Peddlin' To Pleasure

Well...that was my plan anyhow but things didn't quite work out for this cowboy. I arrived at the cow pen at about 7:10 a.m. Thursday. My plan was to ride the ole prairie glider to the catch and release, fish for about four hours, and then head to the workplace.

It was forty-three degrees this morning...not bad at all, but there was a straight line north wind holding steady at twenty-five miles per hour with the promise of gusts to thirty-five. I mounted the glider and started riding and after about an eighth of a mile I started to feel the burn due to trying to peddle against that wind. I went to switch gears and that's when I discovered my gear selector was completely stoved up. I kept trying to peddle in that one gear but it was futile for sure. I simply don't have the horsepower compared to some like Merc who take their bikes to the C&R. I ditched the bike in the bushes. I still think the bike was a good idea if the gears had been working and the friggin' wind hadn't been howling like a pack of coyotes

You know...it's not a bad walk at all. Twenty minutes or less and your there. Just look at it as a good cardio-vascular workout and it was for me because I was huffing and puffing walking against the wind.

One of my goals today was to move around and explore other pools within the C&R but I didn't get to do that. The wind picked up within thirty minutes after I got to the water so I stayed in one area. My other goal was to make it a fly day and really didn't get to do that either because the numbness in my hands eventually made it virtually impossible to tie on any more flies. I should have known, after that third time I chased my damn hat down the road, that the God of the north winds intended on me having a miserable morning and the blowhard got his way today.

But, in the hour and a half I spent on the water I caught bows and they were very rewarding.

I started off with a tandem rig. I chose a size 16 pheasant tail soft hackle for a upper column fly and then for the lower column a size 18 beadhead flashback pheasant tail. A number 4 split shot went in between the two and a strike indicator on top. There was quite a competition between the two flies seeing which one could capture more bows and the flashback won out but only by one fish. Now...this competition became a lot of fun for me. I would suggest that both these flies work quite well in the C&R waters. Trout number seven would end the fun by fubaring my tippet to the point I couldn't untangle it so I had to cut the rigging off. No problem right? Just tie the rigging back on. Yeah...that would've been the thing to do if some dumb butt hadn't left his lanyard with all the tippet he owns in the world dangling around the rear view mirror. You know...that's the second time I've done that this season. I got to get a new system.

Next came an orange and grizzled Crackleback and it would end up producing two fat little bows, but the action with this fly was quite slow compared to the nymphs. The winds continued to howl and gain speed and my hands were in bad shape so I decided to try one more fly.

Out comes the ole olive wooly bugger size 12 beadhead. I slipped a number 4 split on above it for extra weight and that makes all the difference in the C&R area. You have to get that bugger down there. Cast your bugger, let it fall, and then slow strip it back. Bang, bang, bang!

I'd had enough by 9'o clock with introducing myself to about fifteen or so bows so I spooled up and started to head out. Three Texas fly anglers had made their way to the water and I briefly chatted with them a bit. Back on the trail I ran into Matt with the fisheries division and we talked fly fishing for a bit. Seems like Matt likes to drift those nymphs too.

It's 11 o'clock right now and I've been home long enough to upload pictures, finish this blog and do sorted other things. Guess I'll go to the workplace. Sure would like to have stayed at the C&R.

Damn blowhard wind Gods.