Summerdays with white cloudlets travelling through clear blue skies… the meadows green, the birds singing and insects humming everywhere… it is hot and sometimes thundery. During the days, the youth is fooling around in the little creek in front of my house, a long queue at the ice cream palor… summer is wonderful!
When the days finally come to an end, the warm wind ceases and the world gets quiet again, you can observe small rings which are forming on the water surface. Small insects of all sorts are around, and the trouts have a well-laid table. Slowly they rise two or three times, pause, and then return to feed again. Steadily, quietly.
My small dry flies are nothing special, but they work: a small hook size 16, a tail of Coq the leon, a wing made of CDC and mallard, a bit of hare for dubbing and some kind of segmentation for the body – sometimes quill or elk hair or just thread. My favorite rod for that purpose is a 4wt, in this case a Hardy Zephrus Ultralite, which is super light and easy to cast.
And if there aren’t too many mosquitos, this koind of fishing has something calming, it is balm for the soul… walking slowly along the creek, wait, look, listen… and sooner or later I usually find a ring that is somewhat different, often close to the bank, very delicate, no splash, no noise. Small trout are rarely so stealthy!
And if everythings works out, the dry fly suddenly dissapears, the quietness is suddenly gone and the water boils as a large trout breaks through the surface! Brown trout frequently go airborne, although they ususally don’t tend to jump… but they are in great shape now, lots of food while the water is still cold! And more often than not, the scene ends with a point for the trout.
This is the essence of fly fishing, these are the moments which make it so highly addictive… in a positive sense!
