Fly Fishing the Totagatic River – Day 2 & 3

If you watched my previous video of Day 1, then you watched and read (via this website) as I gently strolled down the Totagatic River in search of big smallmouth bass. The next few days would prove to be much more exciting, still successful … but much more exciting as the rains that came earlier in the week finally made their way to the stream. What was gentle became fast and furious and made life much more difficult to manage.

Not only was the water moving at faster rate but the overall volume of water was up about a foot or so…meaning there were fewer ‘ports’ or places to pull into and fish. In fact, in the first or previous video I was able to land a 20 inch smallmouth bass on my first fish. That same exact spot became a problem for me on day two as my fly snags on the bottom of the log that my feet rested upon to land the 20 incher. I was able to quickly row my boat back upstream and maneuvered to the end of the log closest to shore and took up a position that allowed me to eventually free my fly (that was newly tied the night before) that I wasn’t too eager on giving up.

Fishing water that has both an increased volume and speed makes for an interesting excursion. I am a DIYer for sure and not only do I film all of my videos…but I also put myself in a position to both cast and catch fish. At times this can result in a few things going on at one time and it isn’t a venture for everyone. For sure, one needs to be confident in their casting skills as well as their ability to free and maneuver the boat. All of this said…days 2 and 3 still panned out to be very successful outings.

On day 2, I did the lower section of the river (about 7 or so miles). I have to say that when finished and back home in our camper, I was totally exhausted from day 2; my head was on a swivel for several hours as I was moving the boat, looking forward for upcoming issues, making accurate and sometimes long cast…and mostly trying to not break a fly rod or injure myself.

This lower section is interesting because at some point they have had a wind event and the wind laid down a hundred or so trees (in no apparent pattern) across the stream. This makes for some fast footwork trying to make sure that a fly line is picked up and the boat doesn’t run into any snags or the dreaded ‘sweepers’. I finally just picked up and rowed through the mess and came out the other side with more fishing left.

Day 3 found me back on the upper section and it was moving on at a very rapid pace. When combined with a high pressure area that was keeping the weather nice, the fishing wasn’t its best. However I won’t complain about catching only two fish…when the two fish are 18 and 19 inches long! I would for sure trade lots of fish for a few big ones on any outing and to catch a pair of big river smallies made for a fine day.

Once again I hope you enjoy the video and if you have any questions for me leave those at the comment section at the bottom of this site or by emailing me at flyfishingwithjeff@gmail.com.