Friday And Sat. Nights Jan 13 & 14Th

[fly2fish]

Friday night couldn't resist giving it a shot for an hour or so, water off, temp 17 deg. Suited and rigged up before leaving the condo. Picked a black & purple hibinator even though Leonard gave me one of his articulated creations before I went. I didn't plan on switching flies after I started. No one in either parking lot at midnight so I just went to the access below outlet 1, first cast fish on and landed 3 fish on the first 5 casts before any icing problems started. Didn't have much trouble with the guides by just dipping rod in the water before casting. I was using 3 to 4 short strips and then short drifts because the line would freeze to the guides if you went more than 8-10 seconds between strips. The most trouble was the free line freezing together when casting, I could feel the loops in my hands and had to stop several times and get the ice knots out. I did have an 18 incher take the fly pretty deep and while I was trying to get the hemo's out he broke off and I had to tie another fly on anyway. Ended up with 9 fish in about an hour. Same thing Saturday night but not quite as cold 26 deg. and another 9 fish in about an hour. Found out a couple years ago wearing rubber gloves under a regular pair of fingerless gloves is the key to keeping your fingers warm. It doesn't matter if they are the thin hospital type gloves or the heavy duty stripping or dishwashing gloves. You can still tie flies on without taking them off. A couple other fishermen came and waded out at outlet 2 Saturday night, didn't see them catch anything and they left before I did. A lot of those 16-18 inchers they stocked down by the bridges a couple weeks ago must have made it up because 6 or 7 of the fish each night were in that range. They didn't jump or spend as much time fighting on the surface as usual maybe they didn't like the cold either.

F2F

[Jack Jones]

You're a braver man that I am with that cold weather. At least you got a bit of a reward.