I was to stay till today (Sunday) to do some prime smallmouth fishing. Weather reports predicted some bad weather moving in and my wife and I decided to head home Saturday evening instead of driving through rough weather to get home late Sunday..
When we got home, I noticed the river was shut down. First time in months. It was shut down since Thursday afternoon. Oh well, I still had a good time at the show.
In tyhe mail I got a package from my fishing friend in N.J. He had sent me a dozen of a fly he has been doing very well with back there. It is tied on a scud hook about sz 12 with a black bead head , pheasant tail for the body with a copper rib and black crow for the wing case. It is tied like a Pheasant tail nymph. More on this later
I called my fishing partner and we decided to get some early morning fishing in before the weather gets here in the late morning or early afternoon on Sunday.
Mike was to be here by 8 am, it was overcast and the dam had one unit on. This is a bit tricky to do any wading but we decided to head up to Tucker where we can wade with one unit running. Ran the boat the half mile up to Tucker Shoals, water was higher than I expected, we could still fish with caution. Being that my rod stays rigged, I start on what ever I have tied on the tippet, it was a Chili Pepper. Mike waded out on the shoal and had a fish on, almost on the first cast. In about a half dozen casts I had a fish on the pepper, I knew it was a good fish. The current was strong and I thought for sure I would loose it. I finally brought it to the net, it was a football shaped 20+" rainbow. I then caught another that was in the 15" range. One thing about high water, seems most of the trout caught are bigger trout. I felt I had to give my buddies fly a try. Tied one on and started to make a couple of casts. On the third cast I hooked up. I could swear it was the first trout I had released. It came from the same spot and was identical to the first one as far as I could tell. Released it and made a few more casts hooked up again, this time I lost it . I kept casting for about 15 minuets with not a hit. Mike was hooking up with a few fish. We always have a thing going about who out fished who. He almost always out fishes me, it is all in fun. I decided to check my fly and found I had none. That last fish broke me off on the take. Tied on the second one, it seems there was something different about the hook. I just could not hook up or keep a fish on. After loosing several fish and missing some, I decided to check the fly. The hook was almost straightened out. That must of happened on the first fish I hooked up with on that fly. Re bent the hook to shape and on a few casts later as I was working to a point, I hooked up with the most brilliant colored cutthroat I have caught in a good while. It was not more than 11" , what a beauty. I finally got to the point I wanted to fish and got into the browns. I took 8 trout off that point, all were browns and another cutt, all in beautiful colors.
Mike waded down to where I was and I heard him say, "Did you catch them all", I must of because it just quit. The next twenty minuets not a tap for either one of us. We only had a couple of hours before Mike had to head to the fly shop where works on weekends so we decided to get back to the boat and head to the dock. I started to reel in, and felt some drag on the line, a small brown about 10 or 11 inches had taken the fly. That was a nice way to end the morning. Total was 10 trout for me, I don't know what Mike ended up with , he just said," I really hate when you out fish me two times in a row. LOL
Denny Conrad will be here to spend a week with us, hope the weather holds out and the river stays down. We plan on hitting the river or Crooked Creek often this coming week. Denny stayed in Oklahoma last night hoping that the weather would hold out long enough to fish for the smallmouths today.
Tony
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