FLYGUY Creations: Chopaka with Jeff Peace

Jeff had to leave Chopaka on our first trip the day after we got there with a family emergency so we did another trip a few weeks later. Jeff and I went in his camper with boat trailer filled with our pontoon boats. There were a couple of guys up there who we knew, Dick Nicklas from the Plain Fly Tyers group and Chuck Friedel from my hunting camp.

It was already June, getting warm and the hatch patterns had changed again. This time Damsel (dragon) flys were hatching and it was great to see the fish going after them. It was also interesting to have the damsels come out of the water as water bugs crawl onto your boat and body, dry off get wings and fly off. It was also a sight to see the fish come straight out of the water to try and catch the damsels as they flew off. Another fun this to observe was to see the fish try and knock the bugs off of the reeds into the water to eat.

I still did well on a white wooly bugger pretty deep so I would drag it down to where the dry fly fishing was doing well. One day I decided it was time to eat lunch so I tied this ugly dry fly with a strike indicator on it's top and threw it towards the shore. I unwrapped my sandwich, took a bite and all of a sudden the shore exploded as a fish took the ugly fly. Kind of caught me off guard but it did get it in and it was a 22inch Cutt-Bow, my first. I learned through this catch to fish very close to the reeds with dry flies and you will do well, plus it is exciting to watch the water explode when the fish takes the fly in the shallows.

Jeff and I had several good days of fishing and some great "camp food" massive steaks and great chicken and wine before we had to pack up and head home. I think we might do this trip again next year.