BilletHead

Lots of carnage going on there @ness but speaking of holiday meals I'll share our New Year's meal. Our friends made the yearly trip to visit just before New Year's for a couple days. I got them hooked on sous vide cooking. So they showed up with a big prime rib roast seasoned and vacuumed sealed in a bag. It was Big like in four to five pounds. More than ample for the four of us. Into the heated water @134 degrees. Put it in in the AM and went to some open antique/vintage/flea markets. Got home and put baked potatoes in the oven and Pat made Cesar salad dressing and worked up some romaine. The roast was finished in a 500 degree oven for 15 minutes. Note this was from a butcher shop and a 90$ piece of meat. This is a treat for us. It was very tender so don't freak at Brad slicing. He was making a production and I was the camera man. VID_20251231_153304345.mp4

Double dang Jeff!

Those fish from that stream are downright beautiful Ronnie.

showing that a click was legal. 🤪 That and it was more like a frozen fish stick.

Oh I remember that day it was very, very cold.

Guess there were three OAF members at Bennett yesterday. The BilletHeads and @Skeeter ZX190 . Wish we would of run into you man. We fished the upper zone 3 and got into more Rock Bass and trout throwing black Simi seal leeches. Got out fill of that and proceeded to work up to the bridge in zone 2. We literally hammered the trout. Pat mainly stayed with the leach while I tried different things. I used an egg deep under the indicator. Then did some buzzball dries. Below the bridge in the fast water we both high sticking Pat with a Y2K and I with a chenille orange worm. Great day and we almost fished six hours. This was the biggest rainbow. 15 inch.

Good luck Cody! By yourself? Who's going to get you loose if you get stuck! I'm sure today you will be fishing in shorts.

Thanks Ronnie. I will remember that and harass them.

You my friend are still a kid to me. That rod Is only four years older than Pat and I have been married. 😆

We just had to get out in this wonderful weather yesterday. We had two goals for the day. Get Pat a rock bass and for me to get something on the vintage Fenwick fly rod. I had some Intel on the rock bass from @Ham. We more than met our goals with a bonus. Hit the Rock bass first. Caught between a dozen and 15. Fun little fish. We both used Grinch bugs in Olive,rust and black. We were just stripping back from downstream of the hole back to us to catch. Trout got in the way and we had to catch them out as we went. We snagged some and lost a couple bugs. I finally suggested to use an indicator to drift back and keep it off the bottom. This worked and I was the one who got the bonus. How fun on the vintage gear. Measure net showed 16 inches. It doesn't look like it but it was measured. You decide. It took a black Grinch bug. We left that fun and worked upstream. Both stripping Grinch bugs or so I thought. Pat was down from me just pulling them in. I asked what color are you using? Black okay so was I but not catching like her. We worked farther upstream catching. Fish were all color combinations. Fish would hit on the quick strip. The ones along the bank you had to mess with those for a reaction. Slower and a lot of jigging action is what they wanted. We ended up below the dam. Pat caught quickly and then they slowed down. Hatches were going on then. A small black caddis and some of those hard to see cream color flying critters. There were so many trout just under the surface some with fins out sipping and hitting the flys. I put on a smaller buzzball. I would drift it across the fish. Some were so picky they would follow it to only refuse but others would nail it without question. Crazy some were deeper fish coming straight up to take it. Fun. Pat finally got below me to just net the fish. We finally gave it up and left fish biting at 2:15. Back at the truck getting out of waders as usual I with the stiff back was having trouble getting waders off. Pat stepped up and about pulled me off the picnic table. Laughing while doing it. Putting up the gear I look on the tailgate and saw a black Simi seal leach. Hey when did you start using this? As soon as we left the rock bass hole. I asked what you were saying them on. No you asked what color 😄. She did out strip my for sure. About the vintage rod. Dang it works great. Standard over head casting. Using double taper 409 fly line that is rated like lines of past for glass rods. Really throws even the Grinch bug with a 4mm heavy tungsten bead. On roll casting that same fly there was some trouble getting lift on the pickup for the roll. Wind made that worse. With lighter fly I could roll and shoot it way out. This is going to be a terrific fun trout, panfish and light bass rods. I may get it out today and see if I can get some pond fish in this unseasonably warm weather.

Bummer City Jeff!

Neither are Pat and me. You know we walk amongst some elite jig throwing anglers. 😁 Maybe we should put air tags on their boats to track and find secret spots.

Some browns were caught buy some very good fishermen 😉

I have also spent quality time with Michael. He has been to the house. Fished many hours in Oklahoma chasing white bass, Hybrid and some great crappie. Met his daughter on the river that is getting married this summer. Michael you will be missed and there will be places that we have fished together. Special spots we shared. You will be in my thoughts now and then buddy.

Thank you, Bret

Well then it's a little older build date than I thought. It got put through the paces today. I love this thing.

I did bend it today at Bennett. Report coming soon!

Ha! Good one John.

The good ferrels!

Fenwick FF805. Pristine condition. Never had a reel on it until yesterday. In rod sock and tube. 45 bucks. @tjm from what I can tell mid 70s to mid 80s? What do you think? I like it!

Great story @GotaFish! My wife is the total opposite. Anytime we are going down the road and she sees one big enough to eat I get this. Stop, stop,stop you have to stop and get it. This has happened four times. Of course the front of the vehicle is a no way but the back of the pickup is just fine.

I just had to. I know how old you are. I missed the draft by a couple years.

WW 1 right? 😁 Sorry Jeff couldn't resist.

If it's Trig you might not need any advice but I'll give it anyway 😆.

I'll start dropping pins in the area for you and sending just don't let me forget.