Hello,
and thank you for checking in at The O’Grady Fly Fishing Adventures. I want to
start by wishing all of our readers an incredible Memorial Day. As our long
time followers know, I take very few things in life seriously, but my freedom
is the exception and Memorial Day reminds me of that freedom. It also
represents some of life’s smaller things. Memorial Day is the unofficial beginning
of summer, it has become the official end of the Rockies post season hopes, and
for the O’Grady’s it’s the annual weekend trip to The Delaney Buttes. In order
to give you the full run down of the trip, I must tell the tale in two parts. The
first part will be about the trip itself and the second will be about the
equipment we used to make the trip successful. A little bird told me that some
of you have been skipping over my pearls of wisdom and jumping straight to the
videos, well, I want to warn you that I have installed a tracker in the text
that lets me know if your eyes wander. Beyond missing out on my pearls, I don’t
even want to tell you what might happen if don’t read the whole blog.
To
be honest, this year’s trip almost didn’t happen. Cat and I consider ourselves
to be somewhat rough and tough, though truth be told Cat is way tougher, and
while fishing the Arkansas River in November and December we beg for snowy,
nasty overcast days. When Memorial Day rolls along however, we are ready for a
little sun and heat. This year our Holiday forecast was littered with rain,
snow, wind, and pure ugliness. Eventually I broke down and called my brother
in-law Jimbo, who joins us every at the reservoir, and told him that we just
might have to cancel this year. Then a few days later, I received a text from
my sister which contained a forecast for Delaney that looked more like Miami
than North Park. At the bottom she included a note which said that Jimbo had
been moping around the house and that we needed to go. I really do believe that
she did put a forecast from some tropical place and just put Waldens name on
it.
Anyways, we made it to the lakes Wednesday
afternoon and could not believe how nice the weather was. We quickly set up
camp and rowed out as fast as we could to our favorite spot. In the first ten
minutes, I had two takes but missed them both and then the winds rolled in. By 7:30pm
the wind turned cold and sent us seeking shelter in the tent. Thursday morning
we got up and again could not believe how nice it was, we got to our favorite
spot and after my first cast I heard the dreaded beep that told me my GoPro
battery was dead. My first few takes were a lesson in humility. One fish
completely cleaned my clock and the next fish exposed a knot problem. And yes,
I know that knot issues should never happen to a guide, but in my defense I use
a different knot for fishing lakes. Anyways… after completely re-rigging and
perfecting my knots the dinner bell must have rung. Cat and I spent about an
hour and a half pulling in one nice fish after another. One of the rainbows I
caught was the heftiest fish I have ever landed. After laying the fish over the
net, his tail stretched just over the 24 mark but the height on the fish had to
have been 10 or so inches. Cat seemed to have a thing for the browns that day.
Thursday afternoon was pretty slow with only a few takes and even fewer landed.
Shortly after dinner the weather and rain chased us back into our tents and it
rained all night long. Friday morning we got up and the rain had not stopped,
we had to go the outhouse to get wadered up, otherwise we would have been just
as wet inside are waders as out. That morning we fished for four hours and it
seemed that all the fish were feeding in fifteen minute spurts, the rest of the
time we just tried to keep our teeth from chattering out. When our fingers got
to the point that they nearly stopped working, we rowed back for a break. While
warming up in the car we checked every weather site we could find and they all
said the same thing, it was only going to get worse. And once again, bring me
this weather in Nov, Dec, and Jan but give me a little heat on Memorial Day. So
with that we headed home.
Now
on to the gear, this year my lake rod was a 9’6” 6wt, Sage Accel and I could
not have been happier. As our long time readers know, the most important aspect
of a rod for me is feel and sensitivity but with enough power to let the fish
know who is their daddy. In reality a proficient caster can cast any rod
regardless of the quality, so for me it’s not about “how it casts” but all
about feel and the Accel fits the bill while also giving a smooth cast. The
reel I had on the Accel was the Sage 4260 loaded with Rio Gold line. One of the
differences between the Delaney fish and my Ark fish is that the Delaney fish
don’t seem to make many runs, but instead they like to dive to the bottom. We
don’t see the quick headshakes of the river fish, so we don’t have to worry as
much about tippet size and throw 4x. This year the fish seemed to be feeding
twenty feet down, and so the takes required some serious hooksets. The rod
totally had the power to hook fish even at twenty feet but while fighting the
fish, the flex of the rod kept the energy in the rod and kept it out of my
forearm. The fight was almost always the same, you could feel the fish moving
from the bottom and as soon as it felt like you were getting an advantage, the
fish would make another incredibly powerful downward run. The reel matched
every run and never failed once. If you are a lake guy, and looking for the
perfect setup, I think I found the magic ticket.
Well,
if your reading this you did you duty and won’t be receiving the punishment the
non-readers will be receiving….LOL! The video posted below documents our trip.
Due to the weather, Cat wasn’t able to add many insect clips so instead she
filmed the rodents which live in the holes around camp.
Now for the part of the
video that isn’t there. Many years ago on the last 60 mile stretch before the
Delaneys, we were looking below us and saw a giant Bull Moose, but were not
able to stop and get pics. So for the last four years every time we drive
through that stretch we have the good camera out and scourer everywhere trying
to see another. Now on the way home this year, I just happened to look over in
time to see a big ole cow moose and I hit the brakes as quickly as I could, a
semi was coming the other way and so as soon as he cleared I flipped a U’ey and
quickly sped back to the spot. She had completely vanished into the very sparse
field. We scratched our heads and wondered if possibly it was a game warden or
landowner with a wooden moose cutout and every time someone slammed on their
brakes to flip around they had a way to pull the board down, I know I would
enjoy doing that….hehe.
Enjoy, and as always, Connell, Cat, Winston, Bullwinkle,
and The Drift Fly Shop want to thank you for reading….
Delaney Buttes 2015 O'Grady Flyfishing Adventures from ogradyflyfishing on Vimeo.
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