NE Regional 20/20

[Dejon Hamann]

So, let the hindsight begin.

Personally, I wish I would have figured out the "Hydrolic Dry/Dropper" approach before halfway through my last beat. I'm quite sure it would have scored me a few fish on my two blanks as I netted 5 fish in 1 hour to close the competition with it.  What is "hydrolic dry/dropper" you ask?  Basically just letting a big indicator fly dry/dropper rig swirl around in one of those dead water back eddies or riffle backcurrent creases until a fish strikes.  My theory is that straight nymphing you can't keep your flies in the zone long enough to induce a strike - especially with high off color water. Case in point - i pulled nymphs through those zones 100s of times, but not until I zeroed in with the dry/dropper rig did I pinpoint fish.

That and the need for a good short 8.5ft dry/dropper rod with a soft enough tip to euro nymph.  Some of the Benner sections were just not at all conducive to a 10+ft rod with overhanging trees and such.

And the need for a good life vest.  I'm thinking of sewing a few flybox patches onto one, a net keeper, tippet holder... so I'm ready to roll if I need to really go aggressive swimming.

And waders that don't leak.

[Anita Coulton]

http://www.llbean.com/llb/shop/49865?feat=8098-GN2

Here's something that would have come in handy.  Missing a loop for a net, but has some other features that are nice. 

[Arron Varga]

I like the idea of the hydrolic dry dropper...wish I thought of it for my first session.  Could have cast out my rig and pulled up a log and waited for the bite

I did follow oliver edwards advice for swirling my nymphs and streamers around in the eddy current on my first session on McCoy #6 where I had a big back eddy to fish, but no takes.  Only needed that one fish to avoid a blank.

I agree on the rod...I was kicking myself for not bringing my small stream rod which which would have been perfect.

[Brandon Matthews]

I was fortunate to have fished with Rob Kolanda...and he used the hydrolic dropper almost exclusively. He would start right at the bank and slowly work his way out until he found the area fish were holding then he would repeatedly put his flies in that same lie. I know on our first session on McCoy we drew #6 beat. He fished the same little eddie for three hours and ended up pulling 2 the only two fish to come out of the top of #6. 

I quickly seen how he was fishing and changed over...his technique saved me from blanking 3 time and it was own fault I blanked on the big back eddie at #6. Arron I hooked 5 fish in that water and dropped everyone...one from poor hook set and the others from slipping on the dang bank! Every time I slipped...you think I would have learned my lesson...lol.

[Frank Muscente]

Hey for those conditions you guys did a great job! I think I saw that hydrolic dry/dropper in action on one of my guide trips with Loren, way cool.  Congrats everyone!

[Chris Smith]

1.  Life jacket and dry top.  On the lower half of Benner 4, I went for it and made the far side...landing and scoring 2 fish.  I was very uncomfortable, however.  Never again without the proper safety equipment.

Had I both those items, I would have crossed Upper McCoy 5.  The far side looked bountiful!

Oh..and I'm going to practice those types of crossings in advance.  Anyone done so?  I'm guessing a teammate and ropes might help?

2.  Importance of teamwork.  Woody, Lee, and I worked as a team the whole week.  We made a plan and stuck to it...and while it worked out better for them, we all made the top 10.

3.  Study the score sheets and ask a lot of questions!

I won the coin toss and took upper Benner 1 because I thought Rob had scored 4 fish out of it day the day before.  Wrong!  He took the lower.

Five minutes in, while attempting to wade to a choice seem on the far side, I knew I had made a mistake.  I still managed 2 fish, but it was the hardest I worked all weekend.

And on that note...

4.  Don't dwell on it when you screw up.  Accept the mistake, learn from it, and move on...it's the only way to make a negative a positive!

[Todd Oishi]

I won the coin toss and took upper Benner 1 because I thought Rob had scored 4 fish out of it day the day before.  Wrong!  He took the lower.

Interesting... we typically flip a coin and rotate the upper and lower stretches of a beat midway through a session (90 minutes to fish each half) whenever we have to split our beats at our Canadian Nationals. Was that an option for you guys? And if it was; did any of you take advantage of it?

