First Session - North Twin Lake
This was a bank session. We did not get to prefish this venue. Each angler on the bank session (11 anglers) got to fish 3 different areas from the bank. We rotated each hour with a 10 minute break between rotations. I started the session out with an intermediate line with a damsel nymph on point with a callabaetis nymph on my tag. My first peg had a ton of logs and I was getting hung up a bunch. With about 2 minutes remaining I switched to my other prerigged fly rod that was set up with a Dry Dropper. First cast a trout ate a squirmy worm suspended under my dry fly.
Second hour, rotated to peg 5. First cast with the dry dropped rig a fish came up and ate my dry fly. After a half our and several tippet depth adjustments and no other bites, I switched to fishing a black leach under the indicator, caught one. Third hour, fishing really turned off. Missed maybe one or two. Ended the session with 3 fish total. Taking an individual 4th PLC.
Second Session - South Twin Lake
South Twin was just down the road from North Twin. Both these lakes were holdover and freshly stocked rainbow trout. This lake was just stocked, So my boat partner and I worked around until we found the fish. I fished a type III fly line (sinks 3.0 inches per second) with a blank saver on point with a peach bugger on the tag. Caught 12 fish. Took an individual 3rd PLC.
Third Session - Lava Lake
Second Day, Lava Lake, was a beautiful lake sitting under a couple volcanoes. With great intel from my team mate Russ, I was probably most excited to fish this session. Started out motoring across to the far side of the lake. Started my session fishing a type IV fly line (sinks 5.0 inches a second) with a booby damsel on point with a callabaetis on the tag. Session starts, first cast my boat partner hooks and lands a fish first 2-3 strips into his retrieve. I quickly switched to a intermediate line (sinks 2.0 inches per second) since he hooked that fish so high in the water column. My boat partner continued to catch fish. He was up on me 8-3 fish. Then suddenly fishing slowed down for him. I quickly returned to my type IV line and slowly caught up to him ending the session 11 fish to his 9. It was tough at first to mentally stay in the game. Took an individual 5th PLC.
Fourth Session - Deschutes River
The only river session at nationals! Mike and I walked the beats the day before the sessions started. We both did not want to draw beat number one. It seemed to lack the water type, (deeper) white fish holding water. I drew beat one. The beat took a 10th PLC every session.
I entered my beat with the mind set to just catch one fish, Since the total fish caught from my beat over 9 hours and 3 anglers was 15 fish. My idea was to wait until the shade moved over my best water. The beat was shallow and fast with 2 small holding water spots. I crawled up to the better spot in my beat making sure my cast was perfect before it hit the water, fishing 2 flies, a #16 walts worm and a #16 PT. My first fish came 38 minutes into the session after the shade moved over the better water. After each fish or each bite I would sit down and let the water rest fishing the small stream like a spring creek, making every cast count and trying my hardest to not spook many fish. I finished the session with 15 fish taking an individual 2nd PLC.
Fifth Session - Crane Prairie
Final session, I couldn't have been happier with the boat partner I drew, Chris is a great lake angler. All but one boat went to the far end of the lake, Chris and I stayed near the closer end. We started over weeds. We both didn't have any fish for what seemed like forever in our session. We moved a bit further out and I hooked and landed a rainbow. Chris quickly caught a fish too. I was using a hover line (sinks .5 inches per second) and a damsel booby on point and a damsel nymph on the tag. We both caught a few fish but I ended with 6 fish taking a 5th PLC.
Finished nationals in 5th place. Proud to make Fly Fishing Team USA for 2 more years!
For final scores: FlyComps.com
