Marks Visit to Utah - Day 2

Day 2 of Marks Utah adventures started at 5am. Grabbed a bite to eat, a couple Red bulls and started the journey. After getting to the river we noticed that there was not a breath of air, no wind! To you that might not matter but for us, we get to fish the Glass rods! Mark had given me an early Birthday present, a stunning Japanese Fiberglass rod, 7' 3 wt 6 piece little yellow gem. What a gift!! Mark had a fine-looking Japanese Fenwick that he was dying to catch Trout with. We rigged up and hiked to the water.

The first few casts felt weird, I was not used to the slow speed. I kept slowing it down, then I slowed it down some more and a little bit more, there it is, ahh… so this is what its all about. I finally felt the rod, so smooth. It's crazy how well this noodle performs, its almost as if its apart of your appendage, and extension or your arm if you will.

Now the real test; catching a fish, hope it doesn't bend in half : )

The first fish was caught right away. First fish on the new rod, man it was incredible. As we took turns fishing I noticed that the fish were a bit finicky. It's not really unusual here but this time seems different. Walking up the river I was trying to spot the days insects. I didn't see much activity, observed what looked to be a stonefly flying about. I saw a few more but that's it. I switched over to a small Stone imitation, it didn't produce, tried another, same window shoppers. Mark was up… as he was fishing I saw what appeared to be an incoming Stonefly; it was fluttering directly towards me. As it came closer I did what any frustrated fisherman would do and plucked it right out of the air. Holding it in my enclosed hand, it felt smaller that a normal Stonefly. I quickly peeked through the cracks in my fingers, what I saw was certainly a big surprise…. A massive Green Drake!!! What?? This entire time I thought that these fluttering elusive insects were Stone's. I ran over to Mark to show him the goods. "Look at this I can’t believe it," I shouted, to my surprise Marks reply was a calm "cool", I was in shock as his reply. Do you know what this is? It’s a Green Drake I shouted! I was screaming and shouting jumping up and down as if I had won a major sporting event, although I can't remember if I did a victory dance. I explained that it's very late in the year for these miniature Dragons, went on to say that for some the Green Drake fishing is the holy grail of dry fly action. Then it hit me, oh no I thought, where is my Drake box, my heart sank, despair was creeping in, all hope was fading. I started to panic, taking off my pack and rummaging through my pack like a mad man. "Where is it?" I was mumbling while tossing everything out, I was getting upset that I had all these boxes of useless flies but where was the Drake box?? Great of all the days, no good rooten midge and BWO box , I should of, oh few there it is, the Drake box. "Here it is, here it is" I screamed, why I was screaming I have no idea, I held the Hair wing Drake from the box, held it proudly high above my head like a idiot, looking at the fly as if I had found a religion, "hurry, hurry and tie one on" I yelled, yeah I was still shouting. Mark was probably trying to figure out what the fuss was all about and why I was screaming, mumbling and panicking all at the same time. "I don't have any" he replied, oh yeah duh why would he, being from Alabama (really Taiwan) why would he have any. I gave him one and the rest is history. The first cast made clear why the fish were so picky, fish on. We continued to pull fish out of every run. It was a fantastic day catching fish on Japanese glass rod casting size 12 dry flies, not to mention that they were Green Drakes. Today lesson proved that larger fish can be caught on a dry : ) I am happy to report that nymphing wasn't even a thought, congrats Mark!!…LOL… Mark had a great day catching fish on top while using the glass rod. I was glad that we somehow scored this miraculous hatch in August. You have no idea how lucky we were, truly awesome…