Cda Team Reels In Prestigious Fly Fishing Title

Four Coeur d’Alene men are now among the elite of the world’s fly fishers.

Bill Robinette, Joe Roope Jr. and Bob and Brett Drummond, members of the North Idaho Fly Casters, won the prestigious Jackson Hole (Wyo.) One-Fly contest by catching more and longer trout than 35 other four-person teams from throughout the world.

Unlike anglers who compete in lucrative bass, walleye and salmon contests, the four took home only fishing tackle, plaques and the satisfaction of knowing they beat some of the best fly fishers in the world.

In fact, the retail prices of the fly fishing outfits that each winner received was less than the amount of money it cost driving to Jackson Hole, the entry fee and accommodations. The entry fee for each four-man team was $3,250, or about $812 for each team member.

The four Coeur d’Alene fly fishers caught their cutthroat, brown and rainbow trout on Turck’s Tarantula, a relatively new fly pattern that was created by Guy Turck of Jackson Hole. Many of the other 140 contestants also used the fly after hearing guides extol its virtues.

The Jackson Hole One-Fly tournament is unique in that contestants must rely on only one fly for each of two days of fishing. A guide inspects each pattern chosen before the contestant starts fishing.

If the contestant loses the fly in the bushes, he can retrieve it, tie it on his leader tippet again and resume fishing. If he loses the fly in a trout’s mouth, he’s out of the contest for the day.

Robinette said that many fly fishers, including members of the CdA team, lost flies. In most cases, though the Coeur d’Alene men lost their flies late in a day.

Turck’s Tarantula was the fly of choice for many of the contestants, Robinette said, because it is a productive pattern when there are hoppers on the water.

The pattern has golden pheasant tippets for a tail, fur or synthetic dubbing for the body, calf tail with an overlay of pearl Krystal Flash for the wing, a spun deer hair head or a”bullet” deer hair head and two white rubber legs on each side.

The CdA team, which fished exclusively with Turck’s Tarantulas, used the flies with green and brownish-gray bodies. Team member David Schilke was responsible for tying the barbless patterns.

The pattern proved effective. Trout in the Snake inside Yellowstone and the Snake’s South Fork in Idaho ate it up.

Normally, fly fishers would use 4X or 5X tippets, which break at about 6 and 5 pounds, respectively, when fishing the two rivers. Knowing that they couldn’t afford to lose many flies in fish and bushes, the four Coeur d’Alene fly fishers, like many other contestants, used 2X and 3X tippets, which test at about 10 and 8 pounds, respectively.

Tippets that thick would terrify educated browns and rainbows in heavily fished streams.

Robinette said he and the members of his team took into consideration the fact that cutthroat aren’t as leader-shy as brown and rainbow trout. Most of the trout in the streams that contestants fished are cutthroat.

Inasmuch as members of the Coeur d’Alene team frequently fish North Idaho’s cutthroat streams, they knew what to expect of the cutthroat that make up most of the trout populations in the Jackson Hole area.

Only floating lines could be used.

Members of the Coeur d’Alene team didn’t fish with one another. Under the rules, the two contestants in each boat were from different teams. The guide in each boat measured trout caught, and then released them.

When the two-day contest ended, the Coeur d’Alene team had compiled 2,075 points, compared with 1,826 points for the runner-up Sage team. The Sage team represented the maker of high quality graphite fly rods.

As winners, each member of the Coeur d’Alene team received a special Scott graphite fly rod, Ross fly reel, a Cortland Laser fly line, an engraved One-Fly pin, high quality sun glasses and a plaque. In addition, the team was assured acceptance in the 1996 One-Fly contest to defend its title.

To the four Coeur d’Alene fly fishers, the prizes they won were welcome, but the intangible award - outfishing some of the world’s best fly fishers - was the most important of all. That’s heady stuff.

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