I had a friend give me a call and ask me to go fishing because he hadn't been out in a while. I was a little reluctant due to the winter storm warning but once again I told the little voice in my head to be quiet and I decided to go. Once on the road I was questioning my decision as the road went from bad to worse and the wind started to blow. Luckily the one good decision that we did make was that we would just wade fish instead of floating. Once we were at the river I rigged up with what I knew was a lethal combination for this time of year and we headed out.
As we got to the very first run I asked him where he wanted to fish and he decided that he would walk up river and fish another run. I was rewarded on my first cast with a really nice brown trout. It was on! I proceeded to catch fish after fish until I decided that I needed to at least fish another run to get something different. I waded up river and fished another shallow run and landed numerous fish there as well. I decided that it was in my best interest to move when I heard some shotguns (very close) and noticed a decoy set up directly behind me! I guess I should've paid more attention when I was walking. The day turned out beautiful and I never once lost feeling in my fingers or toes! That's an amazing thing for December on a Montana river. I actually was wishing I had left a layer of clothes at the truck.
I fished for a while longer just hoping to stick that one monster that I know is in the river. Although I was able to land quite a few 18" fish and a couple that were around the 20"+ range, I never did land the big guy, although I had a few that I hooked but never landed that felt a little bigger. When they get off they always seem to grow! I'm sure that at least one of them had to be 25" or so...
Anyway, the day was great and I landed more fish than I needed to land to consider it a successful day. I really like my Sage TCX 5 wt that I've been fishing. It may take the place as my #1 rod and put the GLX into the secondary position.
Anytime you can get out this time of year and not battle numb fingers and frozen guides is a success and being able to land as many nice fish as I did just adds icing to the cake!
No comments:
Post a Comment