Pity the Otter
Have you every had one of those trips where you tied all the flies and everyone else caught all the fish on those flies? Well, my old friend, Walt Mueller, “The Otter,” was fishing the South Fork and Middle Fork of the Clearwater recently, and fell victim to this nasty turn of events. Here are Walt’s own words about the day.
Sunday through Tuesday on the South Fork was great with good fish for two of three days. The last day, I was hammered, stomped, spanked, and just plain out fished, humiliated, whipped and thrashed by the Travis De Boer group. Having the same eggs, same colors, same sizes, same rigging, and fishing the same runs did The Otter no good!!, I had one hookup against 15 to 20 hook ups by Travis, his Mom, Krisie, his step-dad Art plus Travis’ wife Julie!! They took no pity on this old man! To add insult to injury, humiliation, and disgust, Art Pine offered to sell me back some Otter Eggs in the correct size and color so I could start catching fish on them!! Imagine!!!!!
So sorry, Walt, but we’ve all been there! And with steelhead season just ready to get underway here in the western Lake States, there will probably be some of those days in my future, too.
Walt with a great fish.
Hmmm, why the complaints?
Steelhead like this one love Otter's eggs.
A steelhead too long to hold without having it bend a bit in the midsection.
If these guys were catching fish like this--one after the other on my flies and I caught only a meager one or two--I'd be a bit dismayed, too.
Otter's eggs are the best "natural look and feel" eggs out there.
A fish like this one would put a smile on my face, too. Note the pegged egg.