Part III: Fighting Fish in a Phone Booth
Gear:
I fish small streams with light gear: a 3 or 4-weight rod for cutts and rainbows, 6-weight for bulls. I prefer my 3-weight, 8-foot rod - it’s not too long for close quarters and thick bush. Less than a 3-weight may be too light for big trout as hook sets are difficult and landing them quickly in tight situations all but impossible. A 3 or 4-weight has a quick action, I can feel every pulse of a trout’s heart as it races against the leader and hasadequate backbone where I can coax a trout from under cover or guide them away from obstacles when required.
I fish dry flies 80% of the time so I use a leader/tippet combo a rod-and-a-half in length so the line turns over smoothly and the fly settles lightly. Even if I don’t see fish feeding on the surface I can generally raise them with a caddis, mayfly or terrestrial pattern. When nymphing, I usually take my 9-foot, 4-weight with 6-9 feet of leader depending on the depth and size of the stream. The extra rod length allows me to reach around boulders and cover more stream when high-sticking. For bull trout, I employ my 6-weight with up to 15 feet of leader and tippet to get weighted streamers down in a hurry. Adjust your fly line, leader and tippet size accordingly.Playing Fish in a Phone Booth:
You’ve done it; a trout just left its cover and rolled over your #14 stimulator. You feel the rod spasm and know it’s a heavy one. Ten feet downstream a sweeper rakes the water, upstream more logs weave unknown obstacles under the surface and the bank is a tangle of root balls and overhanging willows. That initial elation is blown right out of you, and now that rock-sinking-in-your stomach feeling takes over and you think that there’s no way in bloody purgatory you’re ever going to land such a monster. So now what do you do?
I call this the ‘playing a fish in a phone booth’ technique where all you have is maybe 20 square feet of water in which to play and land a fish. The most important thing is not to panic and try to strong arm the fish – this usually leads to broken tippets and lost flies. Be cool. Use the whole phone booth by adjusting pressure. Allow the fish to head for the sweeper while applying mid-rod pressure, but before he can tangle around the branches, apply butt pressure, increase the angle of your rod and lead the trout away. By swinging the tip sideways or down toward the surface, but maintaining butt pressure, puts a lateral pull on its lip (rather than an upwards pull), leading the trout to open water. If it does find cover under fallen obstacles, bury your rod tip in the stream, keeping the line as close to the bottom as possible and try to lead the trout out.