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I
really didn't have any faith in the day when I looked over the
bridge and saw nothing but chocolate milk. But I was there, and
decided to walk upstream a bit and give it a try. A friend once told me that when things are looking bad, try
making it better by overcoming what hinders you. Well, in chocolate
milk, all a guy can do is have a visible fly. So I knotted this fly
on the end of my leader: an ugly thing consisting of ten feet of
ten-pound Trilene, to which was knotted a foot of 4X, with four
(yes, 4) split shot above the knot. I hoped it would get me down to
where I needed to be. It did.
I was fishing as I would for steelhead- let the shot hit bottom,
then just let it drift in the current, occasionally tapping the
bottom in its drift. I believe it was on the fourth drift, when a
side current pulled my rig closer to my feet, that the rig stopped
cold. Figuring it was some Wisconsin real estate, I yanked straight
up, expecting to have a fly with some moss on it shoot out of the
water less than a yard in front of me.
It didn't happen that way. It just came up real slow and heavy,
and I remember my thought being, "Phooey, another stick." Then it
shook its head, and went over 50 feet downstream to just shy of the
bridge, in less than 3 seconds. Like a typical big trout, it shot
straight over to the other bank and bull-dogged a bit, slowly
working upstream with heavy headshakes interspersed. It tried to
bury itself in a stand of sunken timbers, but I managed to pull it
out of them and brought it across the river, almost to my feet. I
had leader in my guides when all the stops were pulled out. It just
went downstream. And kept going. I was under the bridge with water
coming in under my left armpit and my fly line shooting down river
with backing trailing after it when… all went slack. I cranked up
what I had left only to find the scourge of knot-tiers: a knot that
broke at the hook eye.
Now all I have to say is this:
I've hooked and landed a few 18-inchers before, some in heavy
current. This was much, much stronger and heavier. I can't say
exactly how much, because I never saw the fish, its tail or even a
boil. Still drives me crazy when I think about
it.
--Nate Gubbins
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Four-shot Scud
as designed and tied by
Nate Gubbins |
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Photo by Peter Frailey
Order of Ingredients:
Hook: Size 10 or 12, TMC 900BL or
2457
Antennae: 6 pound monofilament, tied in
before beadhead is slipped into place
Beadhead: Gold,
large for hook size
Tail: Filoplume fibers
trimmed short
Rib: Black 6/0
thread
Back: Clear plastic sheeting (from a
Ziploc plastic bag) over a few strands of
pearl
Flashabou
Body: Fox squirrel, dubbed heavily and
picked out
Remarks:
This fly was
tied as a joke, given the huge gold bead at the front of an already
large fly. However, it is responsible for the largest hookup I've
ever had on a trout stream, or any stream for that matter.
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