Challenge Accepted....

                      Hello all and thanks for checking in at the O’Grady Fly Fishing Adventures. I remember when I was a teen ager driving through a little town in Nebraska called Broken Bow, as I was entering the town there was a huge sign saying that Broken Bow was the home of the world famous, One Box Pheasant Hunt. I was a little confused and when I asked a resident, I was told that teams would come in from around the world and over the weekend and were allowed only one box of shells. Years later, when I was playing a lot of golf I noticed that nearly every golf course would have a yearly “two club” tournament. I guess people must get so good at their hobbies that at times they need to challenge themselves by changing their normal tactics.

          While floating with Cody the other day we found ourselves reminiscing about how so many of our local anglers have gotten so much better. We watched one kid walk into a hole and drill a fish on his first cast and we laughed because it seemed like just last week, we were showing him how to tie on flies. We saw another friend that was teaching another and I could remember a few years back, him telling Cat that there were no big fish in Pueblo. Now I don’t know if it is because we are such awesome teachers or that our customers are such great learners, but sometimes it hurts a little that we can’t always know so much more than our customers. Many times, someone that we remember as being a little raw comes in and as we begin our advice, they tell us that they know and they got it.

          When I got to the river today I decided that like the One Box Pheasant Hunt and the two club golf tourneys, I was going to challenge myself by changing up my normal tactics. Well I would love to tell you that I had done this on purpose but that was far from the case, you see, as I opened my pack I realized that my lanyard was sitting in our spare bedroom at home. Now that might not seem like a biggie to you, but to me it is my fishing life line. My lanyard holds my tippet, weight, floatant, nippers, forceps and my knot tier. I thought about calling it a day but instead I decided to accept the challenge.  My rod had one fly and one BB weight on it from Sunday and luckily, I had flies and one old spool of 6x tippet. As I stepped into my first run I knew that one bad cast, drift or a poor fight and my day would be done. I hooked one on my first cast and took my time landing him. I couldn’t believe how exhilarating every take and head shake was. I moved down river and for the first few hours it seemed that every run produced one fish. At just after 1:00 the river just absolutely turned on. Bwo’s were everywhere and the fish went absolutely nuts. I sat in one run and landed close to a dozen. I finally had one fish run me under a rock and when I pulled my line loose, it was empty. I was ready to leave but I decided I would take a quick look in my box, I hardly ever fish bead heads but I had one bead head FOD and I sure am glad I did. I moved up river and rock sets were now producing three fish. It was such an awesome day that I actually burned through three Gopro batteries. Well the inevitable happened when I had another toad drag me under a rock, and after one more unsuccessful scan of my fly box, my day was done.

          As I was walking back to the car I started thinking about all those people that have the Ark dialed in and are getting bored. Take the Connell challenge, now it doesn’t have to be your lanyard, maybe only take five flies, try fishing left handed, or if you’re really smart just don’t forget your gear. Anyway, the river dropped again today and the hatch was incredible. We have some openings this week and this would be a great time to book a guide trip. I promise I will bring all my necessary gear. The video is just a little of the action from today. As always, Connell, Cat, Winston, the town of Broken Bow, and the Drift Fly Shop want to thank you for reading…….