Heads or tails

                             
One can really learn a lot about a river and it's salmon when you float down where they migrate up. Learning about the route they travel, obstacles they encounter, pools they'll rest in, and secret places they may hide in, give us fools who chase them a better understanding of how to ultimately release them back to their business after a quick tail/handshake.

Nunzio & I were lucky enough to float down a beautiful stretch of river that ran through a national park with our pontoons for a couple of days. We planned our route and hoped to float and explore 14 kms of river and camp in between. 

The first pool we launched from was long and deep which we soon came to realize that the majority on our route were. We decided to focus on the the heads and tails of the pools since we only had two days.
All was going smoothly until we reached the first major pool. What a pool! It stretched for about 100 meters, had a cold brook feeding right down the center from which started a never ending tailout with perfect speed, depth, and temperature thanks to the brook. It was also shaded by a spectacular rock faced cliff! This pool had it all! We held off the temptation of fishing until we cooked and ate our breakfast. Nunzio was the first to hook up fishing a sunburst spey.

Nunzio's Sunburst Spey 

Unfortunately the salmon spit it out not a minute later. He then raised another that refused to come back until I swung through with a tiny Red Frances. It took hard and leapt immediately after. A beautiful healthy hen came quick to hand and quick to release.

A beautiful late summer hen 

that fell for a tiny #12 Red Frances 

              

We looked at the time and without a word to each other knew that we would never make our destination in the allotted time because of the hours we spent on that incredible pool. It went by so quickly!
So much for the heads and tail.
We floated down some sketchy water that was not so much fast, but was boulder strewn that made navigating a little more difficult and time consuming.
We finally passed the hydro lines that marked the end of the national park and beginning of the Zec and arrived at another incredibly beautiful pool. We set up camp and had just enough time to swing through the pool. I started with a Culdrain at the head and ended with a blue charm at the tail. I raised a reluctant salmon 3 times. It would come up behind the fly, slowly, seem to inspect it, then return to its lie. That salmon would have to wait till morning as the evening descended and the smell of Nunzio's tomato sauce simmering on the camper stove reminded me how hungry I was.

Our campsite for the night 

I woke up at 5 am and stuck my head out of my tent. My mind took a minute to realize that I was not dreaming and that I was looking at a beautiful salmon pool!
I prepared the espresso maker and tied on a fly.

Early riser looking for an early riser

Nunzio awoke as I made it half way through the pool. After we cooked breakfast and had our coffee, I stepped back in the river and continued my run hoping to cross paths with the salmon I rose last evening. Nothing came of it. I looked upstream to see that Nunzio was still a good distance away so I tied on a big yellow bomber. The first dead drift over the target area brought a boil under the fly. Seemed to be in the exact place I raised a salmon last evening.  I cast it again after a couple of minutes and it rose again , this time breaking the surface.
After waiting for another few minutes and a few casts over it with no attention, I switched to an orange bomber. The fly drifted over and it turned and attacked from behind with its mouth wide open, but missed the fly completely. Nunzio and I tried a few different flies over it, but refused all.

Started getting late as the sun began to climb high above the pool I knew we had to move on if we wanted to cover more water, but I had to fish the tailout just one more time. I tied on an a BIG green bomber to cast a big shadow and hopefully get some attention. Started close and made my way across and upstream until I cast about 80 feet away. The bomber landed and drifted a few inches until a big wake formed behind it. Gave it a few minutes before casting and tried again , but nothing. I decided to rest it a little longer and come back to it later. I moved upstream and cast directly on to the opposite bank that had a good drop off where I expected salmon to hold. I was right as my bomber drifted on its first cast a salmon boiled beneath it. I tried both salmon again but nothing. I made my way back up to the top of the pool to my pontoon where I had my fly box. Tied on an old raggy natural bomber that has done very well for me and went back down to try them again. A few cast later, my bomber landed in the perfect spot and a salmon leapt out, mouth wide open like a great white shark would on a Discovery channel's shark week commercial, took the bomber and dove back in! It was awesome and I wish I had my gopro on.

She jumped a couple times and fought hard, but she wrapped herself around the leader and lost momentum.  I eased up and gave some slack trying to get her free.  When she finally got untangled, Nunzio tailed her and we could see the leader had cut through one of her fins, but she was fine and we let her on her way.

 Flies that moved salmon

We finally left that awesome pool a drifted to the next that was even more beautiful!!!  We came around a sharp bend after some white water to a never ending pool that stretched more than 100 meters. It had perfect water throughout and one can spend a lot of time swinging through. Time we were short of. While I was imagining where I thought they'd be holding, a big bright salmon leapt straight out of the water in the tailout!!! Needless to say we fished the lower part and tailout of the pool. Nunzio swung through with his Sunburst Spey and then was making his way up with a bomber when he raised a good fish that swiped at his bomber 3 times during the drift!!! We both tried to bring it back but, it was time to go.
We drifted through some more incredible water that really hurt us to not fish, but it would have to wait until next time. Maybe concentrate on the heads and tails only!

A really well tied fly from Ireland,

tied by my friend Pete. 

The brookies couldn't stay away from it!

We had an awesome time seeing new water, beautiful landscapes, fauna, and hooked some beautifully colored brook trout. We also got to tail/handshake a couple of tails along the way!