For the first time in a few months I had a fishing buddy with me. The fact that the buddy was my wife had me smiling all day. My wife hasn’t gotten out as much as she wanted in her first 6 months of picking up the fly rod and had never landed a trout successfully until last weekend. After a few hints about how to better play the first few fish she lost, she began to out fish me until early evening.
Everything came together for her really well this weekend, especially her casting, and throughout our adventure I found myself not paying attention to my drift as much as I should have, I seem to have a wandering eye for the wife. Not a lot of big numbers were caught but it was a solid outing for us both. I caught a pristine wild trout that had some great coloring, a far departure from our normal stockers. I wish we had gotten a close up of the fish, but I let it get away a little too fast. It will be interesting to see what the wild fish look like in a few months, and while I am not catching a wild fish every trip to the Lower Illinois, it is becoming a more frequent occurrence.
The obligatory underwater shot:
I tried some of the new Thingamabobber indicators this weekend. I think they would do well with some of the heavier rigs I can envision using, but I really didn’t like the weight on my 4wt setup and it was difficult casting with a stiff wind.
January 14th, 2008
A few days ago 1100 Rainbows were released just north of the Highway 7 bridge over the Blue River. This was a very grassroots movement with lots of people contributing time and dollars towards making this happen. Since the Blue River is a seasonal fishery, this area is really a delayed harvest area, but it will be interesting to see how the fish adapt and how big they can get in a few months. Next year should prove very interesting since the fish will get a few more months of education before they are harvested.
I took the family out on a very blustery and short hike yesterday to a lake close to my house to do some scouting. I think we found some good flats for carp, and all my wife can talk about is how much she wants to get a kayak out on almost any water she sees. Maybe I can use her anticipation to convince her to chase some trout this weekend.
January 1st, 2008