Ronnie and Butch Round II

The last time Ronnie and Butch were on the drifter it was Butch's day. On this day Ronnie would have something to say about who would have their day. So we met on the gravel bar and pushed the drift boat into the moving water. We skipped the first sections of the river and then went to work along the banks.

Ronnie worked a few feet off the bank and began putting fish in the net. Butch's stick had reel problems and waited while the guide worked out the kinks on the reel. Ronnie was taking no prisoners and brought several rainbows as well as a nice brookie aboard. Then Butch was up in the rear casting brace and fishing the holes on the middle river bottom. The guys were through a baker's dozen before we finished that first section.

We kept hitting the high value areas and the fish began to get spotty. Sometimes we would drop a nymph and pick up a fish or two, sometimes three, and sometimes more than that. Other times we needed the patience of Job to get a fish to the net. The water was a little on the stained side which meant the nymph had to drift close to the fish or better yet right into the fish's nose. Accuracy was paramount.

 Lunch was BLT's and sight-casting to some big fish that we finally found. The fish were having nothing to do with anything we threw, but we did get another fish on the board while fooling with the bigger ones. We learned that smaller fish are much easier to train than larger and older fish.

Late in the day we found some rising to emergers. They weren't coming up to take the adults and there weren't any spinners laying around, not any that I could see anyway. We hooked up Ronnie with a dry/soft hackle and he began getting strikes on the second cast. Butch stayed on the nymph and continued picking up fish. The rest of the day was spent putting fish in the net and sometimes missing with the net, but that's a whole other story.

As the drifter came to a halt the guys had put good numbers in the net. They both got the slam and we saw some big fish. The day would have been better if we would have caught the bigger fish we worked on, but the bigger fish is a good reason to come back to the river and try again. 

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There are just a couple of open dates left on the calendar. The next phase will be streamers for big trout and musky as Winter is just around the corner. If you want to set up a trip just email or call/text 615-796-5143 to get a day on the water.