Master Your Craft"s"

  Hey all and thanks for checking in to The O’Grady Flyfishing Adventures. One of the things that I pride myself on is the fact that I believe that if anything is worth doing, then it is worth doing right. It seems that most of my life, in addition to WORK, I have found myself bouncing from one obsession to another and after feeling as though I have gotten to my apex, I move to the next. At the young age of 10, I won the city of Omaha diving championship, the next year it turned to BMX, where I won several trophies. In college it was ping pong, basketball, billiards and then I saw the mountains and all I wanted to do was ski faster than everyone else. As age got the better of me, golf, softball, guitar and finally Fly fishing has taken over. I have “worked” hard at perfecting my craft and about the time I think I know it all, I realize that I don’t know the proverbial squat. Earlier this year, my family was invited to spend an evening with Cody, and one evening opened a whole new way to fly fish. Cat and I have had many invitations over the years to float fish but have never been able to put the pieces together to make it work. Most of you know our good friend and “Lake” guy Cody, not sure why we call him that cause he puts a hurt’n pretty much every where he fishes, but he has decided that his newest obsession will be to become the best float flyfishing guide of all time. Now one of the great things about being friends with someone like Cody is that he needs schleps like Cat and I in order for him to hone his craft. Sunday looked like the perfect day since the weather looked to be scorching hot, and “Great Friends” like Cat and I were totally ready to help Cody hone his craft.

  The drive up was less than exciting looking at the river that should have been brought to you by Hershey’s, but remember, this was all about helping our friend. When we got on the water I was totally relieved to land my first fish in the first few casts so I really didn’t have much to worry about after that. The fishing most of the day was hot and cold. Hook several and then wait ten minutes or so. My fishing moment of the day was watching this little 10incher slowly bring his nose to my fly, hesitate for a sec and then suck it in. Makes me smile just thinking about it, I had forgotten how cool it is to watch fish hit the surface. At one point Cody let me row for a while and even though I was excited I was really nervous, this is Cody’s NEW boat. The first half a mile or so went pretty good and then Cody told me that just ahead was an area called the Rock Garden and started giving out directions. Most of our readers know how well I do with directions and as we were entering the rapids the thought of killing us all started filling my head, when Cody started telling me which way to aim the bow. What the heck is a bow I said? He slapped me once in the right side of my head and said that way, jkjk but as we rolled out of the rapids, I nearly released my bowels and adrenaline started pumping through my veins. I rowed for a while more and before we entered the serious stuff, Cody jumped back on the oars. Cottonwood rapids and the black hole were an absolute riot. After my little stint of rowing I watched Cody a little for the rest of the trip. I realized how good he has already gotten with the “little rows” and going through one of the serious rollers I watched as the boat begin to turn he did this thing with his oar that I don’t think I could even explain and the boat straightened , and we bounced down the run. What a pleasure it was to watch.

  Now do I want to go out and buy my own boat and learn to do what Cody can do? Not yet, but I think Cat and I will try to “help” him as much as we can. Hehe. A big shout out and thanks to Cody, he has brought so many cool new adventures to us. Lots of fish hooked today and Cat had the prize to the net, about a 14inch brown, and if asked if it was a good day fishing, the answer would be it was way better, I got to hang out with some of my good friends today.  

  The river in town seems to be improving a little and I hope to make it over one day this week, we will keep our readers informed when the river wakes up. As always, Catt, Connell, Winston, Cody and The Drift Flyshop want to thank you for reading…..