cb3725
Senior Member
Last year, a trip up to Cohutta really pointed me towards fly fishing as more than just an unnecessary complication of "regular" fishing. I’d spent several years prior exploring the simplest fishing methods I could try – handlines, yoyos, and cut poles – and the only experiences I’d had fly fishing successfully were on private trout waters, which didn't really feel like a realistic experience to me. So I picked up an inexpensive Scientific Angler 5/6wt setup and a dark green Booglebug on the recommendation of the guys at Cohutta Fishing Co., and had an exceptional trip catching redeye bass in the Conasauga River. That trip turned me into a fly fishing enthusiast, and my spinning rods haven’t seen much use since.
So my generous wife (also unknowingly, since I had purchased, wrapped, addressed, and placed under the tree myself) gifted me an Echo 2wt setup last Christmas, which was yet to get any use by the time June rolled around. It was a shame, but such has been life this year – chaos interrupted by upheaval! Well the summer has finally found calmer times, and I was able to give it a try on the Etowah River for a few hours recently. Lest you confuse me with an experienced, educated angler, I choose my flies at random, so it was a yellow popper that I started out with. After fifteen minutes or so of fruitless casting, it was apparent that what I was doing wasn’t working. Aptly described by Patrick McManus, my casting of that popper was like ‘an old lady trying to swat at a fly with a broomstick.’ So I pulled to the side of the river to switch flies, and as I sat tying on a small foam spider, I spotted a nice sized bass holding in about 2′ of water. Half a minute later, the bass spooked and disappeared upstream, just as a large gar swam by. I tell this story to set the stage for my first catch on the ultralight rod.
Half an hour later, my cast had improved and I had adopted the system of paddling upstream a couple hundred yards, and then standing in the kayak to float downstream, casting towards the bank. On my first pass near some rivercane, I got my first strike, and like the river monster it certainly was, it peeled line from my reel as it headed for the bottom. Just from the bend of the rod, it was apparent that this fish was better than my usual, and I had pictures of that gar, or at least a nice bass, fill my head. After some zigzagging around, the fish headed straight down once more, and just stopped. It hung there on the bottom, not moving at all, and I tried to carefully coax it from it’s safety without popping the tippet. For at least five minutes, I sat there waiting, and sweating, until I finally was able to move it by positioning the yak directly overhead and poking one-handed with my kayak paddle in it’s general direction. As it came to the surface, I was shocked to find merely a good sized bream on the end, rather than the Jeremy Wade specimen I was expecting. But that’s what ultralight rigs are made for right? To turn a little fish into an adrenaline releasing, breath holding experience. And it certainly did!
Since bream is what I catch the most of, the Echo is going to be a blast to fish with this year. You hear these stories about guys landing big multi-lb. fish on a light setup, so that’ll be the goal this year. To see how big a fish I can bring in on this fun little fly rod.
So my generous wife (also unknowingly, since I had purchased, wrapped, addressed, and placed under the tree myself) gifted me an Echo 2wt setup last Christmas, which was yet to get any use by the time June rolled around. It was a shame, but such has been life this year – chaos interrupted by upheaval! Well the summer has finally found calmer times, and I was able to give it a try on the Etowah River for a few hours recently. Lest you confuse me with an experienced, educated angler, I choose my flies at random, so it was a yellow popper that I started out with. After fifteen minutes or so of fruitless casting, it was apparent that what I was doing wasn’t working. Aptly described by Patrick McManus, my casting of that popper was like ‘an old lady trying to swat at a fly with a broomstick.’ So I pulled to the side of the river to switch flies, and as I sat tying on a small foam spider, I spotted a nice sized bass holding in about 2′ of water. Half a minute later, the bass spooked and disappeared upstream, just as a large gar swam by. I tell this story to set the stage for my first catch on the ultralight rod.
Half an hour later, my cast had improved and I had adopted the system of paddling upstream a couple hundred yards, and then standing in the kayak to float downstream, casting towards the bank. On my first pass near some rivercane, I got my first strike, and like the river monster it certainly was, it peeled line from my reel as it headed for the bottom. Just from the bend of the rod, it was apparent that this fish was better than my usual, and I had pictures of that gar, or at least a nice bass, fill my head. After some zigzagging around, the fish headed straight down once more, and just stopped. It hung there on the bottom, not moving at all, and I tried to carefully coax it from it’s safety without popping the tippet. For at least five minutes, I sat there waiting, and sweating, until I finally was able to move it by positioning the yak directly overhead and poking one-handed with my kayak paddle in it’s general direction. As it came to the surface, I was shocked to find merely a good sized bream on the end, rather than the Jeremy Wade specimen I was expecting. But that’s what ultralight rigs are made for right? To turn a little fish into an adrenaline releasing, breath holding experience. And it certainly did!
Since bream is what I catch the most of, the Echo is going to be a blast to fish with this year. You hear these stories about guys landing big multi-lb. fish on a light setup, so that’ll be the goal this year. To see how big a fish I can bring in on this fun little fly rod.
