The Showdown

We only had a few hours and I wanted my buddy, Jay, to have a showdown with some wise cutthroat trout that will refuse everything in your fly box because they have seen it all. We stumbled our way across some deadfall and stubbed our toes on rocks (especially me) to pay these wise fish a visit. Once we finally came to this slot on the river we just stood there and watched what was going on. A previous experience suggested that it maybe one and done. We thought we could see 5 rising cutthroat. The interesting thing about this spot was the wood. The cutts knew how to use the deadfall to their advantage. A lousy cast would bid the dry fly possibilities adieu. We decided to work our way from the bottom up hoping to steer a hooked fish well away from the wood and spooking the other cutthroat. The cutthroat at the back of the run would not budge from its lane for Jay's offering, so now it was time to try to hook up with the cutthroat that stayed close to the wood. Jay laid a perfect cast just up stream of the log that was partially in the water and his tiny size 18 fly was slammed. Jay knew that he had a split second to keep the hard fighting cutt out of the wood. Working with light tippet and a small fly meant you had to quickly steer the trout away from disaster with precision. He did exactly that. A beautiful 16 inch cutthroat came to hand.

Jay repeated this 5 times. The second last cutthroat broke him off in the wood.

Before leaving, Jay decided to try for the beast at the back of the run. We figured that we already had our chance but Jay put a perfect drag free cast right down a shadowy riffle and up came a beautiful 20 incher to take his offering. Game on! Jay quickly landed this giant cutthroat. We wanted to get a picture but we were out of battery power. No matter, 4 for 5  with these wise fish was a pretty good score for my buddy.

We hiked our way back to where Karen was fishing and told her the story. She laughed. My buddy headed to the truck with a big smile because his time on the river was gone.

I wondered  what my buddy contemplated on the way home. Working on the fence or his showdown?