Winter tonic

 

 

 

33F

Wind

Fresh fallen snow

 

I love fishing in the winter. Why? Well, I don't rightly know.

 

What I can tell you is that it frees my spirit and allows me the time and peace to gather my thoughts, my senses. This is my winter tonic.

 

 

 

My buddy Lisa giving it a swing.

 

I don't know how these form but they are wicked cool to look at.

Thanksgiving 2012 part 2

This was Saturday when the wind was a-blowing and a-going. So much wind; but the Sage Z-axiz 8 wt. handled very well. We crossed the river multiple times as our guide took us to one side and then the other side and then back again. Thank goodness he knew where he was going or you could also look at it that he didn't have a clue and just wanted to see how many times we would cross! Either way we had a pretty good day of it. The hits we got came early in the morning and after that it was painfully slow or I should say non-existant.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Disclaimer - sad to say that I had a slight relapse and went to using a single hand rod with an egg pattern and high sticked it. I was very happy to see the indicator go under and quickly set the hook and landed this night steelie. After this I went back to the two handed rod.

 

 

Spey flies and steelies

Well, we made our annual Thanksgiving trip to Pulaski this year. Last time with guide Loren Williams who accomplished what he probably thought was the impossible - he got Rob into fish on both days and for the first time ever Rob landed fish on both days! Yee-haw. Rob was dead drifting egg patterns and I was swinging. As you can see, Rob had all the luck on this trip. He hooked up 10 times and landed four fish. Friday was just beautiful with temps in the 50's and some sun. Friday night a cold front moved in and so did the wind. I used the T&T 11'7", 7wt. with 454 Skagit Short and she worked like a charm. I could (and did) cast all day with it. This rod makes casting so easy!

 

But.....we headed out despite the conditions and while the wind was gusting close to 25mph (if not more) we still made a day of it. I took out the 8wt. for Sat. and while it did pretty good there were some casts that occurred at the same time as a wind gust and all I could do was watch the d-loop just get pushed up river! Ha! How ridiculously fun!! We were lucky that no snow or rain added to the day's events.

 

 

 

 

Perfect spot for lunch!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well, we met today  for some fly tying. Jerry showed us how to do some spey flies which I really enjoyed.

Think I will use these on my next trip to the Salmon River. Pretty much the same fly but tied with different feathers; pheasant rump, silver pheasant, and some golden pheasant. This sure is fun.