A January Day....

            Hello all and thanks for checking in at the O’Grady Fly Fishing Adventures. I got to work the shop Saturday afternoon and it was really interesting to hear the fishing reports from the day. One person would come in and they couldn’t believe how awesome the fishing was and the next person wanted to know where all the fish had gone. I tried my best to ease the hurt feelings and smiled with all the gloating. I wanted to use this post to give my own little report of our river. First of all, I want to start by saying this has been one of the most enjoyable January’s I can ever remember. Our water temps have been stable at just below 40 degrees and weather for the most part has been perfect. Fish eating times have been a little hard to predict, but they have definitely been eating.

            Today I made my way to the river and met up with Richie. I started in a run that fished really well last week and on the second cast I hooked and lost a good fish. I figured I was way smarter than the fish but they proved me wrong, the next twenty minutes I managed to wrangle in one ten incher. I made my way down to meet up with Rich and he told me he had only caught dinks but was thrilled after the poor day he had yesterday. I jumped in next to him and after a few casts, I landed a beautiful 19 incher. I felt a little bad about catching a fish out of his run but I got over it(hehe). We made our way down into another run and after a few casts I heard Rich say “Yes!” and I watched a horse do a quick tail walk. The fish popped off and a few casts more he was laughing again. That fish went foul but after a few more casts he landed one of the prettiest twenty inchers I had seen in a while. I got across the river to take the pic and when I got home and looked at the picture, it was pretty clear that Winston wasn’t very happy about the fish being caught on the opposite side of the river. I managed to land one more nice fish and it made Pooh-dogs day. We made our way back up river and I didn’t bump another fish. Once again, the river fished well in quick windows and the fish just disappeared at other times. Fish today were taken on the New Moon, FOD, and even a grey RS’2 but as you can see by the variety, it was right time/ right place and not necessarily the fly.

            I’m guessing that the next three weeks ought to fish very similar to today so if you get a chance to get out find a friend and make it a day. Don’t take the catching so serious and enjoy being in the river, there are a lot of worse things you could be doing. On a personal note, I will be away from my keyboard for a few weeks and hopefully when I open it back up, I have some great stories for you all. As always, Connell, Cat, Winston, Richie and The Drift Fly Shop want to thank you for reading….

               Check out Winston pouting...

Karma, It May Catch You In The Tail.....

            Hello all and thanks for checking in at the O’Grady Fly Fishing Adventures. I have spent this week trying to figure out how I could pair the incredible National Championship game and fly fishing into a blog but today’s trip to the water had some Karma of its own. Now, I want to start by stating that this story may be a little hypocritical and I in no way claim to be the etiquette police, but I think after all I have seen over the last sixteen years on this river, I have a pretty good idea of the space needed between anglers. Yep I know there are a few that would disagree, and I’m sure I have pushed the envelope but this story kind of cracks me up.

            The story starts last November on a sunny, Sunday afternoon. I was working my way back to the car and I looked up and saw one of my favorite fall runs open. As I neared it I looked up and noticed someone power walking toward the run but was still quite a ways away. I was only a few feet away so I stepped in and started casting. The guy huffed and stepped into the river about fifteen feet up from me. I could hear the angry cast and he kept eyeballing me after every fish I caught. He walked around me and told me I was in a good spot and started casting just below me. I caught a few more and then a blog follower came up to me and introduced himself. We stood there for just a minute talking and the guy walked up to me and asked, “hey boss, are you done with that spot?” I was a little flabbergasted and just walked away. A few weeks later I had a guide trip out and I knew it was going to be a busy day. I took my clients up to Apples and found out that the Pueblo Renegades had an outing that day and three of their members were already working the weir. We stepped in above them and I got my clients going. After a short time, I noticed this guy walking toward us and I recognized him as “the boss” guy. Once again, I was blown away when he moved within ten feet of my client and within twenty feet of the Renegades. Danny showed up and all we could do was laugh and shake or heads.

