After having a relatively slow, crowded day last Tuesday, I was looking forward to hitting the Merced again, especially since I was going out with another angler who admittedly, is a better fly fisherman than I am.
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| Beutiful morning, with Jesse anxiously rowing out ahead of me. |
Since we are both thouroughly addicted to fishing we decided on an early start time of 7:00. We were rigged up and on the water by 8:00. Jesse recomended we try an egg pattern, since the san juan worm didn't produce on Tuesday. I started my day trying to swing a streamer across the current, which usually yields bigger fish. While I was wasting time doing that, Jesse hooked 2 nice fish on the egg pattern. Needless to say, I immediately switched to that. We both enjoyed a good egg bite until about 10 am and then things slowed down. Time for a change of flies. I saw a some mayfly activity so I opted for a pheasant tail. Jesse ties his own flies, and switched to a hare's ear with a bit of flash tied into it, representing either a sow bug or a mayfly. We both caught fish, including a nice 14 incher I hooked while side drifting, which is always a bonus.
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| Fish caught side drifting. The the ultimate kayak fly-fishing experience. |
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| Note the spawning colors on this fish (dark red stripe and cheeks and gray belly), indicating that although it was only 15 inches long it was probably a steelhead |
We ended the day with about 6 fish each. My biggest was a 15 incher and Jesse's biggest was about 17. All in all a great day on the river.
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