Rainbow on a Home Made Copper John

That was cool!

I wish that I started to tie flies years ago. Its downright fun to throw a fly that you made sitting at your desk into some trouty looking water and come up with a fish. I feel like a kid with new toys and the possibility of an almost infinite number of new ones to offer fish. “Pardon me, I must rock”

I can’t remember when the rivers and streams in NH were so low and warm so early in the season as they are now, but despite that I was pleased to get some action in the southern part of the state today. I figured I’d slip out between the thunder boomers for a quick time and although heard thunder a couple of times as clouds and air moved through, none of that much needed rain fell.

I looked for some deeper water to find holed up fish and found this spot.

I threw my newly tied copper john into that pool formed partly by a constriction and partly by that tree fall and as the nymph drifted into the hole river left just under the tree–he struck.

A feisty little rainbow in the 13-14″ class had a good old time swimming around that pool trying to figure out what the heck had him by the lip.

As exciting as that was it was the one that got away that made my time on the water. I was still offering that home made copper john and set it to drift around a boulder with a nice depth of water around it and ‘bang’ a nice fish grabbed that fly like he hadn’t eaten in weeks! He snuck under that boulder and stressed my 6x tippet good, as I thought “I’m going to lose him with an abraded leader. Nope. He ran out from under and headed upstream in an 8″ deep riffle only to turn tail and run back under that boulder. I struggled with the thought of how tight to keep that line and still keep him hooked. He fought to stay under there for nearly a minute and then ‘bam’, ran out again only this time downstream like a rocket. This time I got a good look at him in the shallows. A good sized brown of somewhere near 30″! Just kidding, but he may have been a 16” fish. He took twenty feet of line off that reel and then that abused 6x broke and off he went with my copper john. What great fun he gave me.

Its alright because I know where he lives.

This is the boulder where he lives and likes to run and hide.

~ by John McGranaghan on June 5, 2010.