Christening the New Boat...

Finally opening my Christmas present

OK, so it is kind of small and has no motor, but it is a big step up from the old Caddis donut float tube I have used for years. It was nice having my bottom out of the cold water while fishing today. Which leads to the real reason for the post, no product endorsements here.

With my every-other-Friday-off work schedule, I get to spin the WhatToDo Wheel quite often, and today, just like every other time I have spun it, it directed me to go fishing. Who can argue with that?

I love this thing!

In preparation, I spent a little time this week tying up some of Tom's chewy chironomid patterns. These things look really good wet and in the water! Also tried a couple balanced leeches. The second one turned out pretty good, but is not available for a photo anymore...

Tom's awesome chewy chironomid pattern

Good dad that I am, I sacrificed an hour of fishing, leaving after sunup to drop Melinda off at school, so she wouldn't have to ride the bus. After a quick stop for the #8, I was on my way to Lake Lenice with my new boat (I think it needs a name). Arrived in the lot about 8:30, with only two other vehicles. My fishing buddy Kirk Morris was here last Saturday and was greeted by more than a dozen campers and who knows how many cars. Another nice thing about Fridays off. By 9 am I was on the water, dragging an olive leech on a sinking line on my way across the lake to the shoal by the island directly across from the launch. Nothing. Once at the island, I started with the balanced leech under the indicator, about 10 feet down, as Kirk had much more success with the leech than with chironomids. Nothing. The water was almost flat, and fish were swirling on the surface and swallows were swirling in the air. You know what that means. 

Out came the chironos, tiny purple on top, black chewy in the middle, red brassie on the bottom. Casting towards the reeds, had a couple little twitches of the indicator, but no takes. After quite a few casts, it finally went down and I hooked a solid fish. Definitely a carryover. It stayed down, had several good runs, and would not tire out. Several times I had it close, only to have it take off for another run. Not a good thing when you have a 15-ft leader that tends to catch on the guides at the leader not. About the third time as I was bringing it up to net it, it made another run, the knot caught on the guide, and the fish and red brassie were gone. That would be the nicest fish of the day. Lots of fish all around, but very little action for the next hour and a half. No more interest in chironomids, so I tried the balanced leech. After a number of casts, had a good take down and a bad knot and the fly was gone. No interest in the second leech, or a little black one. Back to chironomids, broke another one off on the hit, one other takedown, but that was it. Then the wind came up a little bit. Two hours, three fish broken off, one other takedown. Tried trolling the leech again, heading west towards the shoal and back. Not a bump. 

Almost noon now, back at the island where I began, the swallows were still darting to and fro just above surface of the lake, so I decided to give the chironomids one more try before heading for home. Fishing 12 feet down to the bottom fly, Tom's chewy on the bottom, red brassie on top. I just west of the point of the island right across from the launch, fishing out towards the deeper water. Suddenly, it was like a different lake. Within a couple minutes,I hooked a bright bow on a solid takedown that ran straight at me with three leaps clear out of the water, throwing the hook on the third leap. Positioned myself back to the same spot, and a few minutes later hooked another that performed similar acrobatics. This one I got to hand, and officially christened the boat with fish slime. Fat, healthy fish!

Nice fat rainbow

For the next hour, I had takedowns about every five minutes, preference for the Tom's chewy was about 2 to 1. By 1 pm, I had five fish to hand and about that many takedowns. Then things dropped off. By 1:30 I was ready to leave, so I dropped the sinking line in for the kick back to the launch, and within 10 yards had another cookie-cutter bow, a nice end to the day. Totals for the day: 6 rainbows to hand, all fat 13" to 15", 4 broken off, and maybe another 5 fought and lost. A few takedowns missed. With most of the action packed into one hour, it made for a few slow hours and one really fun one. That's fishing. My boat is looking forward to the next trip in two weeks to Dusty...