White Tarantula

My first fishing dream was a trout on a fly. Next was on a dry fly, then several in a outing. You know where it goes from there, a hard fish, several hard fish, a large fish, several large and difficult fish, finally it is not really about the fish. Ok but this is getting ahead of the story. My first dream size was 19", because i had regularly taken fish in the 12-16" range and on good water taken fish in the 16-18" range. Also this was shy of 20" which at the time seemed impossible in the east. Finally if i ever did get a 19" i might actually beat it. If i started with 20" and got one, i might never exceed that and in general i think it is a good idea to set some goals that you can reach and even some that you can beat.

After a few years and a hundred+ fishless daze you tend to either get this down to a few flies and drifts that work or you just quit. If you are like me you can't quit b/c it is not in you and even a zero day is a fun day if you approach it right.

I got up very early one day, hit the best river in the state and fish all the right flies. I worked my way down stream to one of the best pools. I fished both the head and tail with nada to show after 3+ hours. I took a break to rest the pool and i noticed the biggest fish in the river. My dream fish was lazily rising in a rhythmic pace on the far side in a channel which funneled into a single drift below a riffle (an ideal lie). I waded into position just below the fish and to the side. I tied on a #14 dry that looked right and cast up and over the fish into the lane. It drifted over the fish, he rose (this was too easy), he drifted back for a few feet (something he had not previously done) after an eternity he passed on the fly and returned to his lie to await the next morsel. I retrieved the fly and examined it closely for defect, dried it and cast again. The same result except the fish only drifted back a foot before the rejection. Despite repeated cast i could not interest him again nor did my flailing the water put him down, for he could not see me due to a small island bank between us at the tail of the channel.

I stopped for a while and thought about the most likely issues (based on what everyone said and wrote). I added 7x to my tippet and changed flies to a smaller one that seemed right. Throughout the fish continued to rise and feed. I took a deep breath and cast again into the lane and a few feet up from the fish. Perfect the fish rose and drifted back, as he did it occurred to me he was not going to take it, before he actually rejected it 3 feet down river. It was at this point i felt certain that Trout truly had magical powers, were smart and could tell the difference. So i tied on a even smaller fly b/c surely 8x could not hold such a fish (also I did not have 8x). Nada, fly after fly until i had exhausted even my smallest flies.

I went back to the bank and searched my box (es). Frustrated i lit a cigar and slowed down, the fish continued to rise. How many perfect casts could I make? How much could he eat? How long could this go on???

In a final bit of frustration i tied on a White Tarantula, although i do not recall buying such a beast or how it came to be in my box it just seemed to be the wrong fly for this hot summer day when fish were gorging on the smallest flies. I made 2 mistakes first I failed to cut back the leader enough for this massive (by comparison) fly to balance it and second forget to false cast it before getting back into position. Simply put you cannot cast a #6 the same way you cast a light dry #18 or 20.

Even though i used exactly the same stroke as on the last 50 casts, the result was not the same. I over shot the feeding lane by several feet, hitting the far bank, this should have spoiled the pool & day. In frustrated agony I yanked the fly off the bank; it plopped within 18” of the great fish, who turned with startled apprehension. Instead of fleeing he moved for the fly. I now became the startled prey. I hurriedly yanked the fly away in short jerks and was in fact able to get out of there with out getting caught. I soon realized what I had done and laughed. I quickly reset and again landed the fly on the beach only this time I was ready, I yanked the fly into the water and gave several follow up jerks the fish pounced like a great cat on a mole, and “got me”, err umm, I got him.

The fish gave a great fight, or it seemed that way on a 3 wt, but did not jump and after a long while i was able to bring him to hand. The first thing I noticed was he was hard bodied, unlike any rainbow or trout before and most since. The fish had a great kipe which is also unusual for a rainbow this size, it seemed out of place for the usually smaller mouthed rainbows so i figured him to be very old. I taped it out to 19 ½” and was tempted to keep him but thought he earned an extra day (at least).

So set some goals, and when "what should work" doesn’t, sometimes you just have to go a different way.