Learning to Long-arm

An elusive Saturday with no morning commitments led to an easy decision.  Time to go fishing!!!

Hannah and I made the 1.5 hour exodus to the pond to find ideal conditions.  Blue skies, light wind and Rob leaving the pond with a friend and his son.

After a quick debrief on what was working between vehicles on the dirt access road, Hannah and I were at the pond stringing up two 5 weights.  I saw a trout cruising the shallows and made a quick cast to connect with a nice 18" bow.  One cast.  One fish.  Not a bad start!

We made one pass with Hannah dragging a rust colored bugger on an intermediate clear camo line.  She immediately saw some action.

Hannah with her first fish of the day!

 She fought it valiantly all on her own and we successfully landed it.  A nice decent sized bow.  She wanted a picture, so we tried it on her own.

Not a bad hold.  The fish had seen some raceways judging by the appearance of the fins.

We continued trolling and action was a bit slow, so we tossed out a floating line with a heavily weighted olive and white Dalai Lama.  It was immediately crushed!  Hannah landed this smaller bow quite quickly and like a pro!

Fish #2.  A little better hold this time.

We continued on.  Hannah was having a great time and getting pretty good action.  She got another healthy little bow for #3.  This time, she was introduced to the fine art of long-arming!

Hiding the arms nicely!  Only the hand size is the giveaway!   Did I mention Hannah has HUUUUGE hands?  #DonaldTrump

We decided to make one last pass before making a run to Red's Fly Shop for me to pick up a few last minute items before my trip of a lifetime to Christmas Island (Kiritimati).  The last pass was successful as we got one nice bow (pictured below) and another one that was not pictured.

Long-arming a larger fish!  Great job, Hannah!

Hannah finished the day 5 for 5.  Not a lost fish!  That's better than the #MerrillBoys can usually say!  It's good when you're ending a fishing trip and your daughter asks "When can we go again?"  Proud dad moment!!