I had a guide trip last on the Saturday, of the three day weekend. I had a brother and sister accompanied by mom, dad, grandma, grand dad, two cousins and two in-laws. The general idea was for me to guide brother and sister and for grand dad to work with the two cousins (both teen age girls). I have a saying, the more people you have, the slower you move. I tried to get everyone moving early because I was concerned that Dry Run Creek would be crowded on a holiday weekend. It was like herding cats.
I was greatly relieved when we arrived at the hatchery and noted just a couple of cars, in the parking lot. I already had a couple of rods rigged up and we headed toward the creek. The going early was a bit slow. It had rained the night before and the creek was a bit off color. After a while, we began picking up trout. The hot fly was a brown San Juan worm. I always like to fish San Juan worms after a rain storm.
Other anglers began arriving and we began working our way upstream to find new water. They had taped off the trail near the hatchery from the second set of stairs all the way to the end of the facility. Therefore to access the stream further upstream you needed to walk along the creek.
We began having more success. The eight year old sister landed a nice twenty five inch rainbow. It came in amazingly quickly for a fish that size. Brother was struggling. He hooked up several trophies but lost them. He had a tendency to grip the line tightly. When you have a big one on, you have to let them run. If you clamp down on the line or grip the reel handle the fish can slip the hook or break off. I worked with him on it and he eventually caught a good rainbow. Sister’s was still a bit longer.
At the same time the cousins were struggling. Grand dad had never fished Dry Run Creek. It looks easy but it can be challenging. I gave him a few pointers but they still had limited success. I began coaching them on where to cast and achieve a good drift. I made sure that they were properly rigged and were in the right spot. They also began to pick up fish. They both caught a twenty inch or better trout.
Near noon I looked around and noticed that the creek was getting crowded. We had the stream to ourselves, for most of the morning and were able, to fish, wherever we wanted to. I don’t normally like to work with so many clients at a time because it limits the individual attention that can give to each one of them. Kids fly fishing for the first time need a lot, of individual attention, in order to learn the proper way to do it.
Somehow it all worked out and everyone had a great time.
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