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| Poets write about it... |
Elizabeth Barret Browning heard the wind, Emily Bronte spoke
to each leaf, good friend Sep felt it in his bones…signs signaling the end of
summer and the start of autumn. For me,
it is something less poetic. While the cicada’s song signals the start of
summer, it is their “plop” onto the water’s surface that signals to me that the
dog days of summer are almost over and brightly colored leaves of fall are just
around the corner.
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| Getting ready to drift! |
That plop of a big helpless bug drifting slowly along the
edge of the river followed by the slurp or SLAM of a river bass eating an easy
meal...that’s a sure sign of autumn…uh, I mean fall.
To hell with this poetic crap…let’s go catch
some smallies on surface bugs!
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| A chunky smallie |
It’s an annual ritual for me and some of my fly fishing
buddies…this year’s version featured Cope, Fin, Chainsaw and of course,
me…Tbone. With names like this how could
the fishing trip be anything but a success? On the way up to our favorite
smallmouth water, Cope and I once again pondered the aged old fly fishing
question, “If you could choose but one fish to pursue with a fly rod, which
would it be?”
We looked at each other and just laughed, then responded at
the same time, “Smallmouth bass!”
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| How 'bout a 20-incher?! |
Or more specifically, river smallies. I love fishing moving water and add a fish
that pound for pound actually does fight and jump as hard as any other and the
fact that flies, especially surface bugs, can at times out fish other methods
and bingo…you have what could be a perfect fly rod fish. It’s certainly in the top five of any anglers
list.
Not that I am “dissing” my revered river largemouth’s from
my home river the Eno. They too slurp up cicadas this time of year and run a
close second for my favorite fly rod quarry (at least at this time of year)…but
our annual trip to the New River Valley in Virginia has to be one of my
favorite fishing trips.
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| Fin says he'll be ready as soon as he finishes breakfast! |
This year didn’t disappoint either. Oh sure, it didn’t start too well. We arrived at our cabin and settled in for
the night anticipating our float with the guides the next day. We tried to get to sleep ahead of Chainsaw…he
comes by that nickname naturally and his well deserved reputation of being a
world class nighttime sawyer of logs did not escape the rest of us. Yet it wasn’t Chainsaw that woke us up, but
the pleasant sound of rainfall hitting our tinned roof cabin.
“Crap,” I thought.
You see when it comes to rain, fishermen have mixed emotions. I’ve had great days fly fishing after a nice
rainfall but have also spent my entire trip on the porch because the rain fell fast
and furious and turned a clear flowing river into a turbid torrent.
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| This was a "small" one today! |
We headed out the next morning…Cope and I were ready to
roll, Chainsaw and Fin seemed to be just a bit behind. Cope and I just seem to fish well
together…just give us each a cup a coffee and granola bar and we are ready for
the river. We can eat later is our
motto. We arrived at the outfitters and
finalized our float plans. Cope and I
fished together. I like that, he’s
always been good mojo for me. On the way
to our put in, the guide lamented the fact that the rain, and subsequent cloud
cover could really slow things up…he was just preparing us for a slower than
normal day due to the weather. At least
he didn’t say, “should have been here yesterday.”
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| What's better than wading for smallies? |
We fished hard. This
is seven or eight weight water, needed mainly because throwing surface bugs
60-90 feet away can plum wear you out…a bigger rod, helps. Plus, there is always a good chance of a
trophy smallie and having enough rod to turn these prized fighters in the
current ain’t a bad thing at all.
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| Catching a smallie while wading of course! |
Our two boats floated two different sections with two
different results. Chainsaw and Fin had
some success with a couple of good fish, but me and Cope…we faired a bit
better. We didn’t catch great numbers of
fish, but they all seemed to be chunky bronze backs with shoulders. For the
second year in a row I boated a citation sized smallmouth. Dang I like fishing with Cope…have I
mentioned he is good mojo?
The highlight of the trip came the next couple of days. Our cabin gave us access to a major tributary
of the New River. This wadeable river was known to have fair sized
smallies. It’s much smaller water but
close in size to our Eno River. It’s
definitely five and six weight water.
Cope and I waded at least three to four miles in two days and caught
lots of small fish, sunnies, and rock bass. We saw a fair number of quality
smallies, and yes we landed a couple.
I’m not sure Fin and Chainsaw had quite the success but they
are fun to have on a fishing trip. One evening I grilled up some chicken and
corn on the cob…good eats for sure. We each grabbed our preferred beverage and
Chainsaw made a toast, “Here’s to you…you mother f*@%ers!”
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| Chainsaw..."here's to you....well, you know" |
For the rest of the night, no matter the topic, each of us
ended our sentences with…, “you mother f*@%ers!” It was a fun evening, and of course reminded
us all that fly fishing is better with great fly fishing buddies.
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| My mojo continues! |
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| I love smallies caught on surface bugs |
On the way home, Cope and I relived our successes. Cope may
have had his dauber down a bit that he didn’t boat a citation smallie again
this year…although he did down a citation sized beer! We then started making plans for next year’s
trip. It’s invitational only so if you
want to participate you better start training now…you can also ply me and Cope
with your favors. A good beer or some
flies is a start.
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| No citation sized smallie for Cope, but he did manage a citation sized beer! |
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