So we went fishing today, and it was one of those days you just wonder when anything is going to go right. As I was getting ready to hit the water and stringing up my rod I kept having massive knot failures. I am usually not too bad at tying the knots I need to get out on the water but this was one of those days where every knot you pull on unravels or breaks off.
After what seemed like an hour of just trying to get everything tied together right I was finally ready to hit the water. I waded in and tried to throw a cast into a likely pocket of water but as my line piled up 10 feet in front of me I knew something was really wrong. I looked at my rod and discovered I had missed an eye when stringing the line along my rod. I had a two fly hopper/dropper type rig on but both flies were small enough I thought I could just pull them with the line back through the eyes and restring them back through. About half way through this poor decision I discovered it was not the easy way to do this, as the hooks would catch on just about everything they possibly could, making the task a little tedious. Finally I got them all back through and I looked down to make sure everything was truly in working order and discovered I had missed another eye in my restringing efforts. Now I was feeling like I was in one of those old fashioned silent comedy movies at this point. The term, running around like a chicken with it's head cut off, seemed to describe how I felt about my actions so far. Nothing I did was working out well. This time I wisely decided to just cut the flies off and restrung the line and retied the flies on. Finally this all went off without a hitch and after what seemed like a couple hours after arriving at the river I was ready to fish. Sheesh!
It turns out Kelly wasn't fairing much better around the bend. When we met up later I found out he had fallen in the drink once and then, while trying to portage around an inconsiderate fisherman that had plopped himself right below Kelly in the run he was fishing, stepped on a stick that punctured his waders with a thumb sized hole. This made for a wet day for him. Luckily the weather was warm this evening so he avoided hypothermia anyway.
Once the comedy of errors was over there were actually some fish caught.
Fish numero uno felt so good after the way this day started.
Same fish different poseHere are a few pictures of Kelly caught in action fighting a fish.
ZZZZZING..........Still smiling despite the leaky waders!
Finally, the day ended much better than it started with this nice fish taking one of the Caddis Emerger patterns I have spent the last two evenings tying up. It was not the biggest fish I have caught but this guy gave me a run for my money. I would have to say it was the hardest fighting fish I have caught on this river yet. It pulled like a freight train and seemed to never get tired. A great way to end a day on the river.
I have been tying a lot of these lately. More than I care too. They are quite boring to do but when the fishing gets slow this Zebra Midge variation has always produced for me. I also tend to lose alot of them while fishing meaning I have to tie up more when I get home. I guess the bright side is that I can whip them out in no time flat.
Come on summer time!