Fly Fishing and PON FARR......

            Hello All, this is Cat writing to you today. As many of you know, despite the coolness fly fishing has added to my reputation, deep down I am a super nerd. Below you will find a sci-fi tale with a fly fishing moral. I hope you enjoy!

            Earth dwellers called the alien planet Rivora.  Hidden behind the dark side of Mars, it existed undetected until the year 2018. From the moment the first astronauts set foot on Rivora, the human race knew they had found a new home. The flora, fauna, and even the people on this new planet mirrored earth in most ways. Most ways, however, is very far from being similar in every way.

            After completing the first three month mission to Rivora most the astronauts were excited to return to Earth and report all of their findings to the scientists back home. The flight engineer, BillyBob, wanted to stay behind. He loved discovering new things on Rivora and to be honest didn’t have any friends back on Earth. BillyBob did find a very good friend on Rivora named Trouvis. The two were buds from the time they met. They played together, they hungout, and were virtually inseparable. Trouvis loved hearing stories from Earth and BillyBob loved exploring with his new friend.

            For several months the new friendship went swimmingly but then something changed. One night, BillyBob, knocked on Trouvis door, pizza in hand and smile on lip. It took Trouvis longer than normal to answer the door. “Dude, answer the door. I found the best pizza place. You’ve got to grub down on this,” BillyBob shouted. When Trouvis answered the door he wasn’t baring the same big grin as his friend. In fact, he looked annoyed to see BillyBob. “I’m getting ready for a date. I think I am going to pass,” Trouvis said. BillyBob was confused. His friend had never canceled on him before. Not only that but he had never even heard Trouvis mention a girl he was interested in. He was definitely dressed for something though. Normally clothed in earthy tones, Trouvis was head to toe in bold bright colors. His eyes darted back and forth nervously peeking around BillyBob’s body filling the doorway.

            “Well, when is your date?” BillyBob asked.

            “I don’t know. Whenever she shows up, but I have to be ready.”

            “Are we talking two hours or five, or what?”

            BillyBob fell speechless when Trouvis told him it might be weeks. BillyBob grew angry as he walked back to his rental car. He was on an alien planet and had exactly one friend. He wanted to spend time with him. He wanted to be entertained and for some reason his friend was blowing him off for weeks. Which for Bob meant weeks of isolation. For a chick? Back in his car, still holding his pizza, Bob got pissed. This was ridiculous. A few minutes later and Bob was back pounding on Trouvis’ door.

            “WHAT!? Trouvis screamed as he swung the door open, almost hitting Bob in its path. Bob wanted to yell at his friend, but instead he tempted him . Trouvis loved pizza, and knowing this Bob flipped open the box. Trouvis’ stomach growled as he stared down at the melted cheese. “I can’t. What if she shows, up,” Trouvis was arguing more with his hunger than with Bob at this point. His hand reached out and he grabbed a slice as Bob pushed his way inside. Only a few bites in and Trouvis began puking into the toilet. Either it was an allergy or food poisoning or perhaps Trouvis simply shouldn’t have been eating while waiting for a date. Either way, Bob, the ever devoted and pushy friend, stayed by his side all night.

            In the morning a knock came at the door. Bob answered it and found a beautiful woman dressed in the same vibrant colors Trouvis had been wearing. She shrieked at the sight of Bob and ran back to her car. He tried to stop her, but she was gone. Trouvis, hearing the commotion, joined Bob outside.

“Sorry, Dude, don’t know what happened. Was that your date?” Bob asked. Trouvis fell to his knees and wept openly and as he cried he explained, “You weren’t supposed to be here. I was supposed to give her my full attention. That’s it. It is over. I will never get to spend time with her and I might NEVER have a child!”

Come to find out the people of Rivora and Earth were indeed NOT exactly alike.  In Fact, they were more like Vulcans. Reproduction only came once a year for them. Not only that, but the situation had to be perfect for children to be reproduced. Bob had blown it for Trouvis. He had deprived his friend of a blissful encounter and to pass down his DNA. As you can imagine the story got out. Every newspaper ran the headline, ALIEN PREVENTS FRIEND FROM A NIGHT OF PLEASURE AND CHILDREN.  Bob and Trouvis’ friendship never recovered and Bob became an outcast. None of the other residents wanted to be friend someone who would be so selfish as to spoil a man’s one night a year to make whoopy. It took years for another Earth ship to return to Rivora and for years Bob was miserable.

            Here is the moral of the story; DON’T get in the way of love and romance even by accident. DON’T be Bob. Redds are popping up all over the river. Our wonderful trout friends are desperately trying to reproduce. It is in my humble opinion that we should let them do this in peace and feed our “pizza” to all the other finned friends not trying to bring a new generation to the water. Thanks for indulging me in a little story and as always Cat, Connell, Winston, Rivora, and The Drift Fly Shop thank you for 
reading......

