Never Take Friends for Granted!

Saturday the 23^rd would the day before Easter. This would be the first day I have fished since my surgery! I was nervous and excited to see how my hands would do. I would be taking all the big sticks! This would be my Redington CPX 9wt 13’-9” spey rod on her virgin voyage! I would also bring along my 8wt switch rod by TFO. I had tips made of T-17, T-14 in lengths from 7 feet to 14 feet! The CPX she was strapped with a Galvan T-12 reel with 300 yards of gel spun backing in conjunction with a Rio Skagit Flight head of 650 grains attached to Rios’ Powerflex shooting line! I had more flys in my backpack for this trip than should have been illegal for me to carry! A great friend of many years agreed to go on this fishing adventure! Andrew my great friend we worked together for years back in the 90’s in an Engineering firm in Akron, Ohio. He picked me up at the end of my in-laws driveway at 0400! He drove like a champion into the asshole of storm. The winds off the hills were howling at 40 mph plus “great weather to throw a bug rod in I thought”. I picked up my one day license at Wally world and we pressed on! We arrived at our destination. The river looked grey/green. The flow was great and we would be sheltered from the winds for most of the morning until we went around the upstream point! The ice coming down the river was not an issue for us! I did save some one fro ma horrible accident from getting clipped by a 100 pound ice berg floating down the river! This cat never looked up stream at all to see what was going on around him! I yelled at him hey bud you better move! The iceberg would have hit him from behind at the knees. He would have been medically evacuated from the river for sure. So we proceeded to use spey rods, switch rods, and even O-yes eggbeaters! We used no bait, no bobbers just flies! I tried color combinations ranging from olive/black, purple/black, white, white/grey, and red! I had one half heated tug on the red of all things! I of course donated a few flies to the river bottom! The clarity of the river was anywhere from 18”-28”. The river we fished is so powerful! Saw some interesting signs along the river trail “Do not leave the trail you will be prosecuted”  I guess they had some people get there asses hauled out of the river via boat or helicopter due to injury! I have been fishing this river for a long time, and you have to have your head screwed on tight and be very careful. It was nice to get out and cast the long rod! We covered all kinds of water from chutes, pocket water, pools, and eddys’ at varying depths and speed rates! No love was to be found this day. I did not mind coming up fishless, and my day was made just by the one tugger! Looks like more rain for the Great Lakes region. All the tributaries we saw wont fish for at least 1-2 weeks with this additional rain coming. Be safe folks and always look up stream, and just because you’re standing still does not mean nothing can’t happen to you! Now for the not so much a friend! I was getting the hell out of my wader stew suit when two people approached me and Andrew. The greating phrase to a stranger for the rest of us would be something like “hello my name is Douch-e-saurus (defined as a rude gentleman trolling for free information “my new word patent pending”) how are you? Did you fish the river today? You would not great me like “Hey I see you’re from Ohio, and I’m a centerpin Guide from Ohio. What’s up with this river?” I was a little floored to say the least, and I proceeded to tell him to get on the DEC website for information. I also warned him and his little buddy that this is not place to learn in the spring due to the varying flows, and tricky currents. I also told him this is not a typical Great Lakes Tributary! Not to mention the physical stamina you need to just get down to the river! So after putting the fear of God into him they bolted for smaller water! My hands did great all day and into the next day no noticeable pain at all! I had no swelling over night from all day casting the rods! I’m so elated that the surgery worked for me! Folks if you want to learn new water waste some gas during the summer and figure it
out! Well enjoy the pics!

Tom

Dont know why I leaned into it, and thank goodness I never said I knew what I was doing!

Batter Up!

The River

Class V Rapid

BFR

What?

The Gear!

They look nice but they are mean as hell!

Leaving Los Vegas!