[Brandon Matthews]

Todd, we had a guy with a ghost fisherman so flipping half's half way through would have give the guy with the ghost an unfair advantage since he would get a fresh water each time while everyone had water that was worked over. It was a good choice and a fair choice. I'm glad that choice was made.

And Chris...I was the partner with Rob...that Upper half of Beat #1 at Benner was a killer....I fished by the bridge most of the time...there wasn't to many fishable seams....and I almost got washed down stream twice trying to fish the other side....

I learned a very valuable lesson of how beat draws really factor into a comp. While Rob and I didn't flip..we just took turn picking upper or lower without seeing the water....but Rob taught me what it takes to take crap water and find fish....hence his 1st place finish.

[Chris Smith]

Todd,

The Canadian spirit was there.  Ivo was a great beat partner and would have willingly traded halves had it been an option.  

That ghost...he got us in more ways than one.  8th place?  Woody swears that he never saw Ghost catch a fish!

[Jeremiah Hamilton]

No Chris it was not there at all we all had our own beat, its alot different here we swap at half-time of our session then we get to fish the other persons water. We also would never fish with the same person the whole comp, sometimes we fish with the same person in our group but most of the time you never will.

Todd,

The Canadian spirit was there.  Ivo was a great beat partner and would have willingly traded halves had it been an option.  

That ghost...he got us in more ways than one.  8th place?  Woody swears that he never saw Ghost catch a fish!

[John Killinger]

Dry/dropper hydraulics very interesting...I would have never thought of it, especially in that raging water. Good tip!

[Chris Smith]

Sorry Jeremiah.  I wasn't clear.

By Canadian spirit I meant the good natured attitude you brought to the comp...willingness to share...etc.  Ivo even offered me the beat choice after he won the coin toss twice on day 1, but I declined.

[Dejon Hamann]

Todd, to answer your question more directly.  We had intended to follow that path but made a last minute decision to basically segment the venues into 28 1/2 sized beats (with a coin toss) rather than 14 "shared" beats... a completely viable and fair competition... just with a different tone.

we typically flip a coin and rotate the upper and lower stretches of a beat midway through a session

[Jeremiah Hamilton]

I had Chris Galvin and told him, I know you need the points more then I do, I let him choose and he got his fish on a hard beat. He was nice enough to give me the pick in the afternoon and I thought that was a great guy right there, that is what this competition is all about being, nice to each other and helping us to improve so that we can beat the french but have fun doing it, but I did rib him after he drop 5 fish on sunday on his morning beat.

Sorry Jeremiah.  I wasn't clear.

By Canadian spirit I meant the good natured attitude you brought to the comp...willingness to share...etc.  Ivo even offered me the beat choice after he won the coin toss twice on day 1, but I declined.

[Arron Varga]

I worked it with my fishing partner, the person that won the toss in the morning got to pick but the other person got to pick in the afternoon.  Thought it was the fairest way to deal with the situation and it worked out for the best as I picked first on the Saturday and he picked first on the Sunday.   We both got equal chances to select the better parts of our beat each day.

[Kurt Finlayson]

Dejon,

That is pretty cool method. Thanks for sharing. Did you find that the size of the nymphs was important? Did you use big stonefly-like or were smaller patterns effective?

[Lance Egan]

I lost 3 out of 4 coin tosses.  I'm not sure I like that method

Given the conditions all went as well as it could.  Thanks to all the controllers and to Dejon and Bill for organizing the comp.

I'll think twice before I head back to central PA.  It seems to have bad mojo when we head that way...

[Dejon Hamann]

Kurt,

I was using "smaller" flies: 4 on a 14WaltsWorm and 1 on a 8Vladi. I know this is primarily speculation but I think the fish kind of mull around that "pocket" searching for food - if you can get your flies suspended and doing the same it's just a matter of time until they connect. 

[Kurt Finlayson]

wow what kind of visibility did you have in the water. we are seeing high muddy water right now too. So i am going to give it a try.

[Dejon Hamann]

I'd say "chalky" on the second day when it proved effective for me... all though I theorize it still would have worked on the first day when it was "chocolate.' 

[Pat Weiss]

Yeah, but you missed out on all the suckers that lived in that beat D!  I, on the otherhand, go to know them quite well.  4 of them as a matter of fact........

[Bill Steudler]

Creeper Jigs, Creeper Jigs