 First Home Run Of The Season
Posted by chrisd on April 24, 2005
(2028 reads)
You couldn’t ask for a better lunch hour; a fat Brown, a picky Brookie and a big Bow in fast water, just like that! An hour that started out tough turned perfect when I spotted a nice brown in shallow water feeding actively, twenty plus casts later he darted right, I lifted and stuck him on a Barr’s. Two pools above that, I blind cast until a pair of white tipped fins appeared from under a rock but turned back down before the fly passed over him. After some persistence he ate the midge patter that I coaxed into his feeding path and for a ten inch fish he put up a nice fight. Now the game was on! I had to get back to work but how could I when I knew that the next 200 yards was teaming with Rainbows, it was a simple choice or hardly a choice at all, fish until I landed a Bow. I searched the shallows and fished blindly for at least 100 yards, the excitement lead me to spook a couple of smaller fish and a healthy Bow that bolted when I nearly
stepped on him. Finally I spied a fish in the tail of a riffle, small but probably a Rainbow so I went to work, cast after cast, very few hit the correct lane, I switched flies and was relentless. Why was I wasting my time on such a crappy little fish, all of either nine or ten inches? This would make my lunch hour complete and I could return before everyone noticed that I had been gone well over an hour. Was this little bugger sleeping or just taunting me, I had to hook him, or did I?
After uncountable ill attempts of getting the perfect drift one of the bugs hung up on the bottom, rather than bust off and retie I decided to retrieve the goods and move on to bigger and better things. As I reached down into the forty degree water my eyes were treated to a beautiful sight. There in the middle of the fast current was a dark shape moving back and forth, big for this section of the creek and bigger than I had seen in a while. This portion of the creek is perfect, untouched by the encroaching town, perfect natural braided runs without the banks being pushed in unnaturally. This dark shape sat under a huge half fallen pine that nearly spans the river. All I had to do was to sneak a cast in and above where he lay, simple right? Well of course on the second cast I hooked that big bark laden pine and it did not budge, after conducting a symphony with my rod the flies dropped and zipped past my face. Another two casts and the drift was right he moved left, then turned almost completely downstream, was a fly in his jaw yet? I guess and guessed right, a quick snap of the wrist, the line came tight and the big Bow rocketed upstream the fight was on! This was a solid fish and when he came to rest, jaw gaping, he measured a solid seventeen inches of speckled beauty. This was such a perfect end to a lunchtime session on my home water that I smiled on the entire walk back to work. Now that I’m back at my desk, that I was so eager to return to, all I can do is daydream of the next home run!
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Re: First Home Run Of The Season
by jeremy on April 24, 2005 http://www.fliesandfins.com | hey chris - welcome to flies and fins. i had fun creating the photo for your story. i searched through all of my archives and found pics of underwater browns, brookies and rainbows. i then cropped them out and put them into the pic - if you look real close you can see and make out all the fish. thought it was kinda cool.
SO - Anyone out there reading this - can you find the 3 fish and make out which is which? Look close!
ANYWAY - sounds like you had a pretty good lunch outing. where are you from? |
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Re: First Home Run Of The Season
by waterwhippa on April 24, 2005 | | Great read Chris and welcome aboard!! Your in for the ride of your life!!! |
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Re: First Home Run Of The Season
by jason-c on April 25, 2005 http://www.fliesandfinswest.com | Chris-Nice to hear from you. Glad to see the post. I think I know the section of river you were on. I think i fished it with you in a lightening storm a few years ago? Nice post keep them coming! Mother's day caddis are coming soon.
Jason |
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