A Great Day

Wednesday of last week….the day before Thanksgiving, was an odd one for me. For the first time since 1986 I wouldn’t be spending the week of Thanksgiving with dad, pheasant hunting. Most of these past 25 or so years has been spent in Kansas…if you don’t remember, we had a dry and hot summer and Kansas had a summer of record proportions; one that rivaled the dust bowl era of the 1930’s. When it was all said and done the pheasant population took a hit and the hit came back to back as last year was one of the worst years in recent history…so the bottom line is I stayed home. I have to admit that on many occasions during the break I would stop and let my mind wander to the many fields of the Sunflower State and get a little melancholic about the years of great times that dad and I had chasing wily ringnecks around.

On the other hand….staying at home meant more family time and more time to fish….not the worse trade off. I called my son-in-law, Jeremy Moore, and we made plans to meet at one of my smallmouth spots at 9am on Wednesday. I tied a few crayfish patterns, changed out my leader and met Jeremy a few minutes ahead of 9am. I took a second to change out his leader and tie on a new crawdad fly for him…it was nice to have someone along to share the beauty of the water and the day with…oh, and it also meant that we could park at one spot, drive to the other, and fish and walk one way; more on this later!

Jeremy is an optimistic guy and that always pleases me to be along with someone who is just glad to be out and about. He has just recently became a father of a little bundle by the name of Ella Claire…and for many of us, we know what it is like to have a newborn in the house; a day out walking water with me was a great break from the daily headaches of life.

The skies were clear and it was a bluebird day…the water was flowing clear and with the drop in temperatures, the colder water would prove a challenge as the fish tend to be more lethargic when the water temps drop significantly. Smallmouths are odd creatures and unlike their largemouth cousins they tend to migrate quite a bit to find water temperatures and food.  Where you find smallies in June to August may vary greatly from where you will find them in November and throughout the rest of late autumn and winter.  The migration is from shallow water where the fish lie in wait…looking to ambush baitfish and crayfish to deeper pools where the warmer water is down deep. The fish will really put on a the feedbag from early October through mid-November and even later some years, depending upon the temperatures of the water; however, when the water gets too cool the fish will pick up stakes and move to the deeper holes and such was the case for Jeremy and I.

I know this stretch of water well and we took turns fishing the small holes. I knew we were in trouble when the first good hole we got to didn’t offer up and fish…and just a week or so ago I had caught 3 nice fish from this hole. We continued downstream towards Jeremy’s truck and along the way we started to find a fish or two…in fact we both landed a nice 12 inch smallie from the same deep pool. Jeremy was giving my small TQR rod a spin as going from a 9 foot rod to a 5’6” rod is a big change; I was watching when I saw him snap set the rod and sure enough, there on the other end was a very yellow smallmouth with loads of energy. The proud papa in me kicked in and I snapped several photos of Jeremy and his fish for I knew this was a great catch on a day when the circumstances were fairly tough. We released the fish and continued downstream to a few more takes but no more landings and as I neared the spot whereby I could see Jeremy’s truck I had a sobering thought…did Jeremy grab his keys from my console? I waited a few seconds and when he neared I smiled and asked him if he had grabbed his keys? The sad but cute look on his face told me all I needed to know…Jeremy and I had just had a Dumb and Dumber moment! Well as I said…it was a beautiful day?

All ended well as I stopped by a neighbor that I knew, borrowed a phone call, and in less than 15 minutes Vickie came by with an extra truck key…now here is the point where I promise that it will never happen again….but things happen and what a great day we had had. We strategized over fly patterns, smallies and casting strokes…we got a few flies out of trees, from under rocks…and had a great time together…and during the entire trip downstream I hadn’t even thought of Kansas, not one time!

What are you waiting for…nature is awesome, go out and get yours! Grab a friend or relative, a rod, gun or camera… go forth and be sure to Enjoy the Great Outdoors.