# I did it!!!



## Fishing_Chef (Jul 6, 2006)

I finally caught a trout on a fly rod!!!

Yesterday, I suited up and drove an hour to the Mad River. After an hour or so with no bites, I was getting frustrated. I got hung up in trees....brush....I snagged my hat once. Then I took a deep breath and remembered that half the fun was being out in a crystal clear river, not another soul around enjoying the day. Fianlly a little later in the afternoon, I caught a small rainbow. He was not very big but I don't care hehehe It was very exciting.

I learned a few things:

Trout fishing is hard
Trout fishing is nothing like small mouth fishing
I also learned that just when you think you are a good fly fisherman, you have a ton more to learn. Mending, stripping, floating 

My hardest thing was trying to teach myself how to flyfish down steam....I don't know how to float a fly going away from me. I can fish a streamer for smallmouth anywhere...but little tiny flys....thats tough.

Well thanks for reading, it was a lot of work for that little fish, but I am very happy heheh


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## tunafish (May 4, 2008)

Hell, I have enough trouble with rock-bass, let alone trout! I've never been trout fishin'. I hope to eventually levitate to that lofty realm, but gotta get through the rock-bass phase first! What did you catch him on?


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## Fishin' Coach (May 19, 2004)

nice work!


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## Fishing_Chef (Jul 6, 2006)

I caught him on a caddis fly.

Trout is definitly more challenging, at the end of the day there were trout jumping in the area I was fishing, but I could not get the presentation correct to make them hit. I miss 2 fish because when the flies were drifting I had too much slack in my line and could not get a hook set.


My trick for rockbass and smallmouth is to fish a crawfish pattern and basically come with in inches of the bank and work it out from there.


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## Utard (Dec 10, 2006)

Fishing_Chef said:


> Trout is definitly more challenging,


That is funny. I've often thought (and still do) that warm water species are much more difficult to catch. I have a heck of time catching the same numbers of fish and feeling like I've mastered a body of water out here as compared to the Rockies.

The Mad River is only hard because the fish are spaced so far apart and the numbers of trout per square mile are really low; at least to what I'm used to. The Mad is a tough river to catch fish in. In areas where I'd catch tons of fish back home, it's barren here on the Mad. 

Chef, use the exact same technique you described for SMB with your streamers and you'll do well on the Mad for trout. 90&#37; of the fish I've caught on the mad have been swinging streamers. I've done pretty poorly dead drifting dries and nymphs, and even had disappointing results swinging wet flies and soft hackles.

Oh, and congrats on catching a rainbow! There aren't too many bows in the mad, so that is an accomplishment.


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## brhoff (Sep 28, 2006)

Know the feeling..used to catch plenty of trout on spin gear and even used to trap them with a forked stick in the creeks of CT. as a youth BUT never caught one on a fly until I "accidentially" caught a Brown on the Clearfork last year.

Congrats, most of we we do is about confidense so I bet you'll be even more productive in the future!


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## tunafish (May 4, 2008)

I didn't mean to denigrate the bass fishing, Guys! After being raised on "American Sportsman" with old Curt Gowdy and the like, and never having fished a trouty area, I assumed it was meticulous going! You always saw these guys crouching in the bushes, low-profiling their way to within a 60' cast of the wary rainbow! I was uninformed.


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## steelheader007 (Apr 8, 2004)

...lol.. I rather catch smallmouth, rock bass, gills, stripers, carp, and suckers! Trout for me is over rated "IMO" I do not dry fly fish, i'm a nymphomaniac! I use a strike indicator and lead and to alot of ppl that is not FF. As long as your having fun catching what ever you want legally nothing else matters! congrats on the trout, and the MAD is one of the most techinical rivers IMO. I get skunked there all the time, and there fore I dont fish it!..lol.. But anyhow congrats my friend!


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## riverKing (Jan 26, 2007)

nice catch! i have yet to get any bows out of that river. as steelheader said swinging streamers like you would for smallies works for trout as well. also catching a your first trout on the mad is impressive, keep us updated if you go again.


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## steelheader007 (Apr 8, 2004)

RK you going to be in the shop saturday? I got my next power point presentation I'm going to bring by for Steve to see, and would like for you to see it to!


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## flytyer (Jan 3, 2005)

fishing chef, congrats on your first trout on the fly rod. I was like you when I first started fishing for trout with the fly rod. I would get agravated and say the heck with it and get out the spinning rod, then one day I said to myself, these are fish with a brain the size of pea, and I've been catching them every since. Just keep at it and you'll be catching them all the time down there. 
Try wooley buggers, and like steelheader007 said try nymphs.


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## riverKing (Jan 26, 2007)

i will be all afternoon


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## sevenx (Apr 21, 2005)

nice work, any one who says trout are over rated it is because they can't catch em. (JK Tommie). Trout are fun and challenging and eat mainly insects and there in lies the challenging part, catching fish with a bug instead of some flashing metal object. (no offense meant guys just the way I like to catch em. Dry fly fishing is the essence of fly fishing for me. I love stalking presenting to and sticking a fish rising steadily to a dun or caddis or anything that may be present on the surface. Don't get me wrong I nymph and swing streamer when that is what conditions call for but for me the dry is my favorite way to fish. Great Job. One peice of advice on the mad. Spend time studing the water from a distance watch closely to what is going on. Often I find fish suspended and feeding mid water column that get missed because you are either nymphing under them or floating over them. This will help you better understand the river and its quirks. S


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## Utard (Dec 10, 2006)

tunafish said:


> ... and never having fished a trouty area, I assumed it was meticulous going! You always saw these guys crouching in the bushes, low-profiling their way to within a 60' cast of the wary rainbow!


When you learned with that kind of fishing, that is what is easier. Although it is meticulous, it is so much easier for me to catch fish like that, because I almost always know exactly what to throw and where to throw it. 

For guys who grew up on or learned how to fish for bass and other warm water species, it's probably a lot easier for them to catch those fish. I just feel so out of place casting flies on a 1/0 hook that weighs have as much as most of the fish I caught back home and it aint easy for me to know where all those beggers hang out.

It is definitely an intersting concept. Anyone that says that one species is easier to catch than any other cannot speak from anything buy his/her own experiences and I certainly don't think any one species is any easier to catch than any other. (I know you're thinking blue gill here, but how often do you catch a bruiser, 13" bull blue gill?)


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## ohiotuber (Apr 15, 2004)

FC,
Congrats! Always good to break the ice, & you got your 1st on a tough stream. Give yourself a pat on the back...You deserve it!
Mike


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