Bourbon, Flies, and Lies: December 2020

Well in the winter months when I was young in my years of fly fishing I would get to the river at the sun rise. Now almost 30 years later I find there is no reason for this. The fish are cold and they are lethargic. To take a swung fly and to move from there holding lie it helps if the water warms up just a few degrees to get a strike response. To add to issues when fly fishing in the winter is the radial ice around the guides and the fly line. One of the better ideas is to keep your reel as dry as possible because if you do not it will freeze solid and until you thaw it out. You can as a temporary fix dunk it in water, but once you do that it will only be free while you use it (it will refreeze again).

I made a nice breakfast of eggs, sausage, hash-browns, and toast (and a cup of joe to go). So I headed out to get my tires rotated first. I would turn some heads cause I showed up in my waders. I mean why not I am headed to the river. So they asked me why I was wearing waders and I said I'm hitting the river. The said around here and I said yes around here and chuckled.

My personal preference is to go fish-less if that means I do not get to see other people and the trash they leave behind. I did see a young family on the back of their property enjoying a hike. It was nice to see a family enjoying the outdoors together.

Evil Log

I would walk my first leg to the river. After walking about a mile I would reach my destination. The sky was cloudy and even know the wind was blowing about 12 knots it was bearable. I also choose this section of river to see if I can chase smallies and carp here in the summer. I saw lots of emerald shiners and other minnows that I have no clue, but it was good to see.

I rigged up my Scott rod with a 9 foot section of T14 that is a 129 grain tip. So after stringing up the rod I noticed this brick. This brick dates back to a company called Hydraulic Press Brick Company back in early 1800's to the late 1900's. Its an interesting short read http://web.nationalbuildingarts.org/collections/clay-products/ornamental-brick/hydraulic-brick-company-the-early-years/ I don't know if they just pulled a truck up to the river somewhere but these dam bricks are every where down there.

I started to walk down river to find a 4 foot deep riffle that was littered with large rock, cobbles, and small gravel. Mind you this river was still crank-in along and if you waded up to your knees you where begging to take a swim. The river of Solace today was that beautiful steelhead green that we as fly fisherman dream of. As fate would have it I had a nice grab just down stream of the evil log. I could not recreate the grab again even after I let the spot settle after 30 mins. I kept doing the West Coast slide “taking 10-15 steps and start again swinging flies) down river. I fan casted every holding lie I could find and see. I would not have any more grabs in this section of river.

I would work my way back out of the river and head back to my vehicle to go up river. I would find my next spot devoid of other anglers. I would be using the same tip set up here and hook a Manistee here. He or she was not happy as she was experience and played me like a fiddle. I hooked her in heavy current. Then before I knew it decided to go down river and before I could recover it cam back up river. In the slack it created fighting the current and the unseen beast the hook was released. I know it was fair hooked cause I could feel that washing machine move they do with there mouth and body when they are hooked (thrashing there heads from side to side and along with their full lengths of their bodies). I walked out of the river and called it a great day.