So You Wanna Chase 'Bows.

If you want the thrills that come with hooking into a 16 inch long rocket ship, (aka a Delaware River Rainbow), you have to be prepared for the heartbreaks and disappointments that come with it. Rainbows come unstuck and break off much more often than their stodgy relatives, the Browns. To begin with Rainbows have a much more fragile mouth structure than Browns. Rainbows are designed to eat flies, Browns on the other hand, have a mouth constructed to eat fish. 

When you hook a Rainbow he is often out of the water while you are trying to set the hook. If he is still on after the initial jump you are faced with the problem of clearing your loose line while he is streaking across the river jumping as he goes. Once he is "on the reel", you watch as your fly line heads across the river. If he turns and goes upstream the line may well hook around a rock or create enough drag to break the tippet when he jumps again. If he turns and heads downstream you watch your backing follow the fly line off the reel and if you have a reel that holds as little backing as mine does, you start to follow the fish downstream as fast as you can. Assuming you are connected to the fish after the initial run, you now have the task of reeling the backing, fly line and 'bow back within range of your net. When you get him close enough to see you, he will dart off again (if you aren't ready and didn't let him go, he just popped the tippet), he won't go as far, but somehow he will find the energy to make two or three more runs. Once the runs are over, you think he's yours, but notice how he always stays downstream from you and when you try to get him close enough to net, he starts to twist and spin in the current, (this is where A-119 loses most of his rainbows), patience, a guide with a boat net, and walking into slow moving water to land the fish all increase the odds of success. The thrill of landing a hot  Delaware River Rainbow will last a lifetime!  

Today I was nine for sixteen on rainbows and except for losing three straight at the end of the morning, (which included a spin-out), it was for me, a great day to be alive.