High Stick Nymphing for Wild Trout; Plastic Worming for Largemouth Bass

Oliver Round introduced me to high stick nymphing. Until last night, I didn't know about use of tungsten putty for trout nymphing, or that tungsten bead head nymphs exist. We caught some little wild brown trout and Oliver caught two stocked brook trout on the larger of his double nymph set up. Getting one of those trout out of overhanging brush was a feat. Close quarters require precision use of the rod. We talked about fly fishing around the state and I had told him I'm through spin fishing for browns. I like my little 3 1/2-foot spinning rod with two-pound test and a salmon egg for early stocked rainbows, though. I'm amazed I didn't catch poison ivy because I know I ran amok in some. No ticks either. Climbing over deadfalls and up and down banks was arduous and will be well remembered. Oliver had spotted a 15-inch or so wild brown associated with the deadfall pictured above.

After sunset, we caught some bass. Oliver's the second person I've met who fly fishes without ever having used spinning. I know because he held the spinning reel upside down until I showed him how. We approached docked boats on the pond and I let Oliver cast first. He missed a bass. I was thinking of the bass a few ounces under 2 1/2-pounds I had once caught under the dock walkway and decided not to mention it, because Oliver had showed me a photograph of a larger bass he had caught fly fishing the pond. Then I whipped the Chompers worm near the walkway and several feet from a boat. The dusk was thick and the pond dead calm. We used dark-hued plastics. I wished I'd brought some topwaters, but by now I was resolved on the Chompers since the bass hit well. I felt one on, paused, and when I set the hook, I thought for a moment I was snagged.

Today I fished Mount Hope Pond and caught one bass on a bright-colored Chompers cast to one of those eight-inch wide submerged tree trunks. It was nice out in the very warm weather, not yet 90.