Happy Thanksgiving !!!!

   Every year at this time we sit back and think of all the things that we have been blessed with in our lives. I am truly thankful for all the normal things like an AWESOME HOTTIE wife, good health, great kids and blah blah blah.. , but from a Fishermen’s perspective what should make me thankful. I thought about this for a while and I don’t think I came up with answer I was originally thinking of. I am thankful for days like Tuesday.

  As I have said in past posts, when it comes to sports I have realized that I am a fair weather fan and so with that being said, I don’t generally pay much attention to baseball after the Rock’s get eliminated in mid June. This year was a little different, out of the corner of my eye I kept an eye on the Tigers through the end of the season, a fascinating team with a Triple Crown winner, Prince Fielder and perhaps the most dominant pitcher in all of baseball with Verlander.  The Tigers blew through the American league playoffs and all of the so called experts said they would sweep the lowly Giants, which got lucky and squeaked past the Reds and Cards. The Tigers were unbeatable and were going to score fifty runs a game on the Giants. Well the series started and the Giants came to play, game one and the “Great” Tigers were toothless, game two was the same, three and four there were moments, but the Giants were better. A four game sweep and the “Unbeatable Tigers” walked away with their heads hung low.

  The last few weeks of fishing for myself have felt much like the Tigers run through September and through the American league. I have been able to catch fish pretty much at will and have even at times felt a little bored thinking that I had it all figured out. I look at the pics of the two browns I landed and nearly sprain my shoulder patting myself on the back. I know ESPN isn’t covering me but I sure feel a little taller every time someone asks me exactly where I caught them and then tell me that they were beautiful fish. I even catch myself believing that I am as good as I sometimes think I am. One of my favorite customers came in the shop the other day and wanted to know what the secret was to landing the big fish (I almost teared up a little on the inside). I smiled and told him you learn to land them by losing a bunch of them (and a nice Winston rod helps).

  Well this brings me back to Tuesday, I got to the river at about 12:30 and found one of my favorite holes was open I jumped in and after a five minutes of notta I noticed BWO’s beginning to hatch. I quickly switched to a double dry and had six or seven takes in just a few minutes but didn’t have any serious hookups. I started watching the fish a little better and noted that they were too small for me and I wanted to find bigger fish. The hatch was short lived and so I switched back to a nymph rig with an A&W, an RS’2 and a small cream midge. I walked down to the next hole and first cast I hooked and landed a gorgeous 14 inch rainbow, the only pic of the day. The fish was like hitting a two out double in the fifth inning with the bases empty, makes you feel good but the next batter strikes out and on to the next hole.  The next run was like having the side struck out, nutten,nutten and more nutten. On to the next run and first cast, Bang! a  19 or 20 inch beauty jumps straight up like a show orca with his whole side splashing as  he hits the water. He starts running down river with me chasing him and then I feel it, something is wrong and I realize, he put me on a rock. The next two runs were several 4 and 6 inch fish. After getting around a few people I snuck under a tree and casted into a place difficult to come away with you flies, and a monster take, but about the time the heart skips a beat I feel him come off. The next hole and about a 18 or 19 incher comes flying out of the water and spits the fly before I could do anything. It started feeling like when the players hit what everyone thinks is a homer with the crowd going wild and the batter pumping his chest and moving into his homerun trot, the wind changes and the ball land innocently into the outfielder’s glove on the warning track.  Well, at this time I was a little frustrated and started working my way back to the car. Luckily, something else I am very grateful for, my wife, showed up at about 3:00 to fish the last hour or so.

  We made our way back up river with me telling her about how poor of a day I was having and that the fish were out to get me. We were in the water all of about thirty seconds when Cat made her fish squeak and I saw that she landed one nicer than anything I had landed all day. A few more casts for me and I hooked another nice one and after it came out of the water and splashed, both Cat and I were very impressed with it’s water displacement and  the sound as it landed back in the water. Well, He was better than me as wel(expletive,expletive)l. Cat then landed several more and finished up by landing the fish of the day that measured out at 16 inches. Well that was enough for me and it was time to head out, I could not believe it that the river had totally kicked my tail today.

  So how is it that I am so thankful for days like Tuesday?  It is a day like Tuesday that reminds me that every fish I ever fool and land, even on the good days, should be thought of as a complete blessing. This year has been an incredible year for the Ark and without a runoff, wet wading was incredible all summer and late into the fall, with hundreds and hundreds of fish landed. Yes I get to taking this river for granted but a difficult day or two will make it all that more exciting to get back. And yes, I do not think that the Tigers will be grateful the way this season ended up but if they learn from it and work harder, how much better will they feel if they win next year. And for me, I am thankful for the longing I have to once again out fish my wife…..Hope to see you on the river,Connell

 

As always, thank you for reading our blog. I have heard a few comments about a blog I wrote last year when we had fewer readers and so I have decided to rerun the blog, it was a fun one on the flyfishing addiction and if you have read it and can think of any more addiction questions, feel free to email me at connell1964@msn.com and I may add them to the test.