Kidder Fishing: Dang Straight!

Grandpa will still tell you that "anticipation is 90% of the fun", and I still think he's right. The last couple of weeks has been tough to endure with very little fishing to be had, but Labor Day promised relief in the form of a fishing trip with my buddy Sean. Hoping to make the most of this opportunity I made sure that I was ready. Of course I made sure my boxes were full of my favorite attractor style dries, which I was confident would work, but I also changed over my flyline so I could use my Ichthus reel on my new favorite 4 piece, tied up a new leader, and installed an eyelet and cord to my awesome net (my brother Jeff made it for me). To add even more insurance of success we decided to head to a favorite stream of mine that always produces well.

Have you ever set your alarm for a trip just to wake up insanely early without it? That happened to me this time. Usually no worries, just get out a little earlier, but not when you're waiting for someone else. Luckily Sean was right on time, otherwise I might've gone nuts.

When we started getting close, we both noticed the unfavorable color of the water. I've never fished this stream when you could honestly call it dirty, but today the water clarity wasn't what we had expected. Oh well, at that point we were there and ready to go. Though we figured if it was a bust we could always try another stream, we still had to give this one a fair shake.

The evidence: I actually did catch a
fish on a San Juan Worm!

Still hoping for the day I had envisioned I started out with a Hares Ear Parachute, quickly moved to a Renegade, then tried a Foam Beetle, and finally decided that I'd need to change up my methods. So, I decided to switch over to the Stone Flopper and add a dropper of a Mod. Bead Headed Hares Ear with a Red San Juan Worm as a trailer. Pretty quickly I was into fish with this rig, and though the action wasn't fast at least there was something more to talk about than just the amazing scenery.

The standard size brown

I had never caught anything on a San Juan Worm of any color, so I ran through some different colors to see if they could get some love. Nope. Red was the only color to get a hit. I picked up a couple of fish on the Hares Ear, but most of the fish were on the worm. Figuring success was more dependent on the fish actually being able to see the fly, I traded out the worm for a Gold Copper John (another fly that I hadn't caught anything on before this trip) and was really starting to pick up some fish. Curiosity being what it is with me, I tried out some different colors of CJ's but only the gold had anything more than a hit.

Sean did his best, but sometimes the fishing gods frown upon you. Nothing can be done when this happens, and no amount of changing flies, tactics, or location seemed to make any difference. Felt bad for his bad luck, but didn't feel bad enough to stop fishing...