Winston & The Peepee Walk

Hey all and thanks for checking in to the O’Grady Fly Fishing Adventures. For those of you that don’t know, I have spent my entire working life being part of the “tail kissing” or service industry. One of the great things about doing that for so long means that I have learned how to read people’s faces, emotions, and body language.

          I remember when I worked up at The Winter Park Ski Area, and used to be able to read a person’s what I called the peepee walk. I would watch people wander around the courtyard with a blank upward stair and look at all the signs and then open the only door where no bathroom sign existed. As they opened the door and before they could ask, I would point across the courtyard and say “down stairs.” They would typically stutter for a second and then ask where the bathrooms were, once again, I would point to the other door and “say downstairs.” Now years later in the Subway business, where as the owner I care little more about customer service, my customers do something called the napkin walk. Yep, same as before, but I am much more polite.

Now my abilities to read people are almost always a good thing, but sometimes it can be a little painful. Over the last several years my puppy has become so popular that most of the time when I show up at the shop to meet guide clients, I shake hands and make my greetings and immediately see the clients looking over my shoulder to see if I brought Winston. Yes, I can see it in their eyes before they ever mutter a word and it hurts me deeply.  I then have to make up the excuse that I would hate to see my client lose the fish of a life time because of Winston. I was beginning to think that I was just making up excuses and saving my pride because it had been so long since I had lost a fish on Winston.

This evening I headed to the river with Brandon and Winston and while Brandon was getting ready, Winston and I dropped into a new weir. I had only casted twice when my indicator shot upstream and as quickly as I could exhale, the fish was off. The quick take got both of our attentions. A few more casts and I was attached to one of the better fish I have hooked this fall. The fish didn’t run much, but his power was felt throughout the entire rod. After a minute or so I was able to get the bow to the surface and I could see he was at least twenty inches, or thirty six in shop talk. The fish seemed as if he was throwing up the white flag and for some reason Winston stepped out into the water, it was crazy, it was as if the fish thought Winston was a life saving tree and with all the rest of his strength he shot over and went under Winston’s back legs. Winston immediately got a scared look on his face and my line floated back at me with nothing attached, everything was gone, including the fish.  Now it is always sad to lose a fish, but I have forgiven my pups already. Now as the evening went on I began to think to myself, it had been years since Winston had caused me to lose a fish, so why now? And then it hit me, I had not fished a rod with his name on it for over a week and he knows it. Was it revengeful evil planning on his part or just bad luck?

Okay, for anyone wondering if I have lost my mind, remember my favorite saying of all time, if you can’t learn to laugh at yourself than you will unfortunately miss the greatest joke of your generation.  So all kidding aside, I wanted to talk a little about the conditions on the river as of now. I have been out almost every evening over the last week and have seen just about everything. Some of the evenings have felt like work, where every single fish was earned, and then the last two evenings felt like easy money. If you wonder what I think of the new rod I have been fishing, check out some of the pics from the last few evenings. I feel like the rod deserves to be in the pics. Fish have been on PMD emergers in the late afternoon and trico patterns in the mornings. The lower flows mean it is time to try a little harder to match the hatch and begin moving away from attractors. The last twenty minutes or so of light I have watched some of the most incredible caddis hatches I have ever seen, maybe even to close. The last two nights I have had caddis try to drink fluids from my eyeball and it is not as cute as it sounds. The red swollen eye is from the caddis and not back talking Cat. On a good note, the found flybox has been claimed.

So to end this blog I want to address the future clients, if you do want Winston to be part of the guide trip then you might want to bring a rod with his name on it, if not, we cannot be held responsible. As always, Connell, Cat, Winston, Brandon and The Drift Fly Shop want to thank you for reading….