Spring is Nearly Here

[John Davis]

Tom, it's an Orvis, Rocky Mt., 6 1/2 ft., 3 piece, 4 wt. bamboo fly rod, sporting an Orvis CFO II reel. And she's my favorite.

[Tom Flanigan]

Originally Posted by John Davis

Tom, it's an Orvis, Rocky Mt., 6 1/2 ft., 3 piece, 4 wt. bamboo fly rod, sporting an Orvis CFO II reel. And she's my favorite.

I think I remember when they made that rod. I believe it was in the 80's. Great rod. I have a few Orvis CFO reels in different sizes and some Hardy's. I like the CFO reels better than the Hardy, although Hardy made the CFO reels for years. They were Orvis designed reels and, in my opinion, better than the Hardy lightweights.

My "baby" Leonard is a three weight. I use it from time to time on the North Platte river for the rainbow spawn in the spring and the brown spawn in November. You don't kill fish with a lightweight rod as long as the tippet is 3X or larger. You can get them in pretty fast.

My usual big water rod is a Orvis Battenkill 6 wt. and a Leonard 6 wt.

This is a picture of double rainbows I took with the little Leonard. All trout are released unharmed. This is the one area of the river where I use the little Leonard.

[Reggie B]

Beautiful trout!

[John Davis]

Caught this one on a 7 1/2 ft, 6 wt., Battenkill.

[Stan Hillis]

Originally Posted by John Davis

Caught this one on a 7 1/2 ft, 6 wt., Battenkill.

Was that a bowfin, a grinnel, or a mudfish, John?

Them th'angs are the bane of my fishing in the river (oxbow) lakes, off the Savannah River. They are ferocious, and will tear a nice bass plug all to pieces. Right after I married "Queen", 49 years ago, I paddled her Dad to "reel" for bass in a river lake near here. He was using bait casting gear, and a topwater bait with three sets of treble hooks (a Jim Pfeffer Orlando Shiner). He hung a big (about 6 lb.) mudfish and "wrassled" him to the boat, then quickly swung him over the side and knelt beside him to unhook that plug from those jaws. That big sucker flipped himself up in the air about two feet and on the way down hung a set of those trebles in my F-I-L's leg, while thrashing about like a mudfish out of water will do. Pa-in-law just gritted his teeth and pulled the hooks out of his leg and pants.

He was the toughest man I ever knew closely. A well driller, he once had a water trailer to fall on his boot, cut through the leather, and lay open the instep of his foot in a bad gash. He went home, got in the bathtub, washed it off and called his wife to bring him needle and thread. He sewed his foot up by himself with no anesthetic.

Another time, he received a phone call on Christmas Eve from someone who supposedly needed a pressure switch for a home well. He agreed to meet the guy at the back door of his business late that evening. Two guys jumped him in the alley and hit him in the back of the head with a 2 X 4, knocking him to the ground. He got up on one knee, looked at them, and one of them pulled a knife to kill him. He grabbed the knife by the blade with one hand and grabbed the long hair, of the other creep, with the other hand. He took the knife and half the other guy's hair. They fled the scene.

Lord, I miss that man.

[Tom Flanigan]

That’s a big fish on that relatively small rod John. I’ll bet you had some fun with him. I have the same rod, a Battenkill 7 ½ ft., 6 weight. It’s one of my two go to rods for big fast rivers in Wyoming, Montana and Colorado.

The first picture is my Orvis Battenkill 6 wt. with a Snake River fine spot cutthroat. The second picture is double fine spot cuts taken with my Battenkill 6 wt. I am on a quest to catch all the remaining cutthroat sub species in their native environments and only true aboriginal fish, no stocked fish. I've got five sub species and need only two more to complete my slam. I never use guides and enjoy figuring things out for myself. it's great fun.

[Richard Flanders]

Spring you say?? Here's what my spring was yesterday. This snow fell in less than 30hrs. I was busy from 0400 to 4pm dealing with it. Today is going to be a lazy day off for sure! I still can't take my car out of the driveway as I'd not make it back up the hill to home. It's going to take at least a week to plow everyone out around town.

[Dean Romig]

That’s a bummer for springtime!





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[Harold Pickens]

Part of last Tuesdays catch, 'gills are in the upper shallow ends of the ponds.
Catch and release to hot grease! Crappies and bass fishing a little slow, but may improve this week, will get out at least a couple times this week, and combine it with turkey scouting.

[Harold Pickens]

I profess no great skills with the fly rod, but will bring it out when the gills start to spawn.
Right now "garden hackle" is the bait of choice.