Weather is ready to change so my back weather forecaster was
telling me that when I got out of bed this morning. Just
before 8 am my doorbell chimed. It was my fishing partner
Mike. He wanted to know if I was up to hitting the river. He
got a one man pontoon boat and wanted to try it out. He had
put it in at the access and motored up to my house. Told him
to start fishing and I would be down in a short. Had a quick
breakfast, popped a pain pill and went downstairs to get my
gear on. Got to the dock and Mike had a trout on. That was
his eight trout that morning from around my dock. He was to
take his pontoon boat up to the shoals and I was going to
take my river boat up. I got a strong whiff of gasoline. I
noted some white slime in the boat. It was wet oil and gas.
Some animal had chewed through the fuel squeeze bulb during
the night and sliced it like a razor. If I wanted to use the
boat I would have to shed my fishing gear and waders to go
to town and get a new fuel line assembly. Scrapped that idea
and fished at the house. I had a few hits on the chili
pepper but no hookups. Mike was not doing much either.
Switched over to a sz 16 floating sowbug. Had a couple of
long line releases. Mike suggested I get the canoe and he
would tow me up to the shoals. Off we went. At the shoals
there were a few fish working so I stayed with the sowbug.
cast just ahead of the rises and picked up four nice
rainbows. Mike picked up a few on one of his emergers.
He had a few of them that he showed me that morning. Gave me
a sz 16. More on that later. Things gad slowed down to a
halt. About 1/2 hour went by without a hit. I decided to tie
on a Chili Pepper. The first five casts took five rainbows
to 15". The seventh cast cast took another nice rainbow as
did the ninth cast. That was seven trout in nine casts. By
them most of the fog had lifted and the sun was bright. The
shoal started to come alive on the surface. They would just
tap the Chili Pepper but not take it. It was time to switch
over to a small emerger.
I tied the sz 16 emerger Mike gave me. It is tied on a scud
hook. The body is four strands of turkey tail wrapped on the
shank wink is a short upright wing from Zelon. Thorax and
head, peacock herl. Thread black.
I got a number of hits but few hookups. Mike was using a sz
18 and the trout was taking it with gusto. Mike was getting
three or more hits than I was getting on his sz 18. I
changed over to sz 18 peacock emerger and starting to do
better. The wind came up and the rises stopped. Went back to
the chili pepper and caught several more trout before the
pain pill wore off and I called it a day. Mike towed me back
to the dock. We finally got started fishing about 10 am and
I quit at 1 pm.
I had about 16 trout and Mike must of had close to two
dozen. All trout were released unharmed.
I had not planned on hitting the river this morning but I
was glad Mike came by and really had to twist my arm to go.
LOL A great morning with a great friend. What more can you
ask for.
Tony [EMAIL PROTECTED]
