Strip Striking Green Drakes

Sammy Knowles--bonefish guide par excellence and his wonderful wife Jenny came to Montana this summer for a short vacation. Life is good. Sammy basically works seven days a week for 8 months out of the year. Which leaves him plenty of time to do things like travel to Montana when he wants to. Half of Bozeman wanted a chance to take Sammy fishing. I was lucky enough to get my chance on a really good day. We got a late start after partying pretty hard the evening before. And we had another dinner party coming up that evening, so I decided to forgo any boat trips and take Sam on a short wading expedition at the mouth of the Gallatin Canyon. When we started in at about 10:00am the fishing was already good. It was mid July. The sky was dark with seething clouds. It was about to rain at any minute. Green Drakes started hatching. This was an omen I thought. This was meant to happen. It's not uncommon to see a few Green Drakes in July, but usually not in such numbers. They were such incredibly huge mayflies. Their abdomens were thick and dark green, and they twitched like little snakes on the surface of the water. The fish were going nuts. Green Drakes don't float on the surface for long: either they fly off within 20 feet or they get eaten. Sam is a champion with the fly rod. He won the Bahamas bonefish tournament once or twice and came in runner up a few times too. Sam's the real deal. But trout were rising everywhere and he couldn't seem to hook a fish. He'd spot a rising fish, make a perfect cast, mend his line and strip in the slack as the fly floated down to the fish. But when the fish took the fly he'd wait a half a second and then strip strike the fly...as if he were bonefishing. And that's just about a half a second too late for trout. After an hour or so of frustration the hatch ended, almost as suddenly as it began. Sam looked at me with a big grin. "Now I know why all you guys come down from Montana and strike those bonefish too soon!" he said.