The Awkward Side of Near Home Action

It seems to me that the "awkward side" approach works for anglers in a great many ways even these days when technology eitheer replaces technique or eliminates the need for it. Stream season opened here in Idaho Memorial Day weekend. As usual, the streams were "too" -- too high, too cold, too muddy and, in the popular spots I avoid like bears in a garbage dump, too crowded.

So I spent a couple of hours trying to keep my American Water Spaniel, Scout, out of the water and out of the way while I watched one of the better holes and riffles on the St. Joe River.

Only one of the 15 anglers I spied upon took the "awkward side" down along the overgrown bank. Everyone else hit the "angler's trail side." Everyone else cast to roughly the same spots with some variation in skill and considerable variation in gear value. This day the amount invested in gear seemed inversely proportional to the skill exhibited, but fly gear has reached the point where you need to work 60 hour weeks to afford the top line "stuff."

The "awkward side" fellow fished downstream with an soft hackle that looked to be about a size 14. I mention this because a buddy had sent me a dozen the month before. Oh, I should note I always tote 10x50 marine binoculars to check on the little details, such as fly selection, some anglers won't share.

This fellow didn't have waders either -- the Orvis wader ratio on the pool only ran 20%, but it was still early in the season, yes. His rod looked like an old St. Croix Imperial, and his reel was a battered Metalist. I suspect his line had floated at some time, but now seemed rather intermediate and his leader was only a 7 1/2-footer that, from the way he horsed in his fish, probably had a 10-pound test tippet. These days you see more 9-foot leaders with 2-foot tippets and anything heavier than about 5X or 4-pounds suggests, like keeping fish, "meat hog" to today's catch and release types.

What was most interesting was his "flop and wait" casting. He'd flip line out across current, let the fly swing down and jiggle it a bit at the bottom end. Then he'd adjust line length. While I watched he hooked four nice cutthroat in the 12-inch to 17-inch range. This on a dirty, overcast to shower day with badly off-color water.

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