27 Oct 2019
First, my apologies, this fall has been a bit busy. I have snuck off to the river a few times and landed a few small trout, but nothing really to write about. The daughter had her tonsils removed, it’s painful at her age. However, near the end of her recovery, she called and said we were going fly fishing after work.
She has fly fished a few times, but not caught any on a nymph, so we head to Bluff City. The water was up a bit, not sure but probably sluicing a bit. She started off with what I thought would be the better fly, but shortly after arriving, I got one. We fish around a bit and she says I think I got a bite a couple times, but I decide to switch up flies. I gave her the 3 wt to cast while I tied one on (note to self, I may not get that rod back). She like the little rod and I walked upstream a bit.
I got one, it was about 12-13” and I hollered at her to come on up. She made her way to the spot and I just stood beside her. I typically do not use a strike indicator (that’s a float/bobber if you aren’t familiar with fly fishing) and it makes catching them a bit more difficult for some folks. You can miss any bites with this method as I am sure that I do, but I just prefer no bobber. Anyway, I see her line slightly tighten for a second and I said pull. Oh my, she hooks one, she gets a smile bigger than I’ve seen in a long time. She is laughing fighting and bringing the little guy in (~10”), on the 3wt, it is a lot of fun.
She fishes a bit more and again, the same scenario, this one is slightly bigger and putting up a battle. She is smiling, laughing, and says best day ever. At that moment I remembered what going fishing is all about. This was one of my favorite trips, we caught 4 total, nothing big, but my goodness, that reaction to catching a fish just made my day, what a time.
Well Sunday afternoon, she text and suggest taking the boat out after she gets off from work. I typically don’t go the day before work, the sun takes a toll on me, but hey, it’s fall. The wife and I went out and caught bait before she arrived. Our theory is if you are fishing a bank, you might as well pull a shad behind you, just in case a striper swims by. She gets out there and we begin to fish a bank.
We missed a couple, and got bad hook sets on a couple more, then things picked up a bit. I had switched to a green pumpkin ned rig, she was stuck on the PB&J. I will say that she was the one that recommended the green pumpkin due to her reading (yes she is checking out fishing info on the web). We did not get much with size, she hooked one that was pretty good but it didn’t get in the boat and therefore does not count. However, by the end of the day, the “old man” took back the title of most fish caught for the day.
She had whooped me the two previous trips (maybe more I just can’t remember) but finally I got her. Sure I told her that I had been taking it easy on her and this was just a reminder, but truth is, I’ll be lucky to beat her any over the next few year.
Anyway, there are some pics somewhere, but not on my phone so I left them out. If I did post them, most would say, fish may be smaller than they appear in picture. Anyway, I hope you can get out and wet a line. I’m trying to go when I can, but seems like things have gotten way too busy. Hope you have a great week and God bless.
14 Oct 2019
It is my favorite time of the year to fish, and I just haven’t been able to get out much. The remodel job is halfway complete and we are at a pause point during the process. The daughter had to have tonsils removed, this would’ve been better for her as a child, but she is working through the pain. The weather change or something is messing with me as well, but nonetheless, Sunday I grabbed the waders and headed to the river.
I went to an area I typically will pull one or two, closer to the house and knew it would be a short trip. I had attempted to tie a size 20 pheasant tail at the house, it was not good, and just went and bought two of them. One for a test and the other to leave at the house to challenge me to be able to tie one relatively close to that one. I took the 3 wt rod just because it is a lot of fun to fish with, and started fishing.
There is a spot that is strange to me, if I stand on one side of it, I get a couple of bites, but if I move to the other, I get many more. This is fishing the same area, but I’m guessing that the current, my mending of line, and the flow just appears better. All I know is I catch more fish when I walk a bit more. I started on the tough fishing side and got a couple of quick hits, no hook set, just kinda like the alarm I set in the morning that is there to simply warn me that the louder alarm is getting ready to go off.
I move over to the other side and it starts, I catch a small one pretty quick. Shortly after I hook a pretty good one, but it gets off after just 5-10 seconds. Then I hook the one in the pic above. It doesn’t look like much in the pic, but the cork is 8” and my guestimate is about 14”. Again that don’t sound like much, but I am using 6X tippet around 3.5 lbs test line on the 3wt rod (reminds me of an ultralite). It was a fun fight, one that reminded me that if I go after larger fish, I need to bring my 5 wt rod. I ended up with a couple more released, not much size to the rest maybe 8-10” but still quite a bit of fun. I got plenty more bites, but after about 1.5 hours, it was time to head home, the day was catching up with me.
I really need to get back out on the boat, the rain today will certainly cool the water temps down pretty good and it’s getting close to time to catch a few striper or hybrid. It’s also not too far off from the fly fishing time for the bigger trout, at least for us amateurs. A lot of things going on and it looks like winter is right around the corner. We should be starting tile work soon and I have a rod to build. Mercy, things have picked up.
I hope everyone has had a chance to wet a line of some kind. Have a great week and God bless.
