All Smiles !!!!

  I will open this blog with a quote from A River Runs Through It.  “The Good Lord has blessed us all today, it just seems He was particularly good to me”.  I can’t begin to tell you what a strange day it was on the river today. Cat and I wanted to check out the improvements in the Reservoir Drive area this morning and we got to the river around 11:00. We found quite a few fish in super slow water and not seeming to do much.  We fished the area for an hour and a half with me catching one and Cat catching two. We decided to head up river and  went in to the Nature Center. We hooked a few fish right away and as we moved up we ran across a pretty good midge hatch.  The fish just seemed better than me, I was watching fish feeding all around me but I could not get them interested in anything. I told Cat I was about done and she said that was fine and that it would be a great day to take a bike ride. Luckily for me, right then I hooked and landed another feisty little fish. I went ahead and moved up around the corner and ran into Steve Fieldman. We spotted a bunch of fish on the far side and fished to them for about ten minutes but the fish kept flipping us the middle fin. We moved up into the next section and a couple of casts in I hooked my biggest tree of the day, he broke everything off which I think turned out to be a blessing. I had thought about completely rerigging because I saw my tippet was getting warn so the tree forced me to go fresh. While rigging I saw what I thought was either a new log or a Giant bow. I casted a few times and realized I had forgotten to add weight. After adding weight I casted, first trip past and he nailed it. The fish made a few quick runs but I was able to keep him just a few feet into the riffle right where I think he thought he was getting the upper hand. I tried moving him closer to me in the slower water but every time he moved out of the riffle he would make a quick hard run away. My heart was racing like I had just run a 4 minute mile and a few times I feared the rod was ready to explode(Winstons Rock). Well on about the sixth attempt at pulling him out of the riffle I was able to net him, a measured twenty five inch bow. The girth on him was enormous and I was having problems getting my hand around his tail to get him out for the pics. The smile will be chiseled on my face for the next week or so, or until I see a pic of a bigger fish than mine.

  I believe that our little piece of heaven here has become a true tailwater. At time I am ready to pull my hair out because these fish with the brain the size of a pea can make me look like a complete moron, and then Bang, out of the blue, I land my largest fish ever. What a day, emotions all over the place, I will sleep well tonight and I am sure I will wake with a giant smile on my face. Fly of the day was Cat’s SOL. Eddie gets the bravery award, he got to the water as quick as he could after work but forgot his boots, BURRRRRR! As always Winston, Connell, Cat and The Drift Fly Shop would like to thank you for reading..

P.S. Brandon my son has been holding the crown for the largest O'Grady family fish the last few years so he has cut back on his time on the water, Brandon it is time to get back to the river,
You Have Been Served!!!!hehe

 

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