So Much Fun - With My Fishin' Buddy!

OK, maybe not fun for everyone, but Rick and I had soooo much fun fishing today! We went down to the river around noon, talked with a couple friends who were drifting through, and for as far as we could see, we had the river (almost) to ourselves. Based upon yesterday, I wanted to go across the river to the far bank. We have to wade through some pretty strong currents, but with our arms intertwined its not a problem. (I can cross by myself right now, but some are a little surprised at that. I'm almost 5'4" and it gets deep in spots.) Anyway, we crossed over (sounds funny) to fish where the water is smooth and deep. We stand on the edge of the strongest current and lean upstream into the push of the water. Not dangerous if you keep your feet on the river bottom.

Let me tell you! I wish you could have been there! There were fish everywhere. The fish were taking bugs off the top so we could easily see them and we put on dry flies (with a size 20 nymph dropper) and caught fish! Most of the fish were taking the size 20 nymph trailing the dry fly. A size 20 is smaller than a grain of rice. Good thing Rick was downstream from me, because he netted my fish for me - over and over again. He attaches a small net to the back of his chest pack for just such occasions.

I was upstream and using dry flies. Rick saw a couple fish downstream rising so he asked if I'd like to change places and move downstream. I saw a fish swirling right against the bank, about 35 feet from me. An easy cast, but I didn't want to snag the fly on the bushes hanging over the bank. On the second cast I hooked a really, really big fish. It 'ran' downstream so fast that in less than a minute (20 seconds ?) it had taken all my fly line (100 feet) and I was into the backing. Remember, I'm standing in fast currents and I got there with help. I told Rick that I was into my backing (something I never "let" happen) and he came downstream and held onto me. He thought I'd be unable to hold my footing. My rod was bent over, so tight. The fish stopped running and I gained a little line back on the reel. Rick asked if I wanted to cross the river. I didn't, but said I would. He was holding onto me, ready to walk me across and down river to gain more line back. In the next instant the line went slack so I reeled as fast as I could. The fish was off the hook. (Remember, my fly is half the size of a grain of rice.) That's what I call a really long distance release. I wish I could have seen the fish, but we both feel hooking a fish is the most fun.

We don't like to walk a fish downstream and will only do so if absolutely necessary. We both usually have our reel tension tight and are able to stand our ground. It makes other fishermen unhappy when you walk a fish through where they're fishing. With today's fish I was ready to take the walk.

The dry fly fishing comes and goes in spurts. On for 20 minutes, off for 20 minutes. Some say "it shuts down" and it did. So we changed flies and caught fish using nymphs (under the water). With nymphs you watch a strike indicator floating on the surface to tell when the fish take the underwater flies. We went back and forth a couple times, taking a few minutes to change flies. We finally left one rod with drys and the other with nymphs and we shared rods back and forth. It was soooo much fun! We fished almost side by side and were able to talk, look for fish, encourage each other, tease each other, and help each other. I love fishing with Rick! He's my best fishin' buddy!