It was a Black Ghost that caught my eye.
Now that is a bit unusual for me as I tend to gravitate towards a Mickey Finn. But, for some reason as I swung open my streamer box the B.G. came into view first. So I began the process of taking off the little Quill Gordon I had at the end of my tippet and replacing it with the larger streamer. And, once again the swirl across and slightly downstream from me took place. A nice swirl too. Perhaps that's the reason I found myself using one of my eyes to look down at what my fingers were doing with line and streamer, and the other eye was splitting off on a reconnaissance mission trying to keep tabs on the swirling brownie. You could tell it was a brown trout by that deep yellow almost golden colored belly that flashed.
Now with new ammo tied onto the line I hunkered down like a Marine Corps sniper to get into casting position, though why I should be concerned about stealth now after I had sloshed around trying to keep my legs steady against the flowing mass of river water is really quite silly, dont'cha think? But, focused in and counting "clicks", I picked the landing point for my black ghost streamer and made my cast. A funny thing happened as the streamer flew through the air on its way to its' date with destiny.
I felt an alarm go off in my head, something wasn't right, there was danger ahead!
" Haven't I done this before?" These words were quickly invading my mind as the streamer continued on its' way. This all seems very familiar. Right down to the Black Ghost streamer, "No, wait a minute, this is something I read about ! That's it! I read about this situation somewhere, in some book, or in some magazine, somewhere, ?" "But, Why am I getting this uneasy feeling?" "What was about to happen?"
My self-interrogation ended quickly when, I got startled by a sudden, very strong tug at the end of the line. Sudden, strong and gone, as I felt the line go slack! I could see the remains of the swirl right where the end of my line had been, quickly fading down the river along amid the surface flotilla of leaves, puff balls and bubbles.
Reeling in the length of fly line that was flapping about the surface of the water, my thoughts returned to trying to solve the puzzle of, "I swear I read about something like this?" Was it Bergman? McClane? Lee? the latter last name, took me right to thinking of Lee Wulff, but no it wasn't Mr. Wulff or anyone else. No, sadly I remembered what and where it was. It was a "conversation". It was a conversation, I had about a year or so ago, not too far from this very run right here, with another fly fisherman. I remember giving him "My Wisdom" about using a "fresh leader and tippet of the right size for the type of fly you use. This was after he told me he was puzzled as to why his line broke? He said he lost the fish, his streamer (a Black Ghost) and his favorite " 6x leader " the one he had been using for the last 3 years! The last 3 years!!! He was using a leader that was 3 years old, (it was more than likely older than that, but that was all he was admitting to) a 3 to one hundred year old leader, and a real thin, small diameter 6 x'er to boot, on a large streamer! A streamer that required a 3x leader if anything!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
"Man! What an idiot that guy was, a 300 year old 6x leader on a streamer!" I chuckled to myself as I thought back on that conversation with Mr. Idiot Fly Fisherman!!.
" Oh, well, time to get back to fishing, let's tie on another streamer and see if I can get another crack at that nice brownie or one like him." I said to myself. It was then, that I looked down at my vest and I noticed the reason the alarm went off in my subconscious fly angler brain. It was the little size 16 Quill Gordon dry fly that I hooked into the " fleece drying patch " on my vest, the very fly that I took off of "My" 6x leader and tied a size 6 Black Ghost streamer on to! "Talk about being an idiot!"
Well, at least it was only last year's 6x leader.
Stay Classic, JB
