THE GUIDE TAKES THE WEBMASTER FISHING

Thursday was a day off for me and I asked my wife, Mary, if she was interested in fishing.  Of course she said, yes.  Mary is the webmaster for Blue Ribbon Guides’ website.  She built the site from scratch and maintains it on a daily basis. Mary is also an excellent fly fisherperson.  She is a great caster, knows how to tie all the knots, makes her own fly selection and most importantly knows how to read the water and get her fly in the right spot.

The weather did not look too promising for the day but we decided to give it a try anyhow.  Besides, why have all that Simms raingear if you don't use it.

We decided to head to Rim Shoals and the predicted generation schedule showed that we should have adequate water.  When we arrived we couldn't even see the river because of the fog.  We launched the boat and headed up to Jenkins Creek area.  On the second drift I managed to catch a nice 18" rainbow that fought like a brown.  It stayed down on the bottom and put up an excellent fight.  Mary netted the fish for me and it was released back to the river.

I decided to make a short run down river past the island and fish that area since it is always productive.  As I approached the end of the island I could hear other boats on the water but could not see them.  I got the boat into position and started our first drift.  I got on the oars and let Mary fish.  After a couple of misses and then catching a couple of smaller fish we decided to head back up to the island and make another drift.  This drift proved to be a good one. Mary landed a very nice rainbow which took her upstream on several runs.  

We finally landed the fish and released this one back to the river.

After several more drifts the fog got even more dense so we decided to pull in to the end of the second island and have a little lunch.  As soon as we got the lunch out, it started to sprinkle.  I choked down my sandwich and told Mary that we should probably call it a day and head to the ramp because the rain was getting more intense.  By the time we got to the ramp we were in the middle of a downpour.  We managed to get the boat on the trailer and decided to wait out the storm before tying down the boat.  Sitting in the car for over a half hour proved futile.  The rain continued, the wind blew and there was lightning and thunder.  We made a break for the boat and got everything secured. The boat had about 10" of water in it, so I removed the drain plug.  Water was still draining out of the boat when we got home.

Overall it was a good day on the river.  We caught a couple of nice fish, spent some quality time together fishing and most importantly, our Simms raingear did the job.