Turkey Day Spey 2022 - Ho Version!

In life no matter what path you take one must make choices. Sometimes those choices are good and at times not so good. The same parallel can be said of fly fishing. 

For example, we will set up on a perch (a position that you have chosen to fish from). You watch the currents whirl by as you try and read the water. 

Reading water is an art and the better one is at it the more likely you are to hook up with a fish. 

Today luck was on my side and with little pay it forward "karma"! 

I posted up on the perch I had selected. When I got to the Oak, they were preparing to flush the leaves out of the vertical turbines.  

So, I am into about my sixth cast, and someone pulls the plug on the Oak. The water dropped two feet. I thought O my goodness what's going on here. One of the other fishermen across the way " said be patient it will come back".  

So, literally in about an hour the flow came right back with a vengeance. The flow was right back to where it was before. I watched the rock bars disappear once again. Then like a light switch being flipped the fish put their feed bag on. 

The female brown trout took a swung olive woolly bugger. She did not put up much fight. All the other fish I saw landed were lethargic and not great fighters. 

I need to confess something also. I choose to sleep in did not show up on the river until 0830. The overnight low was 32 and this section of the Oak is in a valley. There was no reason IMHO to get there at the crack of dawn.

The Oak is a tailwater and the water is always cooler because of that. Also, with it being in a river valley coupled with being a tailwater, and it being eight days away from December I choose to sleep in. 

The fish I saw hooked and landed gave up the fight early. 

So, the stage is set I changed my fly to the "Punkrock Cheerleader". After a brief hook up with a steelhead I was " like well that's it".

The next cast my line slapped the under spine of my rod and I thought it was a snag. Well, the snag started to move. I exclaimed " fish on " the other anglers respected my space and paused their fishing. 

My next thing I said, " if I land this fish I am done".  

I did not know what kinds of fish it was until it rolled on the surface. 

I yelled out it's a Coho. I was shocked because like their other cousins the King Salmon they should be dead or near death. 

He was bull dogging me like a laker. I was applying so much side pressure to pull his head out of the current I thought he would break off. 

He bolted upriver and I knew with my side pressure I could circle him around to me and net him.  

Well, that sounds easier than done. He then decides to go down stream and then I was forced to decide. Do I try to keep him off balance with the same side pressure? Do I change sides and risk the fish becoming unbuttoned?

I took a short deep breath and changed sides. This was to get him off balance and circle him back to me and into the net. 

This would also be the fastest way to net him. I did not really reelize how big he was until he got to the net. 

I have a 27" reach and he was longer than that. I estimated him to weight between 12 and 14 pounds. 

I took a few photos of the warrior and he tail kicked out of my hand to fight another day. 

Tonight, I decided to eat some place new. When one is from out of town it is sometimes tough to find a good place to eat. I decided to hit up downtown Ashtabula, Ohio. Let me digress for a moment. I do not have a refined pallet, nor can I tell the different between free range and non-gluten. I am also pretty sure I would not know the difference between tap or spring water!

Lol I found unknown to me a steak restaurant. What I did not know this is wine bar that sells great food and beer “at a trendy price tag”. The service was great and the food awesome. I got roasted cauliflower with an amazing dipping sauce. Two beers and a 5-ounce filet mignon.  The total bill with tip was $63.86

I know what you’re partly paying for is the presentation, service, and the certain level of paying attention to detail. The service was prompt and polite. All the food was hot and on time. If you’re looking to treat yourself this is a great place to eat and its called Bascule Bridge Grill, but if you’re looking for a Bob Evans experience this is not it! You can find them at this link Bascule Bridge Grille . The only thing I did not like is that they had Wi-Fi, but did not know the password, or could not tell me if patrons were allowed on it!

Well on Thanksgiving I will be standing on the shores of Conneaut. If she’s to high to swing I will have to find skinnier water! 

Be well and safe folks,

Sonder