Lightning Strikes Twice!!!!!!

  Another wonderful day on the river but today may have been to  the most technical I have ever seen it. I got to fish with Brandon today, Alex and Jason were supposed to join us but when we got to the river it was packed. We started above the Nature Center and I could see immediately that today was going to take patience and nearly perfect presentations and drifts. I crept up the river scanning for anything that didn’t seem right and I finally spotted the golden red side of a nice brown. First cast was perfect and he took it, not too much of a fight but a gorgeous 20 inch brown. I snapped a few pics but the zoom was all the way up and makes it look a little strange. The rest of the walk up was very similar, slow and methodical sighting and catching a few here and there. I caught up with Brandon at the Glory Hole and he had been doing pretty good. The BWO’s started really hatching and so I switched to a double dry rig with a parachute and a regular Adams. What a joy, the bows were aggressively feeding on the top. Brandon switched to an Adams and first cast hooked and landed a very nice bow. The Blue Wings hatched for about twenty minutes and then I switched back to a nymph rig. We started heading back down and I landed a 19 inch bow.

  At about 3:00, Brandon and I were fishing a run that was packed full of people earlier. We were catching a few here and there and all of a sudden I heard what I thought was beaver about 25 feet above me. Winston and I both jerked our heads up and I asked Brandon if he had heard that, he said he heard something, but didn’t know what it was. I started walking back up river and he came out of the water again, oh my gosh, he was enormous and like all great anglers I inwardly guessed him at about thirty inches. The fish was acting very erratic moving back and forth almost as if he was chasing bait fish. I started casting to him and after a few casts Brandon asked me how big I thought he was, I turned and smiled and said we will know in a minute. He took off down river and I chased him about thirty yards. Several times I would get him close and he would run again. Well I finally got him landed and it felt like lightning striking twice. I thought it might have been the one I landed a few weeks ago but after measuring it I saw this one was a full inch bigger than last weeks, measured 23 inches. A few more casts , but my day was complete. It is amazing how nice the walk back to the car is when you catch a fish like that, I’m sure if anyone saw me they would be wondering why I was walking like a “Prized Rooster”, chest sticking out and a smile a mile wide……..I know…..

  Like I said early in this blog, today was as technical as I have ever seen it on this river. Fish were not in their normal easy holding places. I have been seeing a lot of frustrated anglers moving up and down the river mumbling about all of the fish are gone. If you are struggling right now, then this may be a great time to hire a guide. I know we try to give great info at the shop but things are changing so quick throughout the day that there is no way we can give you all the great info just in the shop. As always thanks for reading, Connell

The Drift Fly Shop 719-543-3900

                                         23 inch Beauty!!!

                                        
                                         This was the 19 incher..

 

 20 incher....

       

                                    and one last look at the horse :)...