Big and Little Nunyas

Friday, August 12, 2011

Work is highly overrated, so when Tom said he was wife and kid free we quickly planned an outing. Tom wanted to float the Kettle, but decided the water level might be too low for the driftboat by this time of year, and we opted for the old standbys, Nunya and Little Nunya, along with exploring a little more water on Little Nunya.

Tom got a late start, having to return home to retrieve his rattlesnake chaps. Good thing, because we ran into three this trip, only one of which we could see. But they were all nice and did let us know with sufficient warning that they weren't happy with the direction we were headed. We got this one to come out onto the trail (Tom wanted a new set of rattles for Tory, but the rock missed). Afterwards, we decided that next time we'll give one of our rattlesnake chaps a real, live, performance test (after taking it off our leg, off course).

The day started nicely, with this beatiful 20" brown about three holes up from the bridge on a black, bead-head bugger. Tom got several small ones on the hopper, but things were a little slow, even when we made it up into the better water. A little above the honey hole, we looked upriver and there were three fisherman in the water. They were either dropped off below, or were fishing their way down. Based on our seeing very few fish of size, and not many fish in the normal places, we may have been fishing behind them a good part of the day. Still, it was a bad day as we had some action throughout the stream and turned some nice fish besides those we caught.
Who can't love that face?

Tom pulled this fat-shouldered rainbow from under the grass bank (several times, in fact, as it kept running under and tangling in the grass.

This face is a little harder to love

My highlight of the day was the second big brown I caught (18") from another grassy bank. Tom had stung a nice brown about halfway down the bank and had worked all but the very upstream end of the undercut. I took my turn, trying to replicate Tom's graceful casting. He seems to place the hopper perfectly in the grass every second or third cast, while for me it is more like every tenth cast. Well, it must have been my tenth cast, because the line laid out perfectly while the flopper-hopper gently curled to the right and landed at the edge of the bank just upstream of the overhanging grass. "Perfect cast," I thought, "Just like one Tom would make." Tom, who was tying on a fly behind me, thought the same thing. The hopper drifted into the grass and was lost to view in the shadows, which didn't really matter for what happened next. The water under the grass erupted in spray with an accompanying sound like that of an our slicing through the water. You don't need to see the fly to know what to do when that happens! Rod up, fish on! Extremely gratifying to have such a perfect cast rewarded with a nice fish. Fish with Tom enough, and you can pick up some good habits.

After Nunya, we stopped for a double everything burger at a local shop (not bad), then made a couple quick stops at both the upper and lower access points on Little Nunya. A few small fish downstream from the upper access. We walked about 1/2 mile downstream, and found the river highly straight and channeled like a canal with cattails along both sides. Water was deep enough and flowing, somewhat fishy looking, but without structure and banks, did not appear to hold a lot of fish. More fish at the bridge at the lower Little Nunya access, but not as willing as normal (although lots were present). We were there late, so it may have been fished earlier. Finally, we checked out a new section and found flowing water with at least small fish present based on the rises, but Tom couldn't entice one to a hook. Private land all around, so just fishing right at the bridge. We were treated to a wonderful sunset over an abandoned house. A great way to end a great day.

--Rick