The Big Fish

The river is wide at the point where you’re fishing. The current surprisingly deep and strong. You remove split-shot and flies from your line, and tie on a size 14 pupa pattern and a streamer. Normally you use a smaller fly on the dropper and a streamer as the point fly, this time it is the other way around.

There is an underwater rock so you let your flies swing in front of it. A swirl of water, a big fish takes a fly. It runs about five or six meters towards the other bank and stops. Then it jumps. One lazy I’ll-let-you-see-me jump. It is a huge rainbow trout.

Judging by the distance of the tip of the fly line and the jumping fish you guess it has taken the point fly, the small pupa pattern. That would mean a 5X tippet. The trout swims upstream. There is no haste in the movement. Then it stops below another underwater rock. A moment later you began to suspect that the other fly is stuck.

Minutes later, after all tricks you know to get a fish moving, you pull the line until it breaks. Reel in to see that both flies are gone.

After a moment of thought you tie a new tippet and a dropper and identical patterns. Later you catch trout, but they are not like the big fish.