Big fish often feed on small stuff. The other night on cobossee stream was a clasic example of this paradox. There I was with my Augusta fishing buddies, lined up on Cobbossee like so many nights before. Fish were feeding everywhere. Big Fish. It was so hard to get them to look at any fly, but we did land a few on small nymphs. Joe gave me a small brown bead head – size 20 – I think? I hooked up immediately. Prior to that I had thrown out everything in my box and got nothing. Well I did land a massive bass – but we were not fishing for bass. Next, I heard the sound of the fly line ripping off the surface of the water. I looked to my right and Jim Cole had a beautiful brown trout on his line. Jim got his on the small nymph as well. On my left side, Joe was having a tough night. He was hooking up all the time – but they were all white perch. Then, right before dark, I hear the line rip of the surface again. Only this time it was on my left side. Joe’s rod was bent over nicely and line was stripping off his reel. Joe worked his magic again with a big dry fly, acting as a stimulator, then a small bead head nymph about 3 ft below the dry fly. The fish was screaming up stream and took Joe’s line to the backing. So Joe got the nicest fish of the night but we all got big browns on small stuff.
