Or how the big one got away.
This story starts with a trip over the weekend to the Gunpowder River
for a little trout fishing. After reading many reports of several
fisherman being successful on browns and rainbows I decided a few
hours on the river would be worth it. It was a beautiful, atypically cool
June day in MD. The river temperature is in the mid 50's - brrrr! Well
needless to say I saw many trout, mostly small, but they were tough
and treated me to a lesson in humility. It had been several fishing trips
since I had been skunked, but this one once again reminded my they
call it fishing not catching. The fish all but ignored my many offerings
of caddis and parachute patterns, a few rises and one strike and that
was it. In the end I believe I was fishing with too large of flies, I don't
think I went any smaller than size 16 and probably should have went to
size 18 or 20 and maybe even smaller. I heard later than many fish
were being taken on very small black ants. It seems I haven't been able
to make the mental leap to very small flies - for one it is a lot harder
for me to tie them on my line than it is to tie on a 1/0 Ray's Fly.
Well in order to sooth my bruised ego, on Monday night I decided to go
to my favorite MD striper spot (Kent Narrows) and catch a few fish.
The tide was going to be outgoing right after sunset and the weather
again was extremely cool for what was now July. The fish started
popping right after dark as expected and I had a good choice of flies, a
1 inch Ray's, an orange GP and a 3 inch Chartreuse/Yellow flatwing.
Well for the first half hour or so the fish refused my string of flies. I
was perplexed as there were literally fish everywhere. Soon a I made
an observation, I saw some of the striper's prey jumping out of the
water as they were being chased. They were very small silversides in
the very top of the water column. I adjusted, took off my flatwing and
replaced it with a 1-1/2 inch sand eel pattern, I also put on a corkie so
my flies would stay up in the column. No luck, more frustration. O.k.
this was beginning to feel like Sat. on the Gunpowder, my ego was
getting bashed again, especially since there were other people around
and they could see what I was doing. The only thing that helped was
that they weren't catching anything either. I stopped for awhile and
observed the bait a little more... the silversides looked like they were
1/2 to 1 inch long as they jumped out of the water. O.k. - I adapted
again and removed the GP, and replaced the sand eel pattern with
another small Rays fly ( 3/4 inch). I was now down to two flies, very
small. Bingo - first cast, fish on. For the next hour or so there were
many fish caught while those around me with spinning rods caught
none - EGO BOOST!! I even offered to let one guy try the fly rod and
catch a few but he chose not to. As I was catching all these very small
fish (probably this years class) I ended up getting board and decided to
try to see if perhaps I could bring a bigger fish to line on a spinning
rod. So, I broke out my trusted combo of 4 inch sluggo with a Ray's
dropper fly. No luck for several minutes. Ended up talking with one of
my fellow fisherman at the spot. He was new to fishing there and we
began talking about night fishing and I was telling him how in the fall,
much bigger fish come into the narrows. I started to show him how I
would cast my sluggo out into a current seam and let it drift, make a
few turns of a retrieve and than back reel it to let a little more line out,
then repeat. I was not really expecting anything, just showing him how
I like to fish at this spot. All of a sudden my line went tight, I was sure
I hung up on a snag on the bottom, but as I reeled in the angle on my
line changed and then it started peeling line as my drag slipped. It was
a fish! A big fish!! And then calamity strikes. The little cap on the top
of my reel spool decides right then and there to pop off!!, It had come
unscrewed. Well Jeff, the guy standing there watching me saw that it
had popped off and he picked it up. I tried to put it back on, as the
fish was continuing to pull line out against the drag. It was moving
very slow and it was very heavy. Well as we tried to put the cap back in
place, it fell out my hand and plooop right into the water by the
seawall. Now what? The problem with the cap being off, was that when
I would reel, the spool would slip and I could not get any purchase on
the line and so the fish just kept going with it. I tried to palm the
spool while Jeff looked for the cap in the water. I guess with all this
going on I let my attention down a bit and lifted my rod to gain a little
leverage on the fish - again I could feel it was very heavy, the heaviest
fish I ever had on a rod I am sure and then -- Duh - I hate when that
happens - the line parted and the fish went one way and the rod tip
went the other. The fight of my life was over. Whatever it was it was,
big, huge...humongous. It could have been a striped bass ( I doubt it,
because it did not fight like any I stripers I have caught before), it could
have been a big shark (unlikely), it could have been a big cow nose ray
(there are lots of them in the bay this time of year), but I really think it
could have been Chessie the legendary sea monster of the Chesapeake
Bay.
I will never know just what it was, but it was the big one that got
away!!!
TLA
Paul M.
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