FIRE, SMOKE & FISH
I have been fielding a lot of calls lately about the fires. I want to thank all of you who have called to check on me and to offer assistance should I need it. The hat fire had me on edge for a few days, but the fire crews were able to get it under control quickly keeping it away from any structures. The fire coupled with the loss of power and road closures made it a little stressful.
Things here at this end of the state are slowly getting back to normal. Despite the smoke the fishing has been good. Pit river is doing well and there seems to be less smoke in the canyon. Fall river is looking good and there are still a lot of fish willing to grab. What I would like to cover in this blog, is something that I think will help a lot of anglers in their fishing.
Line Management
This is something that just about everyone I guide has a little trouble with. One of the big issues is too much line out on the ground or bottom of the boat. It ends up getting stepped on, or wrapped around shoes, rocks, plants, boat seats etc.
Learning how much line you are going to need is important. If you are fishing in a boat and you are making a 50 ft drift, but you have 75 ft of line on the deck, the extra line is going to get hung up at the worst time.
Same with casting, if what you are doing requires a 45ft cast it is not necessary to have extra line out unless you are making a drift after the cast. Then when retrieving the line don’t stack it on your feet. Coil it to one side or the other away from your feet. Not over the top of them. Especially if you are wearing some sort of shoes with Velcro. Line will hang up on them every time.
When wading strip, the line on the downstream side of your body. If you strip it to the upstream side it is going to get washed around your legs. It ends up in loops around your feet, then you must do the line dance to try to get out of the mess while trying to fight a fish. When short line nymphing on waters like the Pit River, Upper Sac and McCloud, a lot of anglers like to have a loop of line between the reel and the rod. They pinch it off in the index finger.
When they strike they let go of the loop. This can create a multitude of problems. One of which is getting the line wrapped around the reel seat, or the end of the rod. It will make you late for the strike and on a river with low overhanging foliage it puts the tip of the rod closer to the trees. The biggest thing is, that’s not what short line nymphing is all about.There is always things like stripping baskets, but in the boat they are a pain and can get in the way. They have their place it’s just a matter of finding out how they work for you. It’s all mostly simple common sense. If the line is getting stuck on the seat in the boat. Don’t cast over the top of it.
Tight lines everyone!!!
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