atta boy sean! that's how you get the stink off of a new rod.
i on
the other hand didn’t fare so well. i went
out on thursday with my g
loomis classic glx 8wt. there were
fish around but they were not very bitey.
i think it had a lot to do with it being difficult to make a decent
presentation with the wind yowling so hard.
i hooked a couple of fish but both of them did not eat good and both
gave me the slip. the downside of the
whole weed guard trade off. like i
always say, the weedguard doesn’t know the difference between a rock and a
fishes mouth. so while a fly with some
kind of weed guard on it will definitely hang up less, if you fish one you
should expect less solid hookups more frequently. thursday was especially tough because the fly
popped out of the only two fish i hooked.
oh well, that’s the game. sometimes
like that.
so
there i was driving home thursday evening, no pictures for the blog and no real
desire to actually go fish again on friday.
i just didn’t want to do it.
besides it’s march madness tournament time and, for some reason,
bonefish just aren’t that appealing a target to me when the tournament is on
(or college football for that matter). so
i thought i’d just write one of those “the one that got away” blogs and use the
pictures of the fish sean had sent me... that’s enough. there was one thing, though, that i did kind
of have the jones to do. my next
steelheading trip is coming up in another month or so and from talking to my
buddy harold, it looks like this trip is going to involve a ton of tough, unproductive
skagit dredging (as steelheading sometimes is).
that’s all good with me, i kind of get off on that kind of stuff. knowing this, i’ve been wanting to get out
and chuck around some heavy sinking tips with a skagit setup. i wanted to get in some practice so i don’t
look like a total moron on the river and disrespect both the river and the fish
with shameful casting. besides, sometimes
you gotta give up fish now for fish later.
so before i reached home i made a deal with myself. i would go and chuck the heavy sink tips for
a couple hours on friday. that would at
least tear me away from the basketball tournament and get me on the water where
there was a potential for fish. the deal
was, though, that i would not go to fish (i really didn’t want to fish) but
just to practice. i reluctantly agreed
to the deal, but only if it was just to practice.
so
on friday i got my stuff together, sage
7136-4 one rod, abel
spey reel, rio skagit 550gr.,
and a couple of ten foot t-11 and t-14
tips. i also took an intermediate
tip just in case, for whatever reason, i absolutely couldn’t throw the
heavy tips. i tore myself (kicking and
screaming) away from the t.v. and headed for the water.
when
i got out there the wind was just ripping.
i got out on the water and realized that to cast into the deep water
where it was deep enough to throw a heavy tip and not get hung up all the time,
i had to cast in a direction that put the wind on my strong side. this meant that i would have to cast
cack-handed or switch and cast with my left hand on top. “i guess i gotta practice that too,” i
thought. so i put on a ten foot t-14 tip
and a heavily weighted fly and started casting.
go deep or go home.
the
tough part about two handed casting in non moving water and howling winds is to
get the anchor to land and line up in the right place. once set in the right place the skagit set up
launched the sink tip and fly long and easily.
i worked on my cack-hand and left hand up casting for about an hour and
a half. it was a really good practice
session and the tide was beginning to rise quickly. i hadn’t hooked anything but i wasn’t really
fishing. it did look and feel like there
should be some fish around but i wasn’t surprised that i didn’t hook anything
with the monstrosity that i was casting.
having had a good practice and being just about ready to leave, i put on an intermediate tip and thought i’d
make some casts into some of the shallower reefy water on my way in. that way i could practice my strong side
casting a bit and maybe get something to take a picture of for the blog. i made a few casts and hooked a good sized
weke (goatfish). “wow bonus,” i thought
having gotten a picture for the blog without even really trying. a couple more casts and i hooked another weke
that came off before i could get a picture.
that was enough for me.
bonus goat!
after
releasing the second goat, i launched a circle spey bomb that cleared all the running line in my basket and
even pulled a little more off my reel. i
was going to just reel in the line and get back to basketball watching, but the
cast felt so good i decided to strip it in and try to chase that "high" one more time (nice casts are
addictive that way). halfway to getting
the head back to recast... bammo!
wouldn’t you know it, i hooked a bone.
i laughed at the whole situation, shook my head, then got down to the
business of trying to land this thing. fortunately
i had the 13’6” seven weight and i could use the length and power of the rod to
steer the fish through the coral head laden mine field that i was casting
over. i landed the fish, took some pics,
released it and booked it home, back to the madness of march. just goes to show, as long as you have a fly in the water... there's always a chance. i’ll see you on the water.
...and sometimes, they just come to you. good times.
clay.