In case you were wondering, I grabbed a few pics of Redds today so please do your best to avoid. If you have any more questions, feel free to catch us and ask at the shop.

Be Mine......

          Hello friends and thanks for checking in at the O’Grady Fly Fishing Adventures. Well this morning started like any other, breakfast and some Bible time and then after feeding Pooh-dog I checked my most trusted news source, Facebook. The first thing that came up was a memory from one year ago where Cat and I spent the day on the West Shore of Oahu. As I was patting myself on the back as to how awesome of a husband I was last Valentine’s Day, panic set in and I began to think of how I could possibly out do last year. I racked my brains for seconds and then it hit me, the only place on the face of the earth that is more beautiful and romantic than Hawaii; yep we headed to East Pueblo and hit the tail water.

As we were getting ready to head to the river I check the weather and the sun was bright and the temp was warm, I was thinking this could be the most romantic VD ever. We got to the river and as we came around the bend to our starting run, we looked at each other and in unison said “Crap”. The river looked as if the free people of P-town had decided they would never pay the high taxes on Ovaltine again and poured it all into the river. Unfortunately, there was some work being done just above Juniper and the river was brown. We fished anyway and after about a few hours, we managed to get two beautiful bows and one monster sucker to the net. Not the day I had dreamed of but it is a constant reminder that I am married to the woman of my dreams. Thank you Cat for another wonderful day.

          We really are not sure about the work today and hope it was just for today. As soon as we find out more we will get it posted. As always, Connell, Cat, Winston, Cupid, and the Drift Fly Shop want to thank you for reading…..

Sight Fishing, A Whole New World...

           Hello friends and thanks for checking in at the O’Grady Fly Fishing Adventures. Well we made it through the January doldrums way better than expected and now we are quickly getting into my favorite three months of the year, yep it is sight fishing time and the season that separates the men from the boys. I will never forget my first real experience with sight fishing and will always be grateful to my mentor Tony. I felt as if I was a pretty solid angler and had confidence in most situations but watching Tony sight out fish showed me how much I was missing out, it was the beginning of my obsession. I wanted to write this blog to give out a few simple tips to help our readers find the obsession that is sight fishing.

          The first tip is just the sighting out of the fish. Now to start, I’m not talking about the Taylor Hogs resting above the bridge and emphatically not talking about the spawning fish sitting on redds in six inches of water, I’m talking about the fish feeding in riffles and other feeding lanes. The feeding fish are usually the most difficult to see but have the greatest reward. The way to start is take some time at the river looking into riffles and try to look at the bottom of the river. When you begin to see the bottom then look for abnormalities. Yes, I have been fooled more than once, but I would rather cast to a broken wine bottle than spook the fish of a lifetime. A great way of thinking about seeing the bottom is comparing the river to the posters that were around when I was younger, it just looks like a design but after looking for a while, a lion or whatever shows up and you can’t figure out why you didn’t see it from the beginning. The second thing to look for is color, with the fish beginning to spawn, on the sunny days look for red stripes and on cloudy days look for purplish hues. Now after you begin to see the pure number of fish in the river, next we talk about how to feed them.

          One of the biggest difficulties I see with anglers is fly placement. With many clients over the years we have spotted out a monster big red stripe and after calming the nerves the client casts and the indicator lands at the head of the fish. I normally take a giant internal gasp and then we talk about where the flies are, compared to the indicator. Its great when the light comes on and the next cast has the flies drifting right by the mouth of the fish. So, one of my best tips is to think about where the flies are, it is rare to catch a fish with your indicator. And lastly, as the river begins to open up and look more like a 55inch HD TV and less like a kaleidoscope, start watching the mouth of the fish as the fly drifts by, but I have to warn you, once you watch a fish eat your nymph, January will never fish the same.

          Now if you don’t have the time or the patience to learn this on your own, find a guide that can take the time to teach you these techniques. I know a pretty good one here in P-town and you can reach me at the Drift, come see what you are missing. And to finish off the blog I wanted to talk a little about spawning Redds. I started seeing them just over the last few days and they really should be filling the river over the next few weeks. Redds are clean splotches on the bottom of the river where you can on most days see big fish in a few inches of water. Think of these fish as your friends and if your friends were only in the mood once a year, wouldn’t you leave them alone. There are plenty of fish that are eating. And lastly, when you do catch a fish from a feeding lane take extra care getting any pics and get them back in the water as quick as possible. Our last two years have had really successful spawns, but we had a little more water hiding the redds. As always, Connell, Cat, Winston, and the Drift Fly Shop want to thank you for reading…….