Back in Action

After acl surgery in early December, the doctor banned me from the river for 3 months. This past Saturday, I got back in the water for the first time. It was about 27 degrees on the Davidson river at 7:30 Saturday morning. After fishing for about 20 minutes, listening to what I thought was sand and grit grinding through the guides on my fly rod, I looked up to find those guides covered in ice. The guide at the tip was completely full of ice. Ice on guides equal awesome.

I knocked the ice out of my guides, and was rewarded shortly after with a 17 inch rainbow. And another one 5 minutes later. I then handed my buddy Brandon one of the blue micro eggs that I landed the two bows on (I enjoyed that too) and let him back in the honey hole.

(micro egg I tie)

We moved upstream, the day warming nicely after the sun crested the ridge, and we fished the "TU Hole" and "Humble Hole." The water was up, but clear, from the recent rains we have had. It was running 300 cfs instead of the more typical 150 cfs. The fish where really stacked up in some of the oxygenated water, actively feeding on midges. Brandon and I picked up 5 or 6 more fish over the course of the morning, but I was broke off at least 5 times on big fish. Some I didn't finesse, some were just beasts, and I lost one to a bad knot.

(size 22 red midge)

I only managed one pretty crummy picture of a brown I caught. I know I need to step my photo game up if I'm going to blog!

It was good to be back.  I tried out some knew waders I will review on the blog soon. Peace.