Quiet, back bay…

of a lake, lined with tall reeds. The bottom drops off quickly and the tinted waters are about 10′ deep in no time. Weed pods reach the surface here and there. The wind is not reaching this spot on the lake. It’s early morning and calm. The surface is still save insects coming off the surface and sizable swirls and waves caused by a cruising, large trout working just below the surface on emerging insects.

This was not a place for a horizontal presentation via an Intermediate, slow sink line. I decided upon a Stimulator dry fly on the surface with a chironomid pupa pattern as a dropper pattern some four feet beneath the surface. A soft, turn over cast plopped the offerings into the channels amongst the weeds.  The take was powerfully slow. The dropper was taken and the surface dry fly disappeared away from me. I raised the rod tip, gave a slip strike and expected to feel the power of my rod challenged by a nice fish. My rod and then my wrist felt more than the usual thrust of power. My boat took a lurch toward the fish so strong was the surge away. A nice battle ensued amongst the weeds. The calm water was thrashed as the trout went airborne and came down broadside to create quite the splash. I enjoyed the fight but knew I wanted the fish in sooner than later to spare it too much stress as I planned to release the fish. A quick snap in the shallows and the nice fish was released as its powerful tail thrust pushed the trout away.