Granny Catches Huge Granny

September 21, 2010

Micah Kruger, a.k.a. Meeks and I had such a nice day on the Nunya yesterday that I thought I’d take Granny there today so she could enjoy this incredible September weather and catch a few fish. We made a very casual start of leaving the house at about 10 am and by the time I finished the bike shuttle and launched it was almost noon. We did a higher stretch than what Meeks and I did just to mix it up a little. Just like yesterday there were fish rising everywhere. That didn’t last long however. The wind started in a matter of minutes after we launched and the calm surface of the Nunya turned more similar to a walleye chop.

Our fishing never got any easier. I watched Granny begin the day by doing something I often do. She tied a  Trico pattern on and on her first cast it was gone. It turns out; we people in our mid 40’s are losing our eyesight. We refuse to believe it so occasionally we miss those little holes, particularly the second one where you stuff your tag end through the hole you make with your Clinch Knot. Trying much more carefully, she attempted to tie on a CDC Mahogany Dun. Everything was looking great. She even went as far as to lick her knot and pull it tight at the same time. That was the mistake of the year. The fly slipped from her clenched fingers and she stuck herself right smack in the tongue!

She was a little shook up at first. I was biting my own tongue to keep from laughing (That could have led to a very troublesome day for me). The reason I wasn’t too worked up was that I knew it  was not just a flattened out barbless hook but rather a completely barbless hook from the get go. They always come out easy and sure enough I plucked it out with my forceps and she didn’t feel a thing.

The a few hours into our day the wind was a horror causing difficult casting and even harder rowing. It seemed that when we had our few breaks and a fish would eat the fly, Granny would miss them or lose them in a second. We called for a beer break and then the wildlife showed up for us. While we sat and relaxed tucked in some willows to get out of the wind along came a moose cow and her two calves. We watched them for nearly an hour. When we went back to floating we ran into another three more moose. I think the sound of my boat and oars was muffled by the strong winds. We went on to see a total of six moose and a family of Great Horned Owls.

The winds of September died off for our last mile of floating. The temperature dropped and a few small fish worked what was left of spent mayflies and wind smoked terrestrials. Granny finally landed a few small trout. Although our fishing was nothing like what I experienced yesterday, we squeaked out another summer like day and the wildlife more than made up for the lack of fish. It was another great fishing day in the books for 2010.

Jeff Currier Global Fly Fishing web site