Fly Fishing Competition Recap: Nine Mile Mini Part 1

#flyfishing #comprecap

Well I’ll start off by saying it's good to be back competing. With the pandemic and life just getting in the way sometimes, I have not competed consistently since 2019. I did one lake comp in the spring of 2022 and then two days this past October and then this past weekend in the Nine Mile mini. Competing always reignites my joy and passion for the sport of fly fishing, as it usually shows me there is so much more out there for me to learn and it puts me around fishy folks who share a similar passion that’s easy to feed off of. I plan on this being a three part series, two parts to break down each one of my sessions and then one to go over how I think I can improve and just overall takeaways. So without further ado here is my first session recap.

I drew to fish first thing in the morning on a beat that I was fortunate to have controlled before back in the summer of 2019. With my memory of that session, the fact that it was now December, and the info I gained from the previous afternoon’s pre fishing, I had a preset plan on how I was going to fish the water going into the session. I rigged two rods one with a dry dropper setup featuring a small BWO dry with a colorful post and small attractor nymph hanging below. My second rod featured a single nymph on a little heavier of bead size than my dropper. I planned on using the dry dropper setup to fish the shallow soft water on the edges of faster riffles. This soft water is water I deemed as “winter water”, able to hold the smaller sized trout this river often provides. I could then fish the heavier single nymph through the faster water and then switch it out for an even heavier fly as I transitioned into some of the deeper slower water and runs featured in the middle of my river section (again water I would consider “winter water”).

As my session began, I positioned myself on my knees towards the tailout of a short run, staying back towards the bank to keep out of sight of any of the fish holding in the slow slick with the water being so clear. I quickly landed four fish in short succession from the slow water and made a couple casts into the faster water that came up empty. I switch to my single nymph rod landing another fish in the faster water at the head of the run. I then moved up to the next hole, an almost corner pool featuring a medium speed riffle at the head dropping into a deep slow pool. I expected the majority of the fish I would get to be holding in water just like this and the ones I caught in the last run to be more of bonus fish that others would likely overlook. I fished the dry dropper and my single nymph rig through the back of the run with no takers. Given the clarity of the water and the fact I couldn’t really see any fish in there I did not spend much time at the back and quickly moved to the head. There was a pesky vine hanging down just above the water's surface very much in the way of my drift. I grabbed the vine and set it behind my back using my shoulder to hold it behind me. My single nymph rig still did not produce any takers so I switched to a two fly rig with a small nymph and a heavy mop fly. I picked up two fish relatively quickly on the mop before going fishless. I felt like there was more fish to be had in this spot, but just as I was about to make a rig change I heard a car door slam.

The venues for these events remain open to the public, so it is possible to have recreational anglers fishing in your designated river section. Which is welcome by the way, obviously not ideal for us as competitors, but it is a public stream and a resource to be used by the public on a gorgeous Saturday morning like we had this past weekend. I thought any recreational anglers would be discouraged by the number of cars in the parking lot, and avoid hopping into my section, which is probably one of, if not the most popular stretch of this stream.

I was a little shocked by the sound of the car door, in disbelief someone would want to fish an area with that many cars in the lot. I wanted to ensure I got to fish the hole up by the bridge, which was likely this person's aim to do as well, knowing a fair number of fish usually held up there. I gathered my rods quickly and took off running for the hole. When I got there, there was no one in sight. I claimed the hole and began adjusting my rig to fit this new water; switching back to my single nymph rig. As I was finishing tying my nymph on, two dog walkers came down the trail obviously not fishing. I chuckled to myself, now realizing how bizarre my mad dash was. I returned my attention to the task at hand. The spot was a short riffle featuring a large pocket created by a couple of boulders. I fished to the close edge and the tailout with a few casts just in case a stray fish was holding in either spot, but found nothing. In the larger pocket I picked up a quick four fish to add to the scorecard. I repositioned to the far hole a larger swirling eddy created by the bridge itself. I hooked another small fish there that fell off when trying to land it. Coming up empty on my next series of casts I didn’t quite feel I was getting my fly deep enough with how pushy the water hydraulics were. I attached a heavier fly which quickly got crushed by a small fish on the first cast, but I missed it on the hook set. The same thing happened when I moved down to the next run on the only fish I got to take there.

I moved down again to a run that looked similar to the one at the bottom of my section, only better. The water was a touch deeper here the slow slick and riffle both longer. It’s safe to say I had pretty high hopes for this water given my results down below. I grabbed my dry dropper rod and again positioned myself downstream and towards the bank on my knees casting upstream into the slow water adjacent the rifle. After numerous casts I finally caught one small trout. I changed to the single nymph setup and fished the faster water. No luck. Very surprising, but with time ticking I kept moving down to the next spot, a nice riffle created by a fallen tree. I landed another fish here, but again felt like there should have been more. Time winding down I put a couple more casts into the run I was in before I took off running to the bridge. That produced nothing in my first couple casts and with that first run being so productive I wanted to put a couple more casts through there before my time ran out. I ran to the bottom of my section and set up as I did in the beginning. I changed the fly from the attractor to a dull perdigon to give me just hair faster sink rate below my dry. I instantly hooked a fair trout, which I lost inches from the net. I exclaimed to the air, “Gotta have that!”, and continued fishing. Another fish came soon after and again fell off mid air on the way to the net, however this time I lunged and caught the fish as it came off, securing it in the net. My controller and I let out a wild celebration. I looked into the net and found a cheek chub sitting in it. Doesn’t count. I caught another fish shortly after that one, which was again a cheek chub. Bummer.

I ended up finishing my hour and half session with 13 fish total, good enough for 3rd place for that session. Definitely left a few fish out there, but I was pleased with my performance and confident heading into my afternoon session.