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.

 

 

 

Two days on the river before Sandy Arrives!

 

Here we go again! It is deja vu all over. Last year it was the October snowstorm that did us in and who would have thunk that one year later another storm would be taking aim at us. But it is true, Sandy is on her way and from the looks of it she is going to have her way with us.

 

I don't know about most folk but my storm preparations include fishing before all hell breaks loose. To be honest, there wasn't much preparation that needed to be taken care of since we have a small supply of batteries, flashlights, candles and a double burner camp stove and propane tank from last year. All I needed to get was some soup, chili, ice and that was it - mission accomplished.

 

So Sat. and Sun. was spent with my buds on the river trying out some new tube flies while enjoying a very productive leaf hatch.

 

Lisa getting ready to tie one on.

 

Oh look, more leaves. 

Lisa with her catch of the day.

Both days were cloudy. Sat. there wasn't much of a wind but Sunday there was a steady breeze that kicked up. Still, you can't beat spending time on the river with friends.

 

This yellow/black bunny strip tube fly wiggles like mad in the water. Tied by Jerry Jahn, of Spey Casting North East, these flies sure look good and they were the experiment of the weekend. As a matter of fact, they all wiggle like mad in the water! Add some sparkly stuff to them and they really look interesting. I had a nice brookie just smash the black/yellow one.

 

Here are some more examples of flies by Jerry. My mission today, since school is cancelled, it to tie up some of my own and hope they come out half as good as Jerry's.

Hopefully I can get some done before we lose power in this neck of the woods. Power outages have already been reported down along the shore so I am sure it is just a matter of time before we lose it here in W. Hartford.

Kuddos to Kittery Trading Post

A couple weeks ago I purchased a new Sage 12'6" 5wt. two handed Z-axis from Kittery Trading Post. Hey, the price (almost 50% off) was right; how could I not? Last Sunday I was going to try out the rod to see which lines fit us best when ....

I grabbed the next piece to put on the butt section and ....

it did not fit! Oh the horror!! Someone from the factory had taken the 5wt. butt section and then included the 6wt. upper pieces.

I called Kittery Trading Post (KTP) to find out that they had one left at the store for an exchange. Instead of waiting to complete the exchange through the mail my husband and I decided to make the trip to Kittery. Truth be told, we had  not been to KTP before so it seemed like a good idea.

On Monday, we arrived at the fishing department and met Phred (no, his name is not misspelled). Phred could not believe what happened and he felt absolutely awful about it. Paul, the store manager came looking for me and he was also very attentive at seeing the snafu was taken quickly taken care of.

Long story short; the customer service that I experienced was outstanding. I have never had a store manager come and look for me to make sure that everything worked out right; they went above and beyond.

You can bet that my husband and I will visit KTP again.