Dry Flies in Late November

by Morgan Lyle
(New York)

Another nice Sunday with the Ebisu, a level line, sunny weather with no wind and good hatches of various-sized midges. I caught a rainbow on a weighted, woven golden stonefly nymph in pocket water, but the rest of the afternoon was spent with rising browns in a flat pool. One seemed to be feeding sporadically just below the surface, so I swung a small Starling & Herl and eventually convinced it to bite. The rest were feeding steadily at the surface -- you'd have thought they were eating Hendricksons in early May. I couldn't reach them and couldn't move closer, so I broke my own rule and added six more feet of 6X tippet (I try never to fish longer than the rod, plus a foot or two.) Two more trout, on Grffith's Gnats!

“The bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten” - Benjamin Franklin

"Be sure in casting, that your fly fall first into the water, for if the line fall first, it scares or frightens the fish..." -
Col. Robert Venables 1662

As age slows my pace, I will become more like the heron.