Anyone that has looked
out the window the past few days has realized that we have had a bit of rain. I
have spent quite some time out, in it. Guiding is a rain or shine event. When
someone flies in from San Antonio they are not looking for excuses for not
fishing like it is raining. They only want to know, when you are going to pick
them up at the lodge and do you have lunch with you. I really don’t mind
fishing, in the rain. I have the world’s largest collection of rain jackets and
I am of the opinion that the fish are already wet and just don’t care.
I had a two day
corporate trip for River Ridge Inn this week. On Monday, I picked Mike and
Jackson up at 7:30 AM and headed for Rim Shoals. The water was on the
bottom at minimum flow but there was to be major generation later in the day.
The temperature was cool but the weather forecast promised warmer temperatures,
rain and heavy winds (to include lake wind advisories).
We began with a casting
lesson for Jackson. Mike had been out with me a few times in the past and was a
competent caster. The going was a little slow and there were a few tangles in
the beginning. We kept at it and caught some nice trout.
After a while, it began
to rain and the wind picked up. At times, the rain came in hard and heavy. It
was being blown in sideways. For a while, it felt like I was back, in Viet Nam,
during the monsoon. Mike’s rain jacket began to fail. It was leaking like a
sieve. I motored back to the ramp and got a spare jacket out, of my Suburban. I
always carry spares, when I am guiding and the forecast calls for rain. He was
way more comfortable. The rain would ebb and flow sometimes torrential and
sometimes it would quit altogether for a while.
The fishing improved
during all of this. About this time, Mike hooked a good fish. It was acting
like a big brown, hugging the bottom and pulling out line. It took a jump and
we all got a good look at it. It was a twenty four inch fat male brown trout.
Mike took his time and eventually got it in. We took several photos and
carefully released it.
Meanwhile Jackson had
been catching trout. He had cast out and had somehow tangled his line into
another line that had a huge strike indicator on it. I was up front in the boat
trying to untangle the other line, when I realized that there was a fish, on
it. I went to the back of the boat and grabbed my boat net. It took a minute
but I managed to net the fish.
It was a huge eight or nine
pound sucker that had been hooked in the tail. It had obviously broken free of
another angler with a significant amount of tackle trailing behind it. Many
anglers consider suckers to be trash fish. I always appreciate a good fight. It
took me a while to untangle the two lines. We did pause for a photo of the
sucker and then released it.
The water came up and
the wind got crazy heavy. The trout shut down and we decided to head in. It had
been a productive day despite the weather.
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