Sunday, April 10, 2016

On The South Park Bus..... A Day At Spinney

          Hello all and thanks for checking in at the O’Grady Fly Fishing Adventures Blog. Today’s title came to me about an hour into the day. Between Facebook posts and customer gossip, yes our gossip comes in the form of fish tales, Cat and I decided to make our way up to Spinney this morning to “meet some friends of ours.”  Not so whispered exclamations of the BEST FISHING ever bounced around the shop walls and after looking at the weather forecast, we decided before we even got to South Park, that this would indeed be the best day ever.
        We got up many hours before normal and made it to the reservoir around 8:30. The entire drive up, I envisioned the exact spot I wanted to wet a line in, but as we arrived, I could see people shoulder to shoulder along my entire hopeful area. A bit disappointed, but not phased, we moved to the other side of the lake and found a spot that both of us could fish without hooking someone in the eye. After about an hour, I had come to the conclusion that South Park should be part of the Jenny Craig program. Every time I go there I absolutely freeze my A** off. I know, very corny. Now back to the story, an hour and a half in and with hundreds of anglers in sight, I did not see a single hookup. This is when the South Park theme song went through my head, because when you’re not hooking fish such things do go through your head, and the bus scene at the beginning reminded me that the Cat and I and the rest of the anglers were getting schooled. And just about the time the feeling completely left my toes, I saw a fish rise to the side of me. I quickly casted over and had a miss and then BAM my first fish of the day. People quickly crowded in and needing to warm up we headed back to the car.
          After warming up and heading to a different area, Cat and I found a spot with the wind at our backs. We got there just in time because a group of seven guys were hot on our tail. I hooked a fish pretty quickly and then lost him.  Here is where the story gets interest, Spinney, over the years has been much nicer to me than to Cat, and I found myself beginning to feel just a wee bit sad for her(but not sad enough to give up my spot). And then, the schooling came from Cat. In the next 45 minutes, Cat landed a total of five absolutely gorgeous fish. The biggest was determined to escape the net before a proper measurement, but looked between 23 and 24 inches and it made Cartman look like the skinny kid.
Now here is where things get strange; being what I think is a pretty good angler, I quite often get asked in the parking lot, on the river, or wherever what I was doing that allowed me to catch so many fish. As Cat was half way through her roll, I watched several of the people up the bank staring and cussing under their breath. Then I watched a lady set her stuff down and walk down to Cat, “excuse me miss, can you tell me what it is you are using, none of us have even gotten a bite.” I was so proud of my wife, although I wanted to inform the lady that I had caught some too. We both caught a few more and cold sent us back to the car. As we were heading back, we saw that the place I originally wanted to fish had slightly cleared of people. We jumped in between a boat and a few spinner guys, and second cast I hooked another bow. A minute or so later another and then it just died for us. I’m not going to say that this was a magnificent day for fishing, but spending the day in South Park sure beats the heck out of sitting home and watching my boy Spieth implode. I don’t know if it was true or not and I don’t know if I should be happy or not, but as we were heading back to the car, Cat told me that when I hooked the second fish, one of the guys in the boat said, “Screw it, I’m done”.
While I truly feel our bit of Ark still has some sweet spring fishing days waiting for us, I thought it would be good to start getting everyone thinking about still water fishing. We know fishing lakes, reservoirs, and ponds can be a little intimidating and to help out, we are offering the same spring special as we did last year. I believe that the Accel in a 9.5’ 6wt may be the absolute best lake rod of all time, and the Fishcat and Outcast pontoons are typically the best way to fish lakes. So, if you purchase a fishcat or Outcast pontoon boat or a Sage Accel rod from the Drift, we will give a free private sit down with Cat or I to go over rigging, fly selection, specific lakes, needed accessories and hopefully everything you need to know to fish our incredible lakes. We want your time on the water to be as productive as ours and for you to get the most out of your investment. As always, Connell, Cat, Winston, Kenny(those bas*****), and the Drift Fly Shop want to thank you for reading……

















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