Hello friends and thanks for
checking in at the O’Grady Fly Fishing Adventures. If you have never seen the
TV series Gold Rush, you are missing a whole lot of fun. Now gold mining by
itself should be quite boring, but watching the bumbling group of Todd Hoffman’s
crew is pretty hilarious. The first season they spent millions of dollars mining
and only collected a few thousand dollars of gold. Every episode they would
interview Todd and he would say the same thing, “we have to get serious gold
this week or we could be finished”. One episode they had a professional come in
and help and when he measured the pitch of the sluice box, the expert explained
that it was to steep and all the gold was flushing straight through. Another
expert came in to help and ended up poaching the Hoffman’s claim. They had fist
fights, Todd’s dad smashed a wash plant with a loader, they had permit issues
and pretty much everything that could go wrong, did. And when they finally had
a season that ended in the black, the following season they headed to South
America. Episode after episode and season after season it was always the same,
a total cluster and at the end of the show, Todd would once again explain that
if the next week isn’t better, they could be out of business. I guess after a
while I no longer tuned in to see how they were doing but more about what was
going to go wrong this episode and all along, a young kid was bringing in
millions of gold.
As some of our readers know, the
last few years Cat and I have spent some time trying to figure out how to catch
carp. Now as a professional fly-fishing guide, I have always been pretty happy
with my skills however trying to catch carp have made me feel a little more
like Todd Hoffman and a little less like me. I have walked miles, tried hundreds
of flies, tried different times of the days and have spooked more carp than
gold that the Hoffman’s have lost. I have spent several days watching people
that had been successful but while with me they were blanked and if I had a TV
show I would have been canceled years ago. Today, I hit the mother lode. With
the flows on the Ark entering the dangerous area for trout, I have been chasing
a few carp lately. This morning I got into one of my usual spots and carp were
moving in. I tossed to several and I thought it was going to be just like every
other day, but this time my fly landed a few feet in front of a tailer and as
the fly dropped, the fish headed over to take a look. His face buried into the
bottom and I lifted. The fish ripped down river but just as I was clearing my
line, I lost tension and he spit the hook. I imagined me sitting around a
campfire saying tomorrow will be different. I walked a little way up river and
I saw another group eating. I dropped the fly in front and another fish headed
over to take a look and grabbed a bite, I set, and it was on. I have never had
a chance to sit in on a gold weigh-in, but I’m guessing the sound of gold
pouring on to a scale is not that much different than my Spectrum screaming out
line. He bull-dogged me for a while and then I finally got him turned. I can’t
tell you how accomplished I felt. I headed up river and landed another that was
even bigger and then finished the day blind casting and landing a big walleye.
After a few years of more frustration than I can remember, today I got my gold.
While reflecting on my successful day
I began to question what was different. I want to say that maybe the most
important things I have found is to be patient, don’t waste your time casting
to fish that are on the move. What a fun way to spend the day on the river.
If you are not aware, the river has
dropped to super low flows and temps have spiked the last few days. PLEASE
leave the trout alone during the heat of the day. If you are going to fish
please get out early. The warmth of the water makes it very difficult for trout
to get oxygen and a strong fight will very likely kill the fish. If you are
bored you can always hire a guide and maybe you can be on the next episode of
Gold Rush…Pueblo Style(A carp trip). As always, Connell, Cat, Winston, The
Hoffman crew, and the Drift Fly Shop want to thank you for reading……
No comments:
Post a Comment