany did not occur in Boulder, but on the South Platte at the bottom of Cheesman Canyon. I had taken the antepenultimate space in the lot and by the time I got to the river at the bottom of the Gill Trail, it was cloudy, raining, and the wind was blowing up the canyon.
So, here I was on a famous tailwater that has been described as a “graduate school of technical fly fishing”. This has been a catch-and-release fishery since the 70’s and the trout can be finicky. I read that exact imitations were required because the trout see so many artificial flies. I couldn’t see any fish at all in the off-color water and no fish were rising. I was feeling quite intimidated. That’s when I had the epiphany (Webster’s third definition): This is just fly fishing!
I may not be a great fly fisherman, but I do know something about this. This was a trout stream. I’ve caught trout. I can read water a little. Who ties flies that are deliberate misrepresentations of food organisms? Does anyone make deliberately bad casts? I had done some research and had talked to the guy at the fly shop in Deckers, so I had some idea of appropriate flies. I tied on a small bead head pheasant tail and hooked two fish, the first I broke off because I had, I admit it, a rather large adrenaline rush and the second I landed…a nice 15-16 incher. Yes, it was new water and yes, the trout are picky and eat the small flies typical of a tailwater, etc. But, it’s just fly fishing.
It is also possible that the folks who write about places like Cheesman Canyon make everything sound a little more difficult than it really is. After all, if you write about how difficult the fishing is, won’t the readers be more impressed when you write about all the huge, wily trout you caught? I think we can be intimidated when “experts” tell us how difficult the fishing can be [Just so you know, the Gill Trail was not nearly as arduous a hike (even coming back up) as I had been led to believe by what I had read. I hiked in and out in the rain while wearing my waders and felt soled boots and had no difficulty]. But remember, this is just fly fishing.
I’d like to write that I continued to catch fish after fish, but I was cold, the wind was blowing, it was raining, I had to meet my daughter for dinner back in Boulder, and I still had a long hike back up to the parking lot. So I left after the two fish.
By the way, my Lamberson bamboo rod worked just fine in all the wind. Bamboo may seem fragile and suitable only for upstream dry fly fishing on placid chalk streams, but remember: it’s just a fly rod and this is just fly fishing.
Jon Deal.
June/July Chapter Business
Just fishing.
Bryan Chilcutt - Secretary