Home Of The Footlong !

This story is another "blast from the past" and I will try and tell it as faithfully as my memory will allow ....


       I have always loved the Slaty Fork section with it's solitude , beauty and firecracker wild bows . Having said that I must admit that there was a time when I viewed it as being a change of pace stream rather then a place you had to fish ! I think my main rationalization for this belief was that while it held good numbers of fish , by and large , most of the ones I caught were , shall we say , a bit on the smaller side with 7 - 12" bows being the norm , a 15"er being the fish of the day and every once in a while I would stumble into a 17"er which , in my mind was as good as it was likely to get up there ...


    Now I am not saying there is a thing wrong with a 7 - 12" rainbow (especially when they fight like the Slaty bows do ) but in my mind , when stacked up against the 15 - 18" browns you could expect to encounter every time you fished the lower river , they always seemed to come up a little short ;) ...


    My good friend Mike Cumashot on the other hand preferred to fish Slaty spending far more time up there then he did on the Elk Springs end . This always left me shaking my head ... Mike is without question one of the 2 or 3 best anglers I have ever met and it simply made no sense to me why someone who was that good would choose to fish for little bows when there were beautiful , much larger slabs of Elk River butter to be had down river ! Worse he seemed determined to try and get me to share his little rainbow preference even (especially?) on days when the river was rising and the lower end browns were obviously going to be feeding . 


    He would ask me repeatedly at these times to accompany him with my response being invariably "thanks but I think I'll fish the lower river today" . He would ask if I was sure and I would wish him good luck but assure him I was . This pattern was repeated over and over for several years . After awhile it got to where I really wanted to ask him "what the heck is it with you and those little fish " ! Respecting him as much as I did though I simply shook my head all the while considering his little rainbow fetish to be heresy of the highest order :( .


    Finally the day came when I just couldn't take it anymore ... I was sitting on the Trestle watching the river rise and take on color , smoking cigarettes and drinking coffee , with a light rain  falling , trying to decide whether to start at the Ledges or go on down to the Priss Hole  . Either way the day reeked of big browns and I planned on taking full advantage of it . I heard a truck door slam and soon Mike is standing there saying gonna be a good one , to which I replied simply , yep . Here it comes I thought and I was right ... "come on lets go hit Slaty " he says , an invitation that I yet again respectfully declined . This time though he kinda looked at me , cocked his head and ask me "why won't you go up there with me when the river is like this" ? It was out of my mouth before I could stop it "because it's the home of the footlong" ! With a look of confusion he ask me for clarification ... "What" ? Having still not regained control of my mouth I told him "there's nothing up there but a bunch of little rainbows and I'm not wasting water like this chasing little fish ". He looked at me obviously both amused and annoyed and said "oh I see , suit yourself" then shook his head , chuckled and was gone . The invitations ceased after that . 


    A couple of seasons went by and I was standing in the parking area below the sawmill with a couple clients surveying the high brown water that we found ourselves confronted with . Shoot it hadn't even rained down on the lower end last night ... oh well . Plans were made to reschedule and they were on their way leaving me with a rod in the Jeep and time on my hands . Hm... if I can get across Old Field Fork I can fish Laurel and at least the morning won't be a total loss . I did just that then decided to go down and check out Props Run while I was at it . There was a tiny clear seam at the mouth of Props where it entered the river and I thought "why not" and pitched a pair of cream larvae into it .... wham a 15" bow , pretty cool ! The next cast changed the way I looked at Slaty forever ... I made a bad throw which took the nymphs out into the chocolate milk looking water .  They drifted maybe 3', the line stopped , I set ,  and then all hell broke loose . Heavy fish ! Pissed off very heavy fish ! I couldn't turn him , the drag was screaming and then it was over and I was reeling in the now slack line a little dejected but shaking from the encounter . I rigged up again , switching to 2x , moved up stream 10' or so , added a couple more bb shot and wham off to the races again this one being a heavy 19" brown . It was smokin good the rest of the way with lots of 15" - 18" browns , a couple bows in that size range and a brown that was maybe 21" at the head of the Ball Diamond . Needless to say I was elated ! 


    It poured that night and I woke up early , jumped in the Jeep and headed for the upper Slaty parking area . This time I hiked all the way down to the railbend at milepost 103 . Repeat performance and then some . Landed 3 over 20" with the best right at 23" and hooked a couple fish that ran straight upstream , into the teeth of the heavy current at warp speed . I could do nothing with them getting busted off rather quickly in each case . I finished up just below the Compound Hole with a 17" male , hooked my fly in the keeper and started walking back up the tracks , totally blown away .


    At the head of the Bait Hole who should be standing on the little point but Mike , rod bent , battling what appeared to be a brown the size of a big carp . He looks up , catches my gaze , smiles and says "yep home of the footlong " ! Touche :). I ask how long had he known about this with said inquiry being met with a  big smile and "oh quite a while now . I tried to get you to do it but you were so damn sure of yourself " .  

I have never looked at big storms and brown water in the same way since ....