With Monday highs forecast to rise into the 60s under partly cloudy skies, and with colder weather in the forecast for Wednesday, it seemed a good opportunity to hit Fishing "Crik" for a few hours. I also wanted to try out using a tippet ring to connect additional tippet to my leader.
Nothing special about tippet rings; they've been around for awhile. Essentially nothing more than a tiny steel washers, they're used to extend the life of your leader. Normally, after a few fly changes you whittle down the leader's tippet section, which starts out at around the last 18 inches of the leader. That requires adding a section of tippet (or changing the leader, which gets kind of expensive), which whittles down even more leader from the tag ends of the surgeon's knot.
A lot of context to say that adding a small (1mm) steel washer to a new leader does away with all of the above. You're simply adding tippet to the washer, so theoretically you could use the same leader all season long.
So I purchased some tippet rings, and decided to give them a try.
Pro guide tip: When attaching the tippet ring to your leader, be sure to thread the ring over a surface that enables you to find the ring when you invariably drop it.
After about three attempts, I was able to tie the the 4X leader onto the ring, tied another section of 4X tippet onto the ring, and we were in business.
So off to the stream I went. I decided to hit some spots on Fishing Creek that I had not visited in awhile. Angler traffic had dropped significantly since opening day. Water levels were a bit low, but I found enough decent spots that should have held fish. Casting had to be tight to avoid the brush and trees, but I managed to net three 12-inch Rainbows over the course of an hour or so, drifting black Wooly Buggers into undercut banks, and under the sunken log below, which resulted in my first trout of the day.
The tippet ring held, even in the process of losing two Wooly Buggers entangles in overhanging trees.
I headed back to the WBT to finish up on home waters. Tried the Pavilion Hole with no luck. Went down to the lower hole (still need a name for it ... lower hole just doesn't cut it), and had 5 hookups on the Wooly Bugger. Only landed one; I was fishing from the bank, and didn't have the rod tip high enough to keep the fish hooked. No matter. I gave the hole a rest and sat on the bench thinking about what to do next. By 2:00 or so the fish gods answered. A "hatchapalooza" broke out; caddis's, small gray mayflies (BWOs), and even what looked like March Browns. And fish were rising. Since the majority of bugs were caddis's, I tied on the closest imitation I had. Nada. So on to plan b; a dry/ dropper rig. A Humpy to maybe get some interest, and a size 16 bead head Pheasant Tail about 18 inches underneath. The Humpy got not love, but three fish ate the nymph.
Six fish from Fishing Creek; had to work for them but not a bad tally. And I'm a convert on the tippet ring.
Oh ... and conditions today:
Tight Lines,
Mikey D Fishing
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