Hello all and thanks for checking in
at The O’Grady Fly Fishing Adventures. I wanted to start by wishing you all a
fantastic New Year.
I
was standing in the river today and as usual my brain began to wander. Since
today was the first day of 2016, my thoughts kept bouncing between the past
year and the upcoming one. I thought a while about my Huskers and how difficult
of a year it had been and then after somehow making it to a bowl game, a
Christmas miracle allowed my Huskers to come away with a win. Now looking
forward to next year, it will be at least 9 months before we lose again. As for
my real job, without getting too political, I’ll just say it was a long year.
As for the future…ehhhh. These thoughts were fleeting and my mind drifted to
the last year on the water, which was interesting to say the least. Three
months of high water, a September that just began to show promise and then the
longest turn over that I can remember. So as the river dropped and began to
clear we finally got a good look at some of the changes the high water brought
about. December had its moments and before I knew it, 2016 was here and we were
in my favorite month of the year, January(not). Yeah I know it is not my
favorite month of the year, but without January, March and April may not seem
so awesome.
I thought today was going to be an
incredible day, second cast and my indicator shot upstream. A quick fight
ensued, but then I could feel something just wasn’t right, and then the tail
came to the surface. (fowl as a four-piece dinner) I got him back in the water and
then it took another half an hour before I hooked up again. It wasn’t a monster,
but my first (fair) fish of the year was the most joyous 13 incher I have
caught in years. We wanted to do a little walking today so we didn’t stay in
one spot too much. Cat got into one run and hooked a half dozen or so but they
all seemed to pop of just as she was grabbing her net. The fish of the year was
a fish that I had actually spotted last week on a guide trip. I was a little
surprised to see the stripe in the exact same place. After a couple of drifts, I
watched him turn and grab my fly. The battle was quick but he was an absolutely
beautiful seventeen and a half incher. We moved back up river and Cat got her
first two fish of the year in. They were small, but little fish need love too.
To sum up the day it appears winter is
definitely here. Fish seemed to be moving deep and are a little sluggish. The
early afternoon saw fish feeding on Alex’s True Blood and in the late afternoon
they switched to eating Cat’s SOL. We saw pretty decent bug activity this
afternoon, but saw very few fish hitting the surface. With the strange year
that just passed, a few of us have worried a little about the health of our
river but after exploring a little today, we saw a few runs that were chalked
full of rainbows. Even though this is not my favorite time of the year, I sure
am optimistic about the upcoming year. As always, Connell, Cat, Winston, Tommy
Armstrong and the Drift Fly Shop want to thank you for reading and we wish you
and incredible New Year…
First fish of 2016
Second fish..
Biggest fish of 2016..... so far.
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