            With the snow in this morning, I decided it would be a good day to go fishing. On the way to the river a good friend of mine called and asked if we could meet up. Now in order to protect the not so innocent, I will not use his name and for the rest of this blog I will refer to him as MF (my friend). We got to the water at around 10:30 and I saw that the run I wanted to fish had a couple of bait guys on one side and a fly fisher on the other. I went a couple of runs up and began fishing. After about a half an hour I noticed that the bait guys were leaving but I didn’t feel like it was Kosher to go fish it from the other side directly across from the fly fisher. Soon after that, MF showed up and I looked down and someone snuck in across from the original fly fisher. Now it was far from the worst etiquette I had seen on the river, but I felt annoyed because I knew that run was shot for the day. MF made a comment that we should go down and yell at him and we laughed it off and headed up river. We ran into Richie and Alex and Richie had just landed a beautiful seventeen incher. Richie headed back down to hook up with Alex so me and MF jumped into the weir. We caught a few small fish and then a nice one and I thought we had the weir pretty well covered. I looked up and saw the guy from down river checking out the weir we were fishing. He huffed and walked up river and after two casts he came back down, walked out on the weir and said to MF “Hey Boss, mind if I fish here”? Wow, I hadn’t heard that voice in a month now I was really annoyed, he then casted right where we were fishing. Now here is where it gets a little funny. He hooked a fish and it seemed like he was taking way too long to fight the fish and while overplaying it, his leg slipped into the river(he wasn’t wearing waders), and I felt myself giggling. I didn’t want to say anything that I would regret so I said come on MF, let’s take off. As I was crossing, I heard the guy ask MF to take his picture and I got a little louder saying “come on MF, let’s go”. Well MF snapped the pic and then made it up the bank and I asked him where the tough guy attitude went and why did he take that guys pic. MF laughed and said zoom is a great thing. He went on to say that he zoomed in on the tail of the fish where the hook was fully lodged. Was it Karma? I'm not sure but MF you are my hero and you made my day.

            As for the river conditions, we are now solidly set into January conditions. As you all know January is not my favorite time of the year, but this year we are seeing some pretty good window fishing. What I mean by that is that there seems to be window of about an hour slot in the A.M. that will fish fish well and then its slim pickens until the last hour of the day when it picks up again. My fish today were caught in the mouth on a size 22 New Moon. As always, Connell, Cat, Winston, MF, and The Drift Fly Shop want to thank you for reading….. 

                                       MF fighting a fish.

                           
                                         Richie and Alex .

Happy NU Year !!!!!

              Hello friends and thanks for checking in at the O’Grady Fly Fishing Adventures. I want to start this blog by wishing all of you a wonderful New Year. While standing in the river today my mind shifted to armchair quarter back mode and with my Huskers and Broncos seasons over, I began to ponder what went wrong. I know they say that defense wins championships but, even if that is true, I love offense. I watched several Husker and Bronco games this year and I wondered if they both had the same offensive coordinator. First down was running back up the middle for a loss of one, second down was an off tackle run for a yard, and third down was a long pass down the field. Yes, every once in a while, they would hit the bomb for a big play, but it sure was a boring season to watch. Then it hit me, I wasn’t thinking about football, I was thinking about fishing in January. And what do I mean by that, well, let me illustrate...

               The river was fairly empty today and so I immediately jumped into one of my favorite feeding lanes. Several drifts without a yard gained and then I casted into a new spot. While the flies were drifting into the spot where I thought there would be a fish, the indicator shot up the river and I worked a beautiful eighteen incher to the net. Several more casts with nothing and then another connected bomb with a seventeen incher to the net. Now Brandon Reilley caught three TD’s in the Music city bowl, so I only had one more bomb to equal the Huskers output.

               I began working my way down river and it seemed I had way too many tackles for a loss and a few one yard gains (twelve inchers), and then I got my play of the day. I changed up my rig with smaller flies and switched to 6x tippet and after a few drifts through a long deep slow run and it was on. The bomb connected and I got my third TD of the day, he was the fattest of the day and was just a hair over seventeen inches. I moved on after that and found some dinks to bully around. Such, scoring 60 on South Dakota State is expected and doesn’t show your brilliance but every take and big run can still be a little fun.

            Now that only the really good football teams are still playing, this might be a great time to hit the Ark. Don’t expect a Bradyesque day, unless of course you deflate your bobbers, but just be glad you not frustrated watching another poor Husker or Bronco performance.

As many of you know the Fly Fishing Show will be going on this weekend in Denver. Since this is our busiest time of the year here in P-town, the Drift will not be part of the show, however we will be running a show special now through Sunday. All Tail Water guide trips purchased this week will be discounted by 10%, date does not need to be locked in but trip does need to be paid for. Spring is just around the corner and we have one of the best Spring fisheries in the world. Frazier and Frost of the nineties Huskers have nothing on the Ark in spring. As always, Connell, Cat, Winston, Kubiak and Reily, and the Drift Fly Shop want to thank you for reading……..