It did not take much for my good friend Christie Dobson to convince me that I should take her fishing. We have made two attempts to run the upper section of the Middle Fork of the American River without success, and we thought the third time was going the be the charm. On our first trip we set shuttle and made it almost all the way to put-in. Upon approaching the Tunnel Chute over-look, we noticed many whitewater rafting vans stopped. It turns out something happened at the dam and the scheduled release was cancelled for the day. So, we had to divert back to the lower section which you can float at 200cfs. On our second attempt, we made it to the river. Christie had a good day but lost a big rainbow towards the end of the day. She hooked it at the beginning of a long class II rapid. She managed to fight him all the way through the rapid, then I blew it and caught the wrong eddy. That one got away. Third times a charm, as always.
Here, Christie shows us here prize.
After this success I turned my attention to teaching Christie how to manage the oars so I could get some Rod time. It took some time but on the same fly, I was able to stick another nice Buck.
We were fishing a 200 grain full sink line with two feet of 0x. I tie a fly I call the Sex Pig. Its a cross between Kelly Gallops ‘Sex Dungeon” and the “Ditch Pig”. Strip as fast as you can….