Island Fish

Every few years, we discover a fish on the Metolius that has made its home close to shore, allowing us to watch it throughout the season. We aren’t the only ones who notice. Other fly fishers will comment about seeing the fish. In fact, recently, an angler walked by and said he had been fishing down by the island, saw a fish, but it wouldn’t take his fly. I responded, “You mean the Island Fish?” I quickly shared the story about photographing the fish feeding I wrote about back in May, named Images from the Water. Here is Island Fish from that day.

Dancingtrout has hooked and landed the same fish several times earlier this year.

This isn’t an isolated experience.

Several years ago, there was a fish we called the “Village Idiot” that several friends knew about. A lot of people hooked and landed the Rainbow. It lived under a grassy, undercut bank and would slowly come out of its hiding place to sip insects drifting slowly in the current. As I recall, it approached 20 inches! I haven’t seen many 20 inch fish in recent years for some reason. Honestly, I don’t know if this was the fish or not, but it was similar and is the spot where Village Idiot lived. I was a lot younger then!

If you are a regular here at RiverKeeper Flies, you might recognize Island Fish. I captured this series of images back in May in an aptly named post, Images from the Water. Look closely and you’ll see a PMD floating towards the fish.

Well, it was my turn to catch him.

I tricked him into rising to and eating my #18 Sparkle Dun PMD and broke it off when I set the hook and walked away shaking my head, but could see it continued to feed after a short break.

I decided to rest the fish and try for a couple others who were sporadically feeding. After a few fly changes, this beauty ate my #18 IOBO Humpy. We decided to have Dancingtrout hold the fish because she does a much better job! She’s the fish holder and I’m the photographer. The colors of these Metolius River redsides are just spectacular.

For some reason, the simple IOBO Humpy is a fish catcher. The initials stand for It Outta Be Outlawed. I was first introduced to the fly in 2018 by a customer asking if I knew of and would tie the fly for him. A few extra flies were tied for us and we began using them. It has become a staple in my fly box because it works so well.

The fly isn’t tied with a tail. Those CDC fibers break and then lay back, creating a tail.

Back to Island Fish. I tried several flies and finally decided to give a Floating Nymph a shot, and it worked!

It was a Throw Back Thursday Fly I shared in 2022. I tied only one for that post, but a few years later, a customer requested I tie some for him. Here are PMD (#16) and BWO (#20) variations he ordered. And I tied a couple extra to try myself. Island Fish ate the fly on the left.

For the fly tyers who read this, here are links to a couple flies I tried that day.

Enjoy…go fish!