4th Annual Turkey Day Spey

Day one I got up on Thanksgiving Day at 0200 and made breakfast and hit the road @ 0430. The first place I would be stopping at was Oak Orchard for part of the day.

The dam had a good number of cars for it, but the road going down to the road hole was packed. As it turned out those folks, well many of them were downstream of the road hole.

I grabbed my eggbeater gear and headed to the river. The flow was 483 ft3/sec and a turbidity was 4.2. It was on the clear side of prime.

I got out my 8 gram Drennan loafer and stacked my split shot accordingly. I found the right depth at about 8 feet. I brough flies and Gulp minnows 2.5” long shad color “black over white”.

I was fishing down stream and giving him a wide berth, so he did not feel crowded. He proceeded to hook a fish. I looked at him and said, “good job”.  He asked me if I had a net. I said, well yes, I do would you like me to net your fish for you. Now, this crap is so nerve racking.  I will help anyone who asks for it, but when someone asks you to net their fish well its stressful.

I netted his three steelheads for him and gave him a few helpful fighting fish tips. For example, put your fighting butt against your forearm while fighting the fish. Never hold your rod tip up while fighting a fish.  Always use side pressure when fighting a fish to get him off balance and land him or her faster!

I did hook a fish and I never really truly never saw it. When I hooked it the fish thrashed its head about just under the surface and spat the hook.

After trying to redefine the definition of insanity I picked up my gear and headed out.

I made my way to the hotel because I was whooped.

Day two begun lol really late because I wanted to get up at 0900, but my body wanted to wait until 1030.  I headed down to a river access point on the Niagara River.

I got geared up for the trek down. There are over 750 stone stairs here. I have tried to count them a few times and I lose count around there every time. Lol

I was throwing ¾ oz jigs with a 3” paddle tail swim bait. I would lose two of them because I was using the countdown method before starting to reel it in.

I got positioned just up stream so I could fish along a large drop that had a huge eddy in front of it.

First jig I lost right off the bat lol I am like this is getting expensive!

After I rerigged I counted down to 25 and began to reel. Then I felt a thump and then I held my breath thinking it was a snag.  Nope, the snag started to pull drag.

This was a large laker I could tell it as staying still but dove up n back down.

I would reel down on him and then lose line, and this went on for I don’t know 3 minutes. Finally, I got him in the slack water and out of the current.

I saw the end of my power pro where I tied on my leader material.  Then I saw it roll and thought o dear lord! I thought I would just tail it. I put on my landing hand and then after raising its head up barely with my eggbeater bent over as far as she could go just short of exploding, I attempted to tail it.

I went to place my thumb and middle finger around its wrist. At this exact moment a few things happened. Number one, I could not wrap my thumb and middle finger around its wrist. Number two, the fish felt it and kicked its tail broke my 18# leader and then vanished. This would be when I packed up my gear to start heading home.

Day Three I walked about a half mile to the river and attempted to figure out how to traverse its high banks. After some scouting, I found a suitable entry point.  I scrambled down the bank with the help of some tree roots and rocks safely down to the river bottom.

She had a deep emerald, green look about her.  She was flowing at 234 cf/s and in this area, you needed to be mindful of your footing the amount of sand in her here can be treacherous.  Her river bottom is forever shifting and moving. This leaves a lot of air trapped in the small gravel and sand. It’s not compacted, and the surface will erode under your feet because of the river current.

I brought with me on this outing two – two handed rods.  One rod is my ole faithful Scott rod (2H1157/4) strung up with a SA Freightliner 440 grain. This set up also had an Airflo polyleader 10’ Salmon/Steelhead. This was finished off with 2 feet of 12# floro and then 1 foot of 10# floro. The reel that I have chosen for this rod is a Reddington Grande in a 9 -10 – 11.

The second rod was my custom Rainshadow blank IF-1086-4 (10’-8”). This custom rod is loaded up with an SA 20-foot 375 grain Skagit short. I also had a T14 tip of 63 grains that was 4.5 feet long.

Patterns of choice to start with where natural colored tube flies.  I strung up the rods and decided to make coffee while I waited for my friend and his wife.

Using my Aeropress I made what is to me the perfect cup of coffee. I realized today that I need to change my set-up for boiling water. Carrying a pot and a measuring cup well is a lot of work. It takes up too much space in my Osprey Atmos 35.

I just purchased a Seatosummit Xpot Kettle for boiling water. See link Sea To Summt

I then got a text from my friend and he and his wife needed to tend to a family matter. I was on my own and I was cool with that.  This was a new to me section of river.

This was a small, braided area with some good holding water in the side channel and on the main river channel.

I covered the best I could the water column on the river.  I did not change patterns only because I know these color combinations are normally very effective.

The blue bird skies were annoying, but hey you must deal with cards you were dealt!

It depends on what mother nature has instore for us here in the Great Lakes to see if this was my one and only trip for 2023.