As it often does, 4:45 AM Saturday came earlier than expected. Actually, as far as I was concerned it never came at all - just rolled right on by and kept goin'. So when I finally did come to I turned on the turbo jets, skipped the sh*t-shower-shave routine, dove into my waders and headed East.
As it turned out by the time Victor and I caught up with our fishing party we hadn't missed much. The river was a little off color and a couple of hookups was all that anybody could account for. It seemed a stroll upstream was in order.
I was given first crack at the run under the condition that I approached with the two hander. Fine by me. The sun was shining and despite carrying a season-long swinging skunk, I was content to make a few casts. I pulled off some line and let 'er rip and quickly found a rhythm. If nothing else, when swinging flies if you can just find that rhythm it makes the time go faster...
Thud.
Shit, bottom. better give it a second anyway.
Thud-thud-thud thrash.
"HAHA! No way!"
I'd swung and missed so many times this year that I had a hard time believing I'd actually hooked something. Not a biggun' but a fish nonetheless and I was tickled pink. I was even more excited when I realized it was the first ever lake-run brown trout I'd taken in Ohio!
Awesome. Off the snide at long last. I was so happy about catching that dinky little fish that part of me felt like calling it for the day. But I hadn't even gotten through the good part of the run and I figured there had to be some more players in there. After a few dozen fishless casts I felt another thud and was pleasantly surprised yet again.
As it turned out by the time Victor and I caught up with our fishing party we hadn't missed much. The river was a little off color and a couple of hookups was all that anybody could account for. It seemed a stroll upstream was in order.
I was given first crack at the run under the condition that I approached with the two hander. Fine by me. The sun was shining and despite carrying a season-long swinging skunk, I was content to make a few casts. I pulled off some line and let 'er rip and quickly found a rhythm. If nothing else, when swinging flies if you can just find that rhythm it makes the time go faster...
Thud.
Shit, bottom. better give it a second anyway.
Thud-thud-thud thrash.
"HAHA! No way!"
I'd swung and missed so many times this year that I had a hard time believing I'd actually hooked something. Not a biggun' but a fish nonetheless and I was tickled pink. I was even more excited when I realized it was the first ever lake-run brown trout I'd taken in Ohio!
Awesome. Off the snide at long last. I was so happy about catching that dinky little fish that part of me felt like calling it for the day. But I hadn't even gotten through the good part of the run and I figured there had to be some more players in there. After a few dozen fishless casts I felt another thud and was pleasantly surprised yet again.
As much as I love lake-run smallmouth their arrival in the rivers usually marks the beginning of the end of spring steelhead. Again, fine by me. It's been a difficult spring season and I'm more than ready to start tackling the bronzebacks. I drove home happy as a clam thinking about how great it is to have a quality mixed-bag fishery so close to home. Time to start tying Clousers...
looks like you had a blast! What are your favorite colors for clousers?
ReplyDeleteChartreuse/Yellow, Chartreuse/White, Red/White. Sz. 2 and sz. 6 ... all you'll ever need for smallmouth!
ReplyDeletenice work sideburns
ReplyDelete