Monday, August 25, 2014

One of those days...

Have you ever had one of those days, where it seems nothing wants to go your way?

The Subaru all loaded up for it's first of many trips.
Well, I had one of those on a recent trip to the Northwoods of Wisconsin.

The target species - Musky with a side of smallmouth bass.

I enticed 2 follows from the same musky in the first 20 minutes with a fly I tied, but couldn't get the shiny green beauty to commit. As the day went on, I had another musky follow, and then I was able to get one to commit, but me being over excited about the take, I lost focus and didn't strip set the hook, and went with a hook set I would normally do for bass. I realized the second I lifted my rod. The fight lasted about 3 seconds after that, and then my line went slack. D'oh!

Orange Crush - 8/0 single with an articulated shank.
I was able to hook up with multiple smallies, but just couldn't bring them to hand. I had a 4 +lber smash one of my flies, and then swim behind me, back around, between my legs, back around me, back out, and back through my legs before coming unbuttoned. All of the others came unhooked when they went airborne. After 9 hours of wading we went back to the car to grab some lunch, and I switched to my baitcaster and an inline spinner. New set up - Same story. Hooked up with multiple smallies, but they just didn't want to stay on. It became quite comical.

I know what you're thinking...you use barbless hooks - Correct - But on the flies that I recently tied for this trip, I completely forgot to smash the barbs on them.

Oh, well...there's always next time!

At least my buddy The Fat Gordo was able to hook up with a bunch of those beautiful Northwoods smallies, and I was able to take some pictures of them. 

Flexin'
I love my GoPro camera!
All in all it was a great trip, and it definitely won't be my last. Unfortunately, I will be sending in my rod to Redington for repair. 2 of the pieces came apart while casting and the male ferrule on one of the pieces snapped at the tip. Thank goodness for their warranty.

End of an 10.5 hour wade. - Exhausted.

5 comments:

  1. Justin, I'm a veteran of many "one of those days." Luckily most of us have the sense to shake it off and then try again.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I am thinking, Howard, has it right on this one............................
    As you get older, you will realize that what you don't want is too have these kinds of trips every time you go out!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Sounds like a good trip, either way. Time spent fly fishing is never time wasted. Glad your buddy got into some though! and those are some amazing looking smallies, too!

    ReplyDelete
  4. At least you got some follows and hookups. I've had days where I didn't see anything with fins and waded for hours.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Justin
    Awesome smallmouth and one that you would consider dry mounting. thanks for sharing

    ReplyDelete