Finally made it to some water. I've been keeping busy, Tri-lakes expo and meeting, teaching fly tying and casting at the boys ranch, teaching the MSU flyfishing class, but today I was able to get in the water and tighten my fly line. I should mention that at the boys ranch we practiced our casting on the water and had flies tied on. Most of the boys hooked fish and two of them landed bluegills of, I'm told, almost 11 inches. That's big for Missouri. I need to get access to that pond.
This morning was forecast to be nice and they were not running water at Taneycomo, so off I went. Only spent a little less than two hours on the water, but managed about 15-16 trout, all rainbows. I was using a purple and starling soft hackle and it started slow; switched to my "green caddis" soft hackle and the action took off. Several times I had fish on consecutive casts. I know this is the tale most fishermen tell, but what was probably the largest rainbow I ever hooked broke off after about 2 or 3 minutes. It seemed longer than that. He was nice enough that I get him on the reel and should not have lost him, but I guess I put too much pressure on the line when he ran for the third time. The line went limp and when I brought it in, my tippet (3.6 lb. flourocarbon) was snapped about and inch below the surgeons knot. Must have been a weak area or perhaps a scraped it on a rock. The fish broke water a few times and he was a beautiful dark color with vivid red stripe. My largest rainbow is only about 18 or 19 inches and I'm positive this one was well over twenty. I like long distance releases when I intentionally let my line go slack after playing a fish, but this one I wanted to net. Maybe next time. If anyone catches a nice rainbow with about 15 inches of tippet and a caddis green soft hackle dangling from its lip, think of me.
I did catch several more after the one I lost, the morning was a great time to be on the water. Heck, most times are. Sunday, SMFF are doing our Crane creek water monitoring and if the weather isn't too bad, I may try my luck there afterwards. Look out wild trout, here I come.
