TANGLER.blogspot: Deckers

I went to Deckers the day after the Ark tourney. I rode out from Denver with Jake and Jim. We met up with Wyatt and John G. at "Flies & Lies" in Deckers. John shot some photos during his drive of some of the snow that had piled up on Friday/Saturday.

I fished with Jake for most of the morning while Wyatt, Jim, and John worked another stretch of Deckers to trade some Czech Nymphing technique.

All I can say is that Jake sure knows his Deckers. I have a new appreciation for the area after spending the afternoon there with him.

I always thought of Deckers as an overrated destination that gets hammered by rude anglers. While the latter statement proved true, the former is very much off base. There are some quality fish to be had there, but they are exceptionally discerning and business like. I got a small taste of what it takes to catch one on a low flow, bluebird day such as the one we were dealt.

I didn't see a single other person catch a fish all day (and that's out of a lot of people), but Jake was hooking into them left and right. It was remarkable.

Here are some photos and video from the day:

*Note the motions the trout are displaying in the following video clip, most notably - the fish I focus in on towards the end. When sight-nymphing, the following motions are what you are looking for to set your hook on. In addition, every time you see the white of the fish's mouth its inhaling food.

Having trout follow me around like puppy dogs was entirely new to me. I've never seen that type of adaptive behavior to high pressure, but apparently it's a typical thing to see there. At one point I took a step forward and literally tripped over a fish.