Well it has been a long culling season this year with record numbers of peafowl and deer harvested.
It was time to start fishing. Dan, Blair and I jumped into Blair's canoe and headed up the lake. Blair was the guide today, propelling us along the edge with his electric motor. It was a gentlemanly start around 9 AM. Conditions were perfect. It was sunny with no wind to speak of. I sat in the middle of the canoe on a folding chair. Dan got the front seat and first shot at all the spots. I would wait until he got a cast out then make a quick cast behind. You need to be pretty careful and coordinated when two people are casting one behind the other.
It was not long before Dan hooked up a a bead head krystal olive bugger. That is the go-fly. I used a bead head pink bugger and soon ticked that off the list.
Dan actually decided to use a different fly after his first fish. He then got a rainbow on a short shank epoxy eyed lumo doll fly. Hey, it looks like a gambusia and the trout were spitting them out when caught. Dan is too spazzy to hold a fish for the photo so Blair (Hollywood) did the posing for him.
Being sunny and calm and the middle of the day, you would not expect crazy action. That was the case but it was so good to be out again. About 1 or two oclock we stopped for a break. Then it was my turn at the front. Dan had landed six fish at this point, a pretty good effort. I think I had managed two and boy was I catching hell from Blair.
I will have to watch the video footage (and find time to make a video) to remember the order of the flies that caught fish. I put on a bead head mop fly. It looks like a huhu grub. I figured why not? Boom, I hooked a solid fish that took off stripping line. Unfortunately, my line got wrapped around the arm of my chair and, snap! Luckily I decided to bring two of each fly I want to catch a trout on. I learned that lesson a few times in the last couple of years. So I put my other one on and boom, I got hit hard again and missed the strike. Turns out the fish only got the grub part and pulled it down the hook. I tried to use it again but it kept slipping down the hook, bugger. For a fly that is meant to be drifted like a nymph, it got some attention swimming. I will knock it off in the river next time. By this time the wind had come up and I was using a March brown soft hackle wee wet fly. After a while I felt like I needed bigger flies to be seen in the choppy water. I pulled out a Woolly Bugger Pack and selected a bead head krystal black bugger.
Along a wall we normally catch good rainbows, I had a solid strike that went straight down deep. I knew it must be a brown. It had so much weight I thought it was snagged for several minutes. The photo does not do it justice. Blair wanted to knock it on the head. I agreed then said whoops, it fell back in. I have no problem killing fish but I like letting browns go free.
So I will get around to watching the footage, write some more and hopefully find time to make a video. For now, the list of flies that caught fish is below.
So Dan and I wound up landing six fish each using 11 different patterns. It was a hard paddle back against the strong northerly. Why so hard you ask when Blair had his trolling motor? The battery went dead before we even started heading back into the strong northerly. Time for a new battery, Blair.
