Hello
all and thanks for checking in at The O’Grady Flyfishing Adventures. Now if you
were on the tailwater today and you noticed the increase in flows, I can assure
you that it was not from my tears after watching the Husker game yesterday. As
a matter of fact, to prove that I am so over it, this week’s blog will actually
talk about basketball. One of the more freeing things about growing up in
Nebraska was that we were never connected to any local pro teams so we were
always able to choose our loyalties to really good teams. I was a huge Reds
fan, a Dolphin fan, and in basketball, it was all Larry Bird and the Celtics. I
remember after one of the Celtic championships I was given a Larry Birds autobiography.
I was fascinated by the amount of work he put in to get as great as he was.
When asked why he was such a great free throw shooter, he said that growing up,
every day after practice; he would shoot like a thousand free throws. So it
sounds like practice does make perfect. One of the more interesting things he
talked about in the book was his home court advantage. He said that he spent so
much time practicing on the old parquet floor that he began to notice that
there were some soft spots that would deaden the bounce. He knew the floor so
well that when opponents dribbled in certain spots he would go in for the steal
because he knew the micro second difference was all he needed. For Larry, he
certainly had the home court advantage.
So
Friday evening I headed out to spend a little time on the river. The flows were
just less than 400cfs and I so badly wanted to get out and see how our river
has changed over the summer. Since 2004 and the original beginning of the
Legacy project on our river, the river has really for the most part has not
changed. Yep just like the Gardens old parquet floor, the subtle nuances, the
feeding lanes and even the dead spots (snags) I knew inside and out. Over the
last few weeks out, with the flows and clarity yo-yoing up and down I feel a
little like I’m fishing on the road. The first hour was quite frustrating with
not even a bump; I was beginning to feel a little lost and then as the evening air
cooled a little the fish came alive. I only got one all the way into the net
but did hook several fish.
This
morning I had the opportunity to take Jay out for his first trip to our little
slice of heaven. With the flows bouncing so much, I took him to one of the runs
that hadn’t changed much from the runoff. The early morning was a little slow
but the fish came alive around 8:30. We were messing with the flies for a
little while and then the fish began to chomp on the J-bomb. Jay got several
fish to the net and left one set of flies in a fish and as the heat began to
build, the fish just disappeared. I’m not sure I would put it in a classic
Ark-ish day but Jay certainly got to feel a little about the strength of our
fish.
With
Cat and my trip to Montana nearing, I am really hoping that our fly fishing
success isn’t predicated on home court. I would like to think that the amount
of time we have spent practicing free throws will pay off. As always Connell,
Cat, Winston Larry Bird and The Drift Fly Shop want to thank you for reading…..
My fish from Friday....
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