Welcome Anthony to the Southeastern Fly 20+ Club

The musky waters were higher and more stained than I like so today Anthony and I went to the tailwaters. The water release was high and we did not expect really good results. The fish had other ideas. We will get to all that later.

Anthony has been fishing with me since before I started trying to put people on fish. He was there and towed my first drift boat. He was also there on a lot of days when I was trying to learn how to row without hitting too much stuff in one float. He has always been a good streamer angler, but he hasn't been able to break into the 20+ Club. Those are just a few of the reasons I couldn't wait to get home and put together this article. Another reason I couldn't wait was because Anthony has laid out some really good casts over the years and has been within an inch of the 20+ Club on several different occasions. His time has been coming.

On this day Anthony was dialed in and was into fish almost right away. He brought a 16" brown and another fish to the net. We were well into our float when it all began to come together. With his favorite streamer rod, heavy sinking line and what turned out to be the right fly choice he was laying out some good casts.

Anthony set the hook and and the line began to run upstream. We were moving along pretty slow and for the first few seconds I thought it could be a log. But, logs don't shake their heads and they don't move from one side of the boat to the other either.  Being seasoned anglers and all that, we were pretty sure it wasn't a log. 

Anthony gained control of the fish and mentioned something about 6X tippet, which made me cringe. He kept ahead of the fish and finally it began to come to the top. At first it looked like a medium sized striper, then it came closer and I got a little jealous we kept working the fish. Then the fish came quietly to the net and there were high fives as well as fist pumps all around. I am sure Anthony wanted to whip and nae nae, but this is fly fishing and not pro football.  We took the appropriate hero shots and released the fish to catch next time. For the next several minutes he had that glassy eyed look, like we all have when a nice fish has been brought to the net. Like every other angler who catches a nice fish like he kept saying "that was a nice fish..."  Congratulations Anthony nice work today and welcome to the Southeastern Fly 20+ Club.

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