Nov 1,  2002
Accidental Trout Technique

Last night Gil Finn and I attempted a blasphemous evening slamming streamers from the handicapped ramp at the famous Bend Pool on the Frying Pan.  When we arrived we found a ten-man team of government employees shocking fish and hurling them into baskets where their tails were hole-punched and they were measured and logged onto a clip-board. All this was happening just downstream from the Bend Pool and their fish carnage was inspiring to us.

The last few months Gil has been in hot pursuit of “the big one”.  Just last week we floated the Colorado alongside truckers on I-70 and on another day suffered the downwind smell of water treatment at Blue Lake . Gil had recently begun promising the fish Gods he’d quit fishing for trout until January if he caught “just one 10 pounder.”  So far the promise hasn’t worked.

The Bend Pool is a very sacred spot where almost every day fisherman line up to cast size 22 shredded shrimp imitations to catch Frying Pan hogs.  These big trout have become incredibly selective and casting streamers is not recommended.  Nonetheless Gil was hoping their territorial instinct would cause them to aggressively attack his specially selected streamer.  He stepped up to the plate and for the next 30 minutes put on a dazzling display of casting skills with only one small brown as a result. He tried every technique– and finally just started practicing world record distance casts that looked great but probably terrorized all the fish, (He became a trout terrorist.)  After a while he relinquished the rod and I didn’t have any better luck.

We finally decided to walk upstream.  Gil threw the rod over his shoulder and dragged the fly in the water behind him. Of course that’s when a nice sized brown attacked and hooked itself with no help from Gil at all.  It wasn’t  “the big one”  but respectable none-the-less.  There wasn’t anything respectable about the accidental fishing technique. From now on we’re going to call it “Intentional Walking” so we can claim it as a refined fishing skill.

Winter is not here yet – we’re still hunting for the big one……..Gearman

"Always remember that trout are just too precious a resource to abuse only once"  Gil Finn