The New Anchor 11/3/2007

Tuesday night at the monthly meeting for the Liars and Tiers…it was a night of good friends, a good show on Salmon fishing, great ribs, dry flies and the group bought me a new anchor. This anchor replaces the anchor I left on the bottom of the Watauga a year or so ago. Not only do I appreciate the anchor, but it gives me a credible reason to fish this weekend!

Up early Saturday morning, this is the last day of the year, before the fall time change. It is a little cool at thirty-four degrees, so I fixed some coffee and did the morning rituals. Guess I’m getting a little lazy in my old age because the boat is sitting the garage with stuff piled up on top of it. Once it’s hooked up to the truck I’m on my way to meet Dan the Shuttle Man for a day trip on the Caney Fork.

A quick stop by the local food store for hot dog buns and a fire log, and then I hit I-840 to meet Dan at Happy Hollow. Passing over the Caney bridges on I-40, the water looks as low as I’ve seen it all summer. For some reason when I get to Happy, Dan is a little surprised that I didn’t bring waders. I let him know I do not intend to get wet today. This is a decision Dan’s back will regret most of the morning. We move onto the ramp below the dam where we find a family of fisherman. The most interesting thing about the group is one of them is using a surfcasting rod to bottom fish for trout in the Caney. Note to self...if the fish are that big, I think we need a bigger boat.

My laziness is continued when I discover my rods aren’t rigged for the Caney, or anywhere else for that matter, because I haven’t even thought about them since the Tellico trip two weeks ago. As I rig the rods Dan is on the catch. He boats four or five before I get the first rod rigged. Two or three before I get the second rod rigged and another before I catch my first fish, which is a dink about three inches long. Dan-O is on fire with his midge. Through the narrows we see another fisherman, who is not having a lot of luck. The guy should be able to tell Dan is having a good day simply from his wide grin. I add a little fuel to the fire and let him know Dan has already landed over a half dozen. We get a bigger grin from Dan and he offers up the exact recipe for the fly he is catching all those fish on.

Through the first run and seven kayaks later it is Dan’s first opportunity to get out of the boat and……..pull it over the shoals. Like I said before “Low Water Today”. It’s my turn in the front of the boat and I promptly miss three or four fish while looking at a doe that is 50 feet down stream. Several more misses and then a couple hook ups. It is all coming back to me now. We fish down to the narrows Where Cows Walk on Water. This is where Dan has his second opportunity to exit the boat and pull it across the gravel bar. Remember, the water is low today.

We fish around the bend and the water release catches us, which means it’s time for lunch. We unload the boat on shore and start a fire as well as the grill for hot dogs, chips and an adult beverage. We put the new anchor through its paces with the rising water and it performs flawlessly. Following some good food, a warm fire and some deep discussion that you can only have with good friends by a campfire, we are back in the boat.

Past Lancaster and then the hook up with the first large fish of the day, it is a 16” rainbow (see the inset). Dan was obviously busy tying the “perfect surgeons knot” because it took him as long to tie the knot as it took me to land the fish. He did take the appropriate hero shots for me and only put his thumb over the lenses once (I’m kidding).

Anchor up….. another flawless performance by the anchor. We get the boat back into the current and another nice fish, this time a brown that measured 14”. We travel through the Crossover and it is almost uneventful other than a rainbow or two. We continue floating down the home stretch toward Happy and Dan continues his Catching Clinic. Through the Chute and we enter into stocker heaven. I get out the Thunderhead dry fly/midge dropper and promptly miss one fish, on the dry, that is less than a foot off the bank. Then another fish hits the dry and he is on his way to the boat with a Thunderhead in his mouth. This one is a brown that looks to be about 12” before I perform my near perfect sportsman’s release followed by the proper cuss words.

That ends it for me and Dan boats one more fish before we call it a day. The final tally for the day: a good number of fish, some good food, a warm fire and one sore back. Did I mention how low the water was?