The day after ChristmasDon't get my daughter until Wednesday, and that will be our Christmas day. Saw my sister, niece, nephew and his new baby last night, so I went to the river today.
Overcast and no hatches, but I love fishing BWOs - wasn't a great day, but I did all right.
Fishing down and across wet-fly swings - my favorite way to fish.
Busted two miles upriver - I wanted the exercise. Nothing on the way up, not even fish sign.
Finally hooked up below the busted weir.
Fishing my South Bend 323 blue collar bamboo with my favorite c. 1930 Russell
This was my fish of the day - the big ones have been eluding me so far this winter - and not complaining
I saw a redd in the river in a beautiful gravel bed.
Christmas dinner at the busted weir - Opa's dried sausage from Fredericksburg, chased with a cigar, of course.
Coming back down at Lefty Ray's hole, got into a gang of little trout on the swing. I saw one caddis skittering, and no BWO hatch, but they're probably already cued into the motion at that spot. I split pretty even between the caddis and BWO.
Thought the color was cool on this little male.
I wasn't the only one out fishing.
A great day, and I'm plenty tired, which was the real goal.
Merry Christmas all (all y'all)
Christmas Henrytough day today. Cold and overcast and when the sun came out, the wind whipped up.
This morning I saw a fish get caught by a fine gentleman whom I enjoyed fishing with.
But fish were down.
I finally went to a sinking line and streamers and found them down there.
This girl put a bend in the rod
far from the camera and a short focal length, but she's a good 15 inches, solid and healthy
(Heddon 8' 1-3/4f No. 14 Thorobred and Young pattern 2a marked for R Kerr Montreal)
weekend before last
and last weekend:
I've said before there are more missed opportunities in fishing than anything else, and you have to take it all as good, so this was good - honestly, great to witness this.
Went out with a couple of trout wizard buddies yesterday, but didn't expect to get shown up with such aplomb.
I did great in the morning, went out with my little 3-wt. Leonard Fairy Catskill that swings BWOs so well. We traveled a long way.
My braided-butt fluorocarbon leaders are awesome for this work because everything below the butt sinks so well.
The rod is such great dry fly rod, though, and I always take a second reel with a tapered nylon leader
This girl was my fish of the day - she's a good 14 inches, short focal length, deep in the net, etc. - and was a hoot on the little rod. She had traveled a long tedious way over a half-mile of flagstone that was an osprey gauntlet to find a safe niche. She had a claw bite on her other side.
We also found scattered fish on the flagstone, and Steve managed to land a palomino and got a strike from an 18" jade-colored hen with rosy sides. All her color was turned on, making herself dark on the peat patches in the dolomite ruts. Really a gorgeous sight, though.
A lot of you know my friend Steve F. from FFF Conclaves. Glad we got to fish together, long overdue, and I got to show him some water in our home tailwater he had never seen except from the road.
After lunch, I switched to a very fast streamer rod and sinking line to dredge a deep hole and only got a couple of strikes. So I took my fast streamer rod and rigged it for nymphing and followed my buddies upriver. This was my mistake in not taking the same tackle I started with in the morning - it would have all been different.
Caught a redhorse on the way up.
When I got to the top, Steve was in the most amazing dry fly event I have ever seen on the Guadalupe.
The trout were moving around in the shallows and taking dries - they didn't care what, they took them all. Watching the trout and picking the lane, you could drift 3 or 4 rising trout in a single cast.
Steve caught 20 trout on dries. He was fishing a venerable glass Fenwick FF755, which is a superb dry fly rod.
I'm fumbling with my leaders, found a 7-1/2' 3x nylon, didn't have nylon tippet and borrowed 6' of 6x from Steve, which I promptly knotted on the fast rod. It took a snappy strike to hook these quick guys. And of course with my fast streamer rod I broke off the first good fish I hooked.
Still a great day with great exploring.
And I will be prepared next time.