FROM the chairman of the BORED,
I have been doing Honey Doos for the past few weeks and had planned to
do some today. Not so, I had to go fishing.
I fish the White River, this river is Tail water. For most of this year,
too much water has been released that makes it impossible to wade. I
looked out at the river this morning and could not believe my eyes, The
dock was way down and the river "grass" was showing. I had to get to the
lumber yard so that I could have the sheet rock delivered before Friday
in order to finish the Honey Doos over the weekend. My wife was going to
do some shopping but cut it short because she knew what I wanted to do.
When I got home there was a message on the answering machine from one of
my fishing partners. It said, "water is shut down, leaving the house
now". He lives an hour from me. We had winter last week with 6" of snow,
today was bluebird weather and was to get the about 64*. Went down and
got the boat ready. By that time Mike was here and slipping into his
waders. At this time the wind was dead calm but was not to stay that way
for long. We got on the water about 10:30.
Winter fishing on the White is with midges, sowbugs and nymphs. We
started out with some sz 18 midge patterns. After about an hour I caught
my first trout. I changed over to a Sowbug and again it took quite a
while before catching the next trout. This went on for about four hours
changing small flies. I only had four trout landed but Mike was doing a
bit better. He hit a honey hole and had C&R six or seven trout. In the
mean time the wind turned into a light gale. It was gusting enough to
make white caps on the water, casting was tough. after four hours we
decided we had enough and headed back to the boat. I told Mike, I am
about ready to put a big ugly Woolly Bugger on and fish it back . Mike
smiled and said. I already have. He made a couple of casts and hooked
up. I had my box out and opened. Looking right at me was the only Chili
Pepper I had. I said, what the heck and tied it on. On the first cast I
had a hit and it surprised me so much I missed the hit. Made another
cast and hooked up. Well, it was like magic. About every third or fourth
cast I either hooked up or had a hit. The wind was still blowing a gale
and it was hard to get a decent cast. After four hours of not doing much
this was not something to quit on. Mike was not doing as well and
started jabbing me about that ugly fly I was using. I am used to this, I
usually hear" you using that d--"Chili Pepper again." It is my "Go To'
fly. We fished for about another hour before the wind beat us to death
and decided to call it quits. I did not count the fish I caught but I
would guess it was between 15 and 18. All but one were nice fat winter
browns and rainbows. One fish was what I call a Roach, it is like a
dirty shiner about 10" long.
If we have these conditions again tomorrow, I will not be doing "Honey
Doos". Winter is due back next week.
Tony the "UNBORED" one.
