My first summer in Truckee, eight years ago, I was driving south along Boca Reservoir when I noticed rise forms by its dam. I had heard from a friend that smallmouth bass could be caught along the dam at Prosser Reservoir; maybe these were smallies, too, I hoped. I pulled off the road, assembled my trout rod, and tied on a small white popper. It wasn’t easy to cast or keep off the rocks behind me — I had left my long, light Little Truckee leader attached to the line. Once on the water, though, the first few chugs of the bug brought a strike from a 17-inch, beautifully formed and colored rainbow trout. Two more rainbows came to hand before a couple of Jet Skiers decided to spoil the angling.

Like a lot of fly fishers, I tend to stick with what’s been proven to work. Usually this is enough to bring hookups, so there isn’t much incentive to change. If I had thought the fish rising at Boca that summer’s evening were trout, I would certainly have tried a different tactic — probably dead drifting a midge or Callibaetis dry. Doing so would almost assuredly have been successful, but I wouldn’t have had nearly as much fun.

It’s good to think outside the proverbial box every now and then, even if it’s by accident. Once the snow’s gone, I’m going to make it a point this season to try novel tactics and rigs. (Panfish poppers on the Truckee River? Hmm. . . .) Of course, I may end up kissing the ol’ skunk, but when you think about it, every cast we make, every fly we tie to our tippet, is inherently an experiment. Stretching the usual hypotheses might bring some interesting payoffs.

I hope you’ll join me in the lab.

Richard Anderson