West '05 Trip - Day 6

Posted: 2006-01-27
By: Randy Cochran

A night of rest, relaxation and TV viewing turned out to be enough to completely smooth over any kinks from yesterday's shenanigans. Revitalized and renewed, I headed back to some likely water on the main fork of the Flathead that I had passed the day before.

A large group of eddies and backwaters along a rip-rap shoreline kept me good and occupied for the better part of the day. Fishing with a large caddis dry (Elk Hair Peacock or Parachute X-Caddis) and a dropper beadhead of any kind 2 or 3 feet below proved to be the ticket.

Using this method I was able to C&R 30-40 cutts and 1 brookie in a relatively short span, while losing at least that many more. The ticket this day was to simply drift the dry to the end of its drag-free drift, then lift the slack to cause the nymph to swing, giving it a couple twitches as it neared the end of the swing and rose to the surface. It was quite interesting to see hundreds of these cutts riding the currents of the eddies in search of a meal. Oftentimes it was money to watch these fish circling, cast a few feet ahead, then watch them nearly collide as they rushed to take. Very exciting fishing, indeed.