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| One of the nicest Opening Days in recent memory. |
Thanks to Eric, I kept the Opening Day tradition alive and fished the Wissy this morning. Without his excitement to get out, like my dad, I may have slept in this morning. I am, what, 15 trout trips into my season already, and I did the Mentored Youth Day with Lukas, so I was content to sit it out. I am glad I did go, however. We just took a leisurely walk down the street, literally, carrying our coffees, far too decked out in expensive gear to chase stockies. Unlike most Opening Days of late, though, we had sun, no rain, no ice, and a healthy crowd. With the fly rods, I guess guys were giving us a wide berth, or just walking on by if they happened to stop at the this particular hole, because we had the place to ourselves until we gave it up a bit before 10 AM. Before that, especially in the hour from 8 to 9 AM, we landed a bunch of fish, probably 15 in that first hour, and then another 3 to 5 a piece as it slowed down in the second hour. No big fish, but we saw a couple and heard of a couple bait guys striking gold—a 26 inch palomino was caught and released above us.
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| The vintage stringer came out, so Eric could give some trout to Granny. |
Throwing a variety of flies, we caught mostly average sized rainbows. I landed one brown trout, and I don’t think Eric hooked or landed any, so that may bode well for next week's fishing trips. I had most of my fish on a tungsten green weenie or the small pheasant tail I had on as a dropper. Eric landed a bunch on the squirmy worm and a couple other nymphs. Besides one fish that I landed with an indicator in a deep hole, just trying something different as the early bite turned into the late morning lull, we just tightline nymphed up and down the hole, the run that lead into it, and even the start of the tailout of the pool.
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| Plenty of browns will be left after today! |
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| Eric going old school. I stayed behind, not wanting to be seen with a fly fisherman carrying a stringer 👈👀👉 |
That brown looks well fed! Ended up with 140 lbs of undiscriminating browns myself who eat anything in sight..........dog sitting my daughters chocolate labs kept me away from the maddening crowds today! Do you even remember how to cast a spinning rod? Been a long time since I saw one on this blog! :) Glad you had some nice weather.
ReplyDeleteRR
Fun in its own way, I am sure, RR! I had the spinning rod in my hand on Mentored Youth day and was thinking, Hey, kind of like this. Maybe next heavy rain storm ;)
DeleteJust thought you would either hit a nonstocked wild stream with flies or spin with the crowds...........had to cook dinner for the kids and watch dogs, but now with retirement weekdays lookin sweet!
DeleteRR
Eric was driving the bus that morning, and he wanted to play with his new nymphing set up. We got very lucky and didn't have to more around to find water!
DeleteRyan limited out! Was a nice day!
ReplyDeleteYay, Ryan. Hope he didn't fish Friday this year :) I bet Sunday was even better! The fish were very active before the whistle at 8 AM. Haven't seen that in a while!
DeleteNice, and correct. It's been quiet openers. Maybe the cooler weather was good, or they put them in late with the snow.
DeleteMan, those stockies look ugly. Looks like a nice day though. My work was closed this Easter so I finally got out to fish. Drove over to Penns and did decent despite a water temp struggling to get into the 40s. The key was slow rolling countdowns. My success stopped after I went through my third and last countdown for the day. Rapala really needs to address that, the plastic lips shouldnt pop off from regular rock bumping and 10 inch browns. Spent the rest of the days exploring mountain streams and found a really cool high elevation pond loaded with native brookies. Caught about 30 from there using the fly.
ReplyDeleteGood day, Pete! Yes, I threw a CD 3 on Mentored Youth Day and it broke on the third cast. I only buy them at a steep discount now, and I am still saving them to send back to Rapala. Everyone should do it because they would have to stop blaming the consumer for abusing their lures instead of addressing the durability issue that has been going on for too long. The last form letter the customer service department sent me was insulting...
ReplyDeleteI used to have a lip problem with Rebel Wee R's. I started getting them while they were brand new and putting a small bead of 5 minute epoxy around the connection between the body and the lip. Problem was solved.
ReplyDeleteI know you shouldn't have to do it, and I know they should fix the problem, and I know they shouldn't blame the consumer, but sometimes it's better to light a candle than curse the darkness as the old adage goes! By the time they fix it we might be pushing up porgies. :)
RR