R2G2,
LMAO!
I've never seen a big buck in the woods when I had a tag on my back when my fly was up, or my gun was loaded! That's one of the reasons I opted out of the November carnival.
I commented to 2B the other day about how few one handed rods you see on the SR anymore. And while a lot of guys with Speys in the zones are over weighted, on the reminder of the river, I did not see a lot of shenanigans. On the SR, with the High water, I carried it first day, and set it up for a little while, but once I realized that there were not a lot of spots a fish would want to navigate in the middle of 1700+ flows, it was excess baggage and stayed in the car. But on the Genesee, except when the water is pretty low at least <1000, you will not be flyflinging to a lot of the good lies except with a spey.
Surface takes- as 2B says, I was up on the island fishing to the south side channel tailout of the meadow. I had brought a 9.5 ft 5 down that day, and had it rigged with a skykomish, with no weight except the then required swivel. I was swinging the fly, and as the sky came to the surface, the water exploded and I was into a little 17" skipper that was a ball on the 5. After releasing her, I swung the same water again the second drift through, a bowling ball dropped behind the fly as it neared surface, and again the third time through. This one looked more like 17#.
Another time I was fishing the same water from the South bank. No one was doing anything up in the Conga line, and I took off all the shot except the swivel. I hooked and lost three double digits fish in about 1/2 hour swinging the wet right below the surface that morning. So the west coast stuff works, but you have to find the right water, and there is naturally a lot less when you have one big river 17 miles long as we do in NYS, as opposed to 20+ of them, many in excess of 50 miles long, as they have in Oregon and Washington. Now if they could ladder the Black above Watertown....
L13