Wake and Take II

Tom and Rick met post-Thanksgiving at the Ford to try and repeat the previous weeks' success.  Dad and Eric "Here Bear" Burns came along (glad there weren't any Grizzlies at the Ford for Eric to attract by dangling splashing fish in front of them).  We started at the same running water at the second lot as last week, and although there were a few wakes, it was definitely slow compared to last week.  Eric was able to pick one up stripping in the soft water above, and Tom found several, including the large one artfully landed as shown in the photos below.

Eric and his first Rocky Ford fish

Tom and his relaxed fighting technique

Delicate handling of the fish and a view of Tom's better side

Big fish of the day - almost pulled Tom's hat off!

With the limited success here, we moved down to the third lot with intentions of checking out the skinny water down below.  The stretch above the bridge was empty, even though there were a half dozen cars in the lot, so of course Rick stopped and started stripping right at the corner above the bridge.  Three casts and three wakes and takes, and it was clear the skinny water would wait for another day.  While Rick was landing these fish, Tom caught the first of six while standing on the bridge, Dad started breaking off flies in fish and in addition to landing a few from the other side just above the bridge (we neglected to tell him that we had switched to 3x).  Eric got into the action somewhere there.  While Tom and Eric were playing at the bridge and below, Rick and Dad worked up the far side above the bridge, pretty much finding fish every cast stripping bugs for more than an hour.  Rick thought they were pretty small, until he measured a couple and found they were all about 15" and fat.  But that is little at the Ford.  After some really hot action, things finally slowed down enough that we were able to pull ourselves away from the stream and head home.  Another great day at the Ford.