Well if the old saying “April showers will bring May flowers” is true, we should have plenty blooming next month. There definitely hasn’t been a shortage of rain so far this spring. Driving along our backroads I can’t help but notice the beautiful redbud and dogwood trees. The deep dark red to purple shade of the redbud bloom is my favorite. If you can’t look around outside and smile right now you might want to go get yourself checked. The grass and treetops keep turning different shades of green with each passing day. Within a matter of weeks everything will be leafed out and the summer woods will return. The snakes and ticks are already out so watch where you step. Ticks are carries of Lyme disease and the number of cases keeps increasing each year. I try to spray my boots and around the bottom of my pants legs with deet this time of year which seems to help keep the nasty critters from crawling aboard.
Of course I can’t talk about spring without mentioning waking up and listening to an ole gobbler sound off on a nearby ridgetop. Spring gobbler season started this week on April 27 and runs until May 23. It’s time to break out the turkey calls and camouflage and hit the woods. I’ve been seeing several turkeys including a few nice longbeards almost daily for the past 2 weeks while driving around for work. It’s hard not to stop and watch the full strutting gobblers in the fields. I even had 2 gobble as I shut the truck door last week in the middle of the day. They are fired up for sure! The rivers have been running full and even angry at times which has made it tough to fish. Tara and I finally caught a break this past weekend and hit the river. It was still flowing good but fishable. I watched several Quill Gordons and blue quill mayflies drift by but nothing was eating them so I tied on a nymph rig. I knew the fish had to be feeding on them and my suspicion was right as on my 6th cast a trout hammered my fly. It put up a good fight in the strong current and jumped out of the water a couple of times before Tara was able to finally net it. The hefty rainbow was round and a solid 18 inches. I released the fish and went back to casting to the same spot and found another rainbow.
After releasing that fish I noticed a quick riser. I thought I was seeing things at first but kept on watching and sure enough the rainbow stuck its head up again. “Tara there’s one rising right here, I think you should tie on a dry fly and catch it”, I said. It didn’t take her long to switch flies and hook up with the lone rising fish.
The action slowed down after that so we decided to go try another spot further up river. After a short mile walk we found ourselves at one of our favorite holes. We’ve been fishing this particular hole for over 10 years and it’s amazing how much it keeps changing every year. When we arrived we took time to watch and look the hole over real well before fishing.
I couldn’t help but to think back at all of the beautiful wild brown trout that we’ve caught here. There was that one 17 incher that inhaled my dry fly several years ago that first introduced me to this spot. Then last year a big 20 incher slammed my streamer in the head of the hole and got my blood pumping. I can think of a few more memorable butter bellied brown trout including the one Tara was about to catch. It’s always good to reminisce now back to the story.
I decided to go big and throw a streamer first to see if any big browns were willing to play. They weren’t interested so Tara proceeded to drift a nymph rig through there. She threw several casts in the head of the hole and as it was drifting along to where it dropped off and the hole got deeper her line took off. “Fish on” I exclaimed as I saw the brown roll. It also put up a good fight in the current and Tara took her time wearing the fish out.
We took a couple of quick pictures before sending the brown on its way. Another fish was added to the memory banks and we walked away from our favorite hole with big smiles on our faces. I absolutely love this time of year and can’t wait to escape from reality again on my next trip to the river. Get out and enjoy!
