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 Wine Country Chrome
Posted by waterwhippa on February 23, 2005
It was the last week of March and the tributaries were ripe for the
picking. During our annual pre-season scouting run, two days before the
opener my buddy Nate and I noticed that the pair of limestone tribs we
always fish were running "green". It had been a few years since we've
had such favorable conditions, previous years brought drought like
conditions due to lack of snow pack, other years brought monsoon like
rains, premature runs of fish and rivers of chocolate milk. This season
would be different! The fish were in there, we didn't see them but
somehow we were intuitively aware of their presence.
At this stage of the game, the desire to cast to these fish was only
paralleled by their propensity to spawn. It took everything we had in
us to abide by the rules and regulations set forth by the great state of
New York. I wanted to string the rods up on the spot and wade into the
swift flows and across the soft pea size gravel. Our better judgment
and respect for the resource kept us on the shoreline as mere
spectators.
Needless to say we were back at our
favorite pool that first day of
April last year at 5:30 am. Surprisingly enough we had no company on
this stretch of water for the first hour of light. The weather was raw,
blustery winds and small hail stones, typical of early April in Central
NY. After a thermos full of coffee, I was trembling so bad I could
hardly thread the 6x tippet through the eye of the size 14 Glo bug. The
anticipation was killing us as we stood in the current of this stream. I
stared at my watch methodically, waiting for legal time. Finally it was
the start of the 2004 trout season!
My first cast laid right in the seam perfectly, one upstream mend, two
ticks on the bottom and half way through the drift WHAM! It was like
somebody put the air brakes on. I yelled upriver to Nate "fish on".
This fish was hot! She had me into my backing in seconds. This fish
definitely had the upper hand, I was fishing 6x tippet and the flows
were pretty steady. After a couple of tail walks, a fifty yard dash and
a game of tug-o-war I beached the beautiful specimen on gravel bar in
the middle of the river. A seven pound hen, the transparent fins told
me this fish had traversed about ten river miles overnight and still had
a full head of steam.
We fished many miles of water that day, hooked, landed and lost many
more trout and had an outstanding opener. I have found that the time I
spend on the water with great people in great places is what puts
everything into perspective for me. As I grow a little older and gain a
bit of wisdom along the way, I'm starting to understand that its not
really the fish that I'm after, but it is more the experience of
relating to good friends in a natural setting on Mother Nature's terms
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Re: Wine Country Chrome
by RickW on February 24, 2005 | | Nice story, I know what you mean when the Finger lake tribs have that green look to them. April will be here soon! |
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Re: Wine Country Chrome
by joey on February 24, 2005 http://www.fliesandfinseast.com | | waterwhippa nice fish sounds like you had a great opening day. Hopefully you will have favorable conditions this year. I would like to make a trip back to NY in april when the steelies are headed back to the lake. Maybe I'll see ya on a river. |
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Re: Wine Country Chrome
by jeremy on February 25, 2005 http://www.ineedasimplesolution.com | | great fish! just perfect looking. i look forward to fly fishing together on my next trip to your neck of the woods. your so lucky to live so close to a steelhead fishery. maine has great fly fishing, no doubt about that - but i just love steelhead and i have to travel so far to fly fish for them. |
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