Lost in the river

I talked my wife and youngest Jac to go to a fly tying expo up in Heber—hosted by Four Seasons, at a park in Midway. The girls pretty much slowed down to a safe speed for me to jump out; “we’ll go waste some time in Heber, be back in about a half hour,” the wife yells leaving a dust trail.

I heard about the expo from a dad of one of my chess club kids, Alan Thomas, who is quite a fly tier. It was nice watching Alan tie. He takes his time on everything he does, and is willing to un-do something on a fly to make it look just the way he wants. I don’t tie much and when I do, I’m in too big of a hurry—surprise surprise. This is like the way I fish, trying to get to as many holes as I can instead of slowing down and just get to what you get to.

The girls picked me up and we headed home, but not until we hit the outlet mall in Park City. I did my best to let them have their fun, but the whole time I could feel the flies working their way into my brain. We all knew it was going to happen, when we got home I was going to hit “Big Cott” for a few hours. Which is so easy because I live right at the base of the canyon. I could literally walk to the river—it’s that close to me.

“Why don’t you go fish for a few hours while Jac and I finish shopping,” suggests the wife. I drove higher than I usually do. I’m trying to find a spot that’s not so damn treacherous. I know you’re thinking “Big Cottonwood is a small river, what’s dangerous about that little guy? It’s not about the size of the flow, its steep banks, wicked, jagged rocks that look stable, until you put some weight on them. Oh let’s not forget a ton of vegetation on the banks, and a moss on the rocks that’s “snot slick.” I haven’t even mentioned the deceptively deep holes that are surrounded by big rocks, and dead fall that just dares you to step on it. At any rate I have yet to find safe spot.

I parked below the entrance road to Donut Falls; which is a pretty flat area and the biggest obstacle is the growth of willows on the banks. I tried to take my time walking down to the river, touching the tall grasses, to see what terrestrial bugs are hopping. I noticed a fair amount of bees and some small hoppers.  The sides of the river had a lot of life, mostly small caddis, but I did not see a lot of fish feeding off the top.

The water level was low, but not so low that there were not enough riffles and flow. I absolutely love working that river with dries, so I thought I would just start with an elk hair caddis pattern. I was fishing like a bull in a china closet; and that river requires more of a ninja, slowly creeping and casting. I slowed down and watched holes before I started casting.

This went on for I don’t know maybe about a half an hour. I switched to a few different patterns, a stimmie, and a small hopper. I had about a half a dozen takes, but I couldn’t hook any of them. I worked up to the area where the water is glass flat. If you know the area just above the road, it’s beautiful. But keeping with Big Cott tradition, it’s still a tough river, with thick willow to beat your way through. But that’s really no big deal. I slowed down and approached the holes with slow steps, watching my shadow.

I sat at one hole and just watched. About a dozen small browns were holding about mid-level and some of them about an inch from the top. I wanted to throw the big beetle I had on at them, but I knew it would spook them for sure. I was almost thinking of moving up river and casting down. My first cast I scattered every damn fish in the hole.

Next hole I watched again to see what they were eating—small caddis. I put one on size 20 or even size 22. I have great eye site but on a riffle these guys are touch to see. But if you just give yourself a little time, you start seeing it. At this point I got completely lost; I went into that time out of time. This is the time of going back into childhood, when you are playing with your friends and you get completely engulfed in what you are doing—total focus. Getting lost in the moment is bliss, getting home late is not; it never was.