Fall reservoir fishing continued
October 19, 2010
To get back to fall reservoir fishing, it can be the best October and November fishing available. When you have a cold water temperatures in the creeks, reservoirs are more consistent with larger fish to catch. You will typically catch fewer fish, but you should be catching nice 1-4 pounders in a lot of reservoirs. Some reservoirs have 4-8 pounders that are even more fun. Keep in mind, typically the bigger the fish, the slower the action. When ever I go to a big fish reservoir, I set the bar low. If I catch 1-3 fish per day, I am satisfied. If I double that I am very happy. If I land 6-9 fish, I had a stellar day.
On Sunday 17th of Oct., I went to my favorite public reservoir down by Buffalo. My friend John and I were the first two people there and rightfully so John caught the first fish of the day. It was not one of the pounders, but it was a nice fish. As so often happens, this put us in a good mood, we were off to a good start early in the day. John got several more hits, but no good hookups. After the first couple of hours I started to get mildly concerned about not getting even any hits during that same time. As I am always calm and know that fishing is fishing, I kept slinging and stripping to get my shots. A couple of hours into the day, I got my first very soft strike. I missed, but that got me started.
I started getting some fish following my flies. I missed a couple more light strikes. So I changed flies and stripping techniques again. I started throwing a small white chenille and marabou jig around some boulders, and started getting more bumps. I finally figured out how the fish were gently taking the fly moving towards me, which made feel almost impossible. I started casting, letting the jig sink to a good depth and then slowly jigging twice with a hook set on the third stroke. I then let the fly sink back to depth after each presentation and continued to retrieve the fly. I got several hits and two good fish that I hooked and landed. The larger of the two was about 3 pounds and 20 inches long. This one fish made my whole day and I had what I would call a good day.
Have fun.
Roger 
At the end of that day I saw a total of ten fisherman on the water. Five were spinner fisherman and five were fly fisherman. John and I were the only two that caught and landed fish on Sunday on Muddy Guard #1. These numbers are why people tend to not like reservoir fishing. Like I said, the number go down when fishing for larger fish a lot of the time. If you want to become a better fly fisherman, you have to spend time on still waters learning the skills you need to catch and land bigger fish.
