Keiryu Almost

by farmer
(Albuquerque)

Yesterday I went fishing with my son in the San Juan River, Northern New Mexico. He's a spin rod bait guy so we concentrated on the bait allowed waters below the Fly Fishing Quality Waters for this trip. The river was low, lots of algae and some horrible stuff drifting that looked like big globs of snot.

I managed a beautiful wild brown yesterday with my western fly rod/bead head gold ribbed hares ear in spite of the tough conditions. Today we tried a different spot on the river which was a little better algae wise but were still plagued with the snot. It would cling to and build up on his spin line, my fly line, hooks, bait and flies making any kind of controlled drift impossible.

I pulled out my Nissin 450 ZX medium, tied on a Fuji line, a small split shot, looped a hook to the line and baited with a worm. BINGO! I pulled Rainbow after Rainbow out of an eddy about 8' diameter and about 15' out from shore. The short line/long rod combo didn't gather the floating snot and the sensitivity of the rod tip let me detect the smallest strikes. I'll take a crack at classifying this particular method of fishing. I'll call it fun!

“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.