Fly Paper: Big Browns Last Sunday and Doug Jeffries' Question

My good bud Doug Jeffries knew I was going fishing last Sunday and on Monday asked me how I did. I fished with Ed Huson who had just returned from the Sea Hunter liveaboard Sea Hunter Nov. 2011 in the Bahamas. They had had a great, if a bit windy, trip. But that's another story.

I've known Ed for years and have always enjoyed his company. We took a very relaxed approach to the day and goofed around a fair bit trying new patterns and techniques. We fished a new stretch of water for me near Buffalo, Wyoming (its name shall remain nameless).

So back to Doug, he asked me on Monday how we did and I told him I had caught 10-15 fish with three browns being over 20". It was a great day. Doug asked me if we had used dry flies.

I used a #2 sofa pillow with a prince nymph dropper. I had seen some stoneflies emerging recently and thought a big stonefly dry might work and also could act to attract attention to my nymph.

I dead drifted the dry/nymph dropper rig on a fairly tight line (we always called it high sticking, but with the rig we use and how we drag the nymph through runs on a very short line, now most people refer to it as the Czech technique) then skated the sofa pillow back up stream a bit. Most of my hits were on the nymph, but I caught two 20+" fish waking the big sofa pillow. It was like steelhead fishing a waking bomber! Maybe they thought it was a mouse... maybe a fluttering stonefly? Who cares! It worked.

I love big browns... I think I have an addiction problem.