JakesLeakyWaders
Active member
I rigged up my 4 weight and rolled up my shorts yesterday and proceded to wet wade out into the river. Then I quickly turned around after being blasted by 40 mph gusts and rigged up the 7 weight. I made my way across the river towards an island a few hundred yards out,carefully wading in knee to thigh deep water. Seeing two adult and one immature bald eagles was a high point. The eagles are all over the lower Susky and I see one or two every time or two I am on this section of river.
I fished deep runs and holes below riffles with clousers and wooley buggers. I started making my way back across when I found a long slow pool about thigh deep with a large deeper area which is not visible from shore. As I slowly waded along the edge of this deep area I stopped to scan below the water. I started seeing some large silvery flashes way down in that hole.
Just then a pickup pulled in directly across from me, and four young guys get out and one of them yells "Hey, hows the water", from about 100 yards away. And I yelled back "Kinda Warm", trying not to be too loud. I heard them talking and making comments about me using a fly rod as two of them thankfully began to swim well upstream of me and not in my big pool.
Meanwhile I'm dead drifting a big olive bugger over the last spot I saw a huge silvery flash. Casting it upstream so it has time to sink at least 7 or 8 feet to where I think there is a fish which I hope is a bass but really think is a cattie. Just watching, watching, lookin' a the end of my fly line and then a flash and Wham, the line jerked away and I lift the rod to feel a great sea monster on the other end of my 7 weight. Across the way I hear " Oh S**t, he's got one !! " the fish steadily, slowly pulls line from my reel. Seconds later I muscled it to the surface and I hear " OOOH, it's a big one too !!"
At this point I know it's a huge channel cat on my flyrod, my first catfish ever on a fly rod. The fish was large, fat and somewhere well over 30". I pulled and it pulled right back in the other direction taking more line from my large arbor reel. This was definately the best fight on a rod I'd felt in a long time. And then after about two minutes, my rod suddenly straightened out and I expected the line to be snapped but my bugger was still there. From across the river I heard one of the guys yell, "That's BullS**t", I wanted to see it !!!" I didn't say anything I just stood there in my sandals and rolled up shorts in knee deep water looking into the deeper water, thinking, man how did that happen. I wonder if it pulled through the fish's lip. At least I had the thing hooked, I had a blast fighting the big cattie, even if it did get away.
I spent another twenty minutes drifting through the pool with no strikes. Then I called it quits and slowly made my way out of the water and back to the truck. I still consider that a good day, even if I didn't see any bass.
I fished deep runs and holes below riffles with clousers and wooley buggers. I started making my way back across when I found a long slow pool about thigh deep with a large deeper area which is not visible from shore. As I slowly waded along the edge of this deep area I stopped to scan below the water. I started seeing some large silvery flashes way down in that hole.
Just then a pickup pulled in directly across from me, and four young guys get out and one of them yells "Hey, hows the water", from about 100 yards away. And I yelled back "Kinda Warm", trying not to be too loud. I heard them talking and making comments about me using a fly rod as two of them thankfully began to swim well upstream of me and not in my big pool.
Meanwhile I'm dead drifting a big olive bugger over the last spot I saw a huge silvery flash. Casting it upstream so it has time to sink at least 7 or 8 feet to where I think there is a fish which I hope is a bass but really think is a cattie. Just watching, watching, lookin' a the end of my fly line and then a flash and Wham, the line jerked away and I lift the rod to feel a great sea monster on the other end of my 7 weight. Across the way I hear " Oh S**t, he's got one !! " the fish steadily, slowly pulls line from my reel. Seconds later I muscled it to the surface and I hear " OOOH, it's a big one too !!"
At this point I know it's a huge channel cat on my flyrod, my first catfish ever on a fly rod. The fish was large, fat and somewhere well over 30". I pulled and it pulled right back in the other direction taking more line from my large arbor reel. This was definately the best fight on a rod I'd felt in a long time. And then after about two minutes, my rod suddenly straightened out and I expected the line to be snapped but my bugger was still there. From across the river I heard one of the guys yell, "That's BullS**t", I wanted to see it !!!" I didn't say anything I just stood there in my sandals and rolled up shorts in knee deep water looking into the deeper water, thinking, man how did that happen. I wonder if it pulled through the fish's lip. At least I had the thing hooked, I had a blast fighting the big cattie, even if it did get away.
I spent another twenty minutes drifting through the pool with no strikes. Then I called it quits and slowly made my way out of the water and back to the truck. I still consider that a good day, even if I didn't see any bass.
