I am glad to report that I have hooked, landed and released my first Brown Trout. It was my first experience fishing a creek, and it was great. I played in my head a line from the “Curtis Creek Manifesto” – required reading for any fly fisher – that reads: “…trails are for the uninspired herd”. I don’t like to think of myself as uninspired, so I drove dirt access roads (in my wife’s BMW), hiked, scouted and then found a nice bend in Bishop Creek with two deep pools.

Owens River

Since the sun was already overhead, I decided that my quarry would be lying up in the shade-covered ledge near the far bank. I cast my fly upstream (elk hair caddis) to allow the current to move the fly into the shade, mending the line as it drifted. When I saw the strike I quickly lifted the rod tip straight up and was rewarded with an aggressive fight from a smallish Brownie.

It was all fun and games until it got near the bank and I reached for my net. It was clipped to the back of my fishing vest for easy access… hrrumph! The plastic clip do-hickey on the net would not release, so I ended up trapping the fly rod and line against my body (with fish trying to take advantage of this newbie) and use both hands to free it. By the time I got the net off of my vest, the line was slack. I thought for sure that I had lost it. Turns out he was resting behind a big rock – recovering – for when I began to retrieve line again. He shot out of the water, gave two big tail lashes and made another run upstream. I was lucky to overcome three water-breaking/tail-shaking runs, my own ineptness with the net clip and allowing the line to slack with a fish on. Considering how much trouble I had with the net, I left the camera in my pocket and released my Brown.

In summary, here is what I learned a bunch from this one short expedition to Bishop Creek:
- Mending fly line on fast moving water is hard. It’s an art form, and my hat is off to those experienced anglers that make it look easy.
- While drifting your fly keep the rod tip down. Upon seeing the strike lift straight up to set the hook. Done properly, other newbie mistakes can sometimes be overcome.
- Cheap plastic clips attached to catch-n-release nets are IMPOSSIBLE to remove from a fishing vest in the heat of the moment. I am going to use an imitation carabiner in the future.