A Day At The Lake

Hello everyone! This is Cat writing today, and I hope you all had an amazing weekend.  Today The O’Grady family (Connell, Cat, and Brandon) made the trek to Wahatoya Lake. 

After careful planning (thank you Connell) we were able to fit 2 pontoon boats, 1 float tube, all the fishing equipment three avid (and gear head) fly fisherman need, air pumps, fins, 3 fisherman, and 1 cooler into my X-terra.  Needless to say it was a tight fit, but full with fish hope the hour and a half squeeze passed quickly.

We have come to adore this lake over the years, and today didn’t disappoint.  We got to the water about eight and the weather, and more importantly the wind, was ideal.  Connell’s rig was in the water a total for two minutes and we had our first fish on.  Though out the rest of the day we all landed several fish and hooked many more.  Typically we don’t count, but today Connell wanting to know exactly how many he boated.  He ended the day with 32 and the largest fish was a healthy seventeen.  Brandon and I both landed several fish as well, but Connell got the big fish……this time J  Typically the average sized fished landed in this lake is 16 inches and tops out around the twenty inch mark, but today the average was closer to 14 inches.  The numbers however, made up for the lack of size.

On a finial note, I got a first today!! For the first time ever I landed a crawdad on a fly rod….. it’s ok to laugh at me having pride in that, I know it’s silly, but it was the coolest thing.  I had what I thought was a light hit and then set the hook.  As I brought in the “fish” I thought “wow this thing must be tiny.”  When it broke the surface I just about shrieked.  My brain couldn’t wrap around what I was seeing at the end of my line.  Lifting it out of the water I figured it out quickly but was concerned about how I was going to get the hook out of it.  This turned out to not be a problem though.  The crawdad was not hooked but was holding on.  He had his claw clamped down on my fly.  It wasn’t until he was dangling five or so feet above the water that Mr. Crazy Crawdad decided to let go.

Enjoy the pictures below and as always thanks for reading!! Cat, Connell, Brandon, and Pinchie the fly loving crawdad.