I hope to have this 8'0" 4 wt built and completed in the next couple of weekends (as long as I don't get distracted by shad fishing). I'll post more pictures as this rod starts coming together in the next couple of weeks. I am looking forward to building a great rod.
Another animal we saw was at one of our stopping points, Marlon had found a dead bat on the road.
Man - the waders and multiple layers I had on this morning make me look like I am 50 pounds heavier... good thing I was having too much fun to care!
I used three different flies - first up was a short clouser I tied up for last year's shad run. This is also the same type of fly I used to catch the striper last weekend. Next up was the chartreuse fly from the previous post. I kept that on until the hook was bent outward - good fight that was! But the fly I caught the most fish with was a pink jighead fly I tied up last night. I ended up bringing ten fish to hand.
I haven't really fished this rod since I left Diego. And if you recall, this was the rod that broke at the lower ferule. But today, this 8wt was AWESOME!!! These fish were decent sized, but they took the fly down stream of where my SUP was - so they had the current on their side. They are great fighters even without the current so I needed every bit of the 8wt to land them quick enough to enjoy the wrestling match and get them back on their way to making a new generation of Hickory Shad. I cannot tell you how good it felt to get hits and a solid bend in the rod - what a great day of fishing!!! Chris S landed about the same number of fish - the shad would come up in waves (schools) so when one boat/fisherman got a hit, the rest were soon to follow. Total carnage and I loved every minute of it (but I had to go at 0830 to make it to the next adventure of the day... next post)
I stopped by Orvis in Tyson's to pick up a few of this year's Shad Flies. Less puffy this year and more collar. I also took the cue to use jig head hooks - I tied up a couple of my own... When I took this picture on Saturday evening, I had just finished loading up the truck with the fishing SUP and rods/tackle to hit Fletcher's Cove on Sunday morning. More on that in the next post...
Marlon and I ended up catching the same bluegill three times over. We knew it was the same one because it was pretty beat up - the bluegill apparently start kicking the crap out of each other this time of year to see which of them gets to make a nest in the 'cool dude' area. It is springtime and love is in the air (and in the lake).
There was a steady breeze that made casting a RIO Perception 3wt line a bit challenging. This rod is super soft and pretty demanding technically (it doesn't forgive timing mistakes), but it is so rewarding when you have everything dialed in.
I took Marlon out to Fletcher's Cove on Wednesday morning to see if we could wrestle some Shad while they are in the Potomac (annual spawning run). We saw tons of shad breeching the surface - but we couldn't get a single hook up. The water was high and the current was swift due to the rains we got last weekend. That's my story and I'm sticking to it (it's the weathers fault).
Also unfortunately I caught some fish - three largemouth bass and a couple of bluegills. I got all of them on a small black and brown woolly bugger. The one thing I don't like when I am catching and the kids aren't is that they really lose interest... Continuing on with the current theme - I used the Scott F2 6533 with a RIO Perception 3wt
