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Great Day in spite of the Forecast

Author holding a shad he caught on a fly

I got up this morning expecting to head to church, but the river, well she is a siren. The original plan was to meet up with Todd and one of his friends from out of town, but a last minute business trip and the forecast pushed Todd out a day. I have a hike in to Seven Palms scheduled for Monday, and while it was initially starting to look like that was going to be rescheduled, well, the river she is a siren. Unfortunately with both trips now falling on Monday, I had to make a decision, and after much deliberation this morning, I chose to stick to the original schedule and join Phil and team tomorrow on the hike (sorry Todd and Tigg.)

So what to do about Sunday? The weather forecast seemed to indicate that by 2:00 there was a 90 percent chance of rain, and the wind was supposed to be in the twenties. Looking at the radar, it seemed like the majority of the front headed our way due to a winter dip in the Jetstream, was tracking well north towards Tallahassee. Being an amateur meteorologist, as any fisherman should be, I hemmed and hawed for a bit… figuring the weather brainiacs were likely off by a few hours. However, add to that reports of tons of airboats on the water yesterday, and I just didn’t think it was worth the effort. The wind forecast, while high, was from the Southeast, the river was basically within its banks, and I was pretty darn sure there would be mosquitofish in the water.

Incapable of making a decision, I decided to put it all on the table and let my wife decide. Without hesitation, Marci said something to the effect of “this is your time of year, you were already planning on fishing… JUST GO! What’s the worse that happens, there are tons of airboats and the weather is crappy, it still beats a day at work.” Decision made (thanks Birdie!)

With all of the deliberation I did not get out on the water until 11:00. I found a stiff SSE 15 mph wind gusting in to the twenties. To my excitement though, I found the entire stretch of river from the ramp, bridge, creeks, and every inch of water up to the mouth of the Econ (and likely far beyond) boiling with fish on the surface. It has been a few years since I have seen that much activity.

While the ramp at C.S. Lee was not busy, it seemed that all of those boats were anchored up around the Econ. I decided not to venture up and fished around the bridge, creek mouths and beyond. I found the fish were taking flies just subsurface. Fishing the switch rod, I used a floating tip, 6-8 feet of level 10lb leader, and fished flies like the Fry Fly, Crazy Charlie, and Kip Tailed Clouser until about 2:00 when the surface activity disappeared, and the fish dove deep, likely due to the drop in pressure, and increase in wind (gusts up to the high 20’s, low 30’s.)  I then switched to a T8 tip and heavier flies. I got 8 shad to hand, and lost at least that many (the price I choose by pinching my barbs to minimize stress on the shad.)

I was hoping to hit double digits today, and I likely could have, but I decided to call it quits around 3:00. The wind really picked up to solid mid twenties, gusts well in to the thirties, and the rain started. Not worth the trouble, as I have a hike planned tomorrow. 🙂

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