LOCALadk Magazine

49 Fall 2016 LOCALadk Magazine LOCALadk While it may be difficult to meet an angler who doesn't have a better time on the water when catching fish as opposed to not catching fish, it is true that catching fish is not necessary to have a good time. Since I know of a dozen other ways to enjoy myself without the risk of failure, and because the first question others ask me upon my return from the river is, "Did you catch anything?" - honestly - I'm out there trying to catch as many as I can. Fishing a new stream can cause many first-time feelings to rise to the surface. Although it's just a river like any other river, the differences outweigh the similarities: river bed character- istics, depth, prevalent trout species, time of year, tempera- ture, time of day, longitude, latitude, the cut of your waders, what you had for breakfast, the hat you chose…all of which can make or break a day on new waters. You begin to question everything. Will the trout be able to tell I'm from out-of-town? All preconceived notions aside, it's not until you start catching fish that you know you're doing something right, and you can live another day to say, "It must've been my lucky hat." It is crucial to know what insects the fish will choose. In the case of trout - notoriously picky eaters with excellent vision and a discerning eye for detail - some basic knowledge is nec- essary. The short version reads like this: be able to identify their larval stage, anticipate the timing of their emergence, and be able to recognize them as they float and flutter on their way up or down to further transformation, reproduction, egg laying, dying, or any combination of the above. If we are just talking Mayfly larvae, determine if it's a swimmer, a burrower, a clinger or a crawler. Finally, you must be able to match the hatch with one of the artificial flies you hopefully have in your box that is nothing short of a meticulously crafted sculpture (meant to imitate a living creature) created under a magnify- ing glass using carefully selected and prepared fur, feather, and thread by someone whose patience, knowledge and fine motor skills surpass that of the average enthusiast. Alone in my room at The Hungry Trout at 4:30 am, I pack hasti- ly and giggle at the irony of being inside a hungry trout - which brings me right back to the original question: What will the trout be hungry for this morning? My fly box is full of dun and spinner Coffin flies, Tan Hare's Ear of all sizes, Black and Tan caddis, Blue Winged Olives, caddis pupa, caddis nymphs, March Browns, Sulphurs and a few variations of the Green Drake and Yellow Quill. Armed with a new copy of Ames' Hatch Guide for New England Streams, I head out into the cool predawn for my first day in the Adirondacks. My first hours on the Ausable River prove extraordinary. The sunlight begins to peak above treeline and illuminate the many bugs that surround me. It spills gold across the water's surface as early morning emergers shake their wings dry in the patchy sunlight and begin floating upwards. The rising trout create surface rings as they feed upstream. I pull out my fly box and to choose from nearly a hundred dry flies of varying hues and shapes, arranged in no particular order. I go with the ol' standby method: pick the prettiest fly with colors that match the blur of wings on the river, and hope for the best. The fly I tie on, an American March Brown, is almost indistinguishable from the rest of the bugs drifting with the current a cast's-length away. My tiny imitation floats toward an eddy line, and suddenly I see a flash of gold. I set the hook instinctively, then feel the tug.

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