Winter session 29, a freestone morning and odd afternoon

 Well, got out yesterday morning with my friend Josh.  We went to hit a freestoner not to far from his house.  The water was a chilly 38f in the morning. Josh quickly got into a  nice brown that put up on heck of a fight. He took a black bow tie buzzer. We nymphed on up stream, the bite was slow but we did manage "more than four". I forgot to charge my camera battery, so it died half way through.  We fished up to a point were the water goes flat glass. We stopped and watched the glass for a bit to see if any trout were dimpling. Nope, so back to the car we went. We drove to check out one of the tributaries, but it was very small, and ultra slow.  I then had to drop Josh off, so I decided I would go hit a limestoner for some possible baetis action.

  I arrived on stream around 1pm, and trout were rising.  I quickly made my way into position up and across from the rising trout.  I tied on a bwo dun and drifted it over several trout.... Nothing. I switched out for the Nicheo and sent it a drift....Nothing. I tried a smaller size Nicheo....Nothing..  I thought, hmm I wonder what size and color the baetis are. Just then, one emerged right next to me. The nymphal case was very dark brown almost black and the mayfly that popped out was not olive colored at all. It looked more like a red quill but it was a beatis.  I dont carry many dries this time of the year, so i looked in my box to see what i had that could possibly match.  The oddball quill gordon was the only dark pattern I had. The rest were all of an olive shade.  I quickly tied the oddball gordon on and sent it a drift. A rather large brown came up and engulfed the fly. I lifted the rod and he wasnt there. Nor was my fly. The 7x didnt hold up.  I ran 6x to my new oddball.  It worked like magic. If the trout didnt take it on the first dead drift a little skitter to the fly and then dead drift got them.   Boy what a fun afternoon it was odd balling that the hatch.  Met a fellow fly tier and angler on the stream. Had a great talk with about tying.  Nice meeting you Barry!

The oddball Quill Gordon.  My afternoon saver. Tutorial and video will be up next post.