Cat's Run Redeemed

Hello and thanks to all for reading.   

Cat and I take the blessing of guiding and working in the fly shop very serious. We try very hard to communicate to each and every customer on a level that we hope is the most comfortable for them. It can be difficult sometimes because we have to gauge each person separately and have to be careful not to talk over their heads or to talk down to them.  As a lot of you know, there was a Flyfishing tourney on the tailwater yesterday.   Cat was one of the judges and she had the first section under the dam. Cat’s job for the day was to walk back and forth and deal with any of the problems that may have come up. One of the sections that Cat was walking past all day was a run called “Cat’s Run”, yes it was named after Cat herself. Now as a judge, Cat is not able to influence the contestants at all and is not allowed to tell them when they are missing fish. (A silent situation we are not used to).  After walking past Cat’s Run all day long and not seeing any of the competitor’s throw a single line into the run her feelings were a little hurt.  Are you kidding me, you don’t name a run after Cat unless it is totally hot! Now I know that nobody likes a back seat driver and the “pressure of a tourney thing” can be a little more difficult but I am sure Cat wanted to thumb her nose a little at the contestants that were denying her run for showing its glory.

  So this morning we decided to give Cat’s Run a little redemption.  We got to the river about 11:00 this morning and found the run full of fish. I hooked and landed a 16 incher on my second cast and then Cat called me up to a bunch of feeding fish. The indicator on her first few casts seemed to spook the fish so she went ahead and removed it and first cast she hooked and landed a 20 inch rainbow. After she released it I jumped in and after a few casts I hooked and landed a 22 inch rainbow. Totally psyched, Cat jumped back in and landed another 22inch rainbow. Back in for my turn and I landed an 18incher. A 16,18,20 and two 22 inch fish in the first twenty minutes on the water. I know she would never do it outwardly, but I’m guessing inwardly she was sticking out her tongue and giving out a little nanner, nanner, nanner. Skipping Cat’s run,tsk,tsk.

  Well the glorious day did not stop there, the fish got smaller but were just as fun all day long. Brandon showed up and had some fun as well. Fish in the morning were keying in on the black tube midge and the SOL in a size 24. After about 1:00 they seemed to switch over to a size 24 Marklar. The day was so fun that we went ahead and put together this short video. Hopefully you enjoy. The river is a little early coming out of its Winter slumber as we are already seeing some fish on redds and others feeding hard to protein pack in preparation of their turn to spawn.  If we continue to see the warm weather the river should just explode over the next few weeks. Sight fishing is the way to go so if you are not seeing the quality of fish you are hoping for then this is going to be a great time to book a trip.  Our trips do a great deal of teaching and focus on giving you the ability to catch fish not only here, but in tricky tailwaters across the state.

As always thanks for reading. Connell and Cat..

Enjoy ……