[VFB] Fishing report

[Tony Spezio]

Took the day off making rods and headed for the river. Mike and I ere 
going to float Crooked Creek for smallmouths and gills. It has been hot 
and the creek is real low. we decided to pass it up with 90 degrees 
forecast for today.
Mike came  over this morning about 7:30, we were going to head up to 
Tucker for a few hours. The river was heavy with fog so we would have to 
wait for the fog to lift in order to take the boat out. Instead of 
waiting for the fog to lift Mike suggested going up to the trophy area 
at the dam. We got there in about 20 minuets and suited up. The fog had 
started to lift and we waded out at the launch ramp. I made one cast to 
a rise, then made the second cast to the same rise and hooked up. I knew 
I had a good fish on. I made several attempts to net it  but it just 
would not fit in the C&R net. I finally netted the Rainbow, It was U 
shape in the net with about 5 " of the tail above the net rim.
The net measures 17" across the top. That trout was like a football. It 
took Al's fly in a sz 14. A few more casts got me a Cutt of about 14". 
Worked my way down river a hundred feet or so and got into a bunch of 
trout just laying there. By this time the sun was out and the water here 
is clear as gin. The fish are real spooky as the water is shallow. There 
were some real large trout in that shallow pool. It tool some long casts 
but I did manage to get three bows from that pool before I spooked them. 
Mike came up along the bank and fished the pool below me. He hooked up 
and when he landed the trout I heard him yell out" will you look at 
this", he had a Brookie.
That was the first Brookie he had ever caught in all his years of trout 
fishing. We worked a couple more pools and were catching trout on a 
regular basis. As the morning wore on, more fishermen started to show 
up. There were only two others when we started. The funny thing was, 
Mike and I were about the only ones catching fish.
The warning horn sounded at the dam, that means they will be releasing 
water in 10 minuets. We headed close to the bank and waited for the 
surge. It never came so we headed across to a run on the other side.
At the end of the run, there was a feeding frenzy. They would not take 
Al's fly, the pepper ot anything else till Mike put on a zs 14 yellow 
soft hackle. I did not have one so Mike offered me one. By the time I 
changed to the soft hackle, the feeding frenzy had slowed down. I did 
manage to get a few trout and several long line releases. I finally 
broke off and went back to Al's fly. Hooked up s few more times till a 
guy came wading right into the run , stands there tying on a fly. This 
took him a full 15 minuets. T politely told him he san standing right on 
top of the fish. He just ignored me. Hr finally got a fly tied on, made 
three casts and wandered off. This put the fish down. we did notice the 
water had come up a bit and decided the bit of a surge is what set the 
trout in a feeding frenzy. Along came another friend of ours that is a 
Trophy Trout Guide with a client. A big brown was in that run and Duane 
was trying to get the client to cast the fly where the brown was laying. 
Mike had tried for it but the brown never even looked at this fly. The 
client could not cast to save his life so Duane cast the fly but before 
he could hand the rod to the client, the brown was on. The fly was a sz 
22 midge. The client was so shuck up that he refused the rod so Daune 
took it on himself to land it. It tool a while and the landing net was 
too small. Finally the client managed to get the fish in the net.
After being sure that brown was ready to be released it swam off. It was 
a good 24" brown. We decided to call it a day., my back was talking to 
me. Got home about 1:30,.
It was a great day on the river good friends and good catching. What was 
the best, all trout were better than 14" with several that were in the 
20+" range.
Mike was trying for a Grand Slam since he had caught a Brookie, did not 
get a brown to do it
Tony