Well, Friday seemed like a good day to be on the water, so when I got the call from my good friend John at 10:00 the night before, I was up and ready at the crack of dawn…(almost)
After a late start, I could sense John’s doubt in the choice of float that I had talked him into--- but he hesitantly slid the boat into the river dreading what he thought would be a mediocre day. He was wrong.
After a few missed smallies, and several spooked carp...John landed the first catch of the day…which began the string of nicknames that he earned throughout the drift.
“Johnny Turtle-Snagger”If he would have landed a muskrat and a blue heron, he would have had a creature grand slam.
We wound up picking up a hitch hike-floater about halfway down the river. We figured as a wedding present, we’d let Racer X catch a few. Poor guy hadn’t cast a line in 6 days….that’s a new record.
A couple of smallies later, we noticed a few gar lurking around. After a hearbreaking loss of a 3-4 footer with a twisted air-borne somersault, John finally landed a smaller one. Too bad, his wife wouldn’t let him get it mounted.
“Johnny Garr-O!” This nickname seemed to stick.
Several follows and missed snaps by these gator fish, we finally gave up…ready to return with rope flies next time.
Meandering out of islands and into the channel, we switched our big water game on, and lucked into some great fun.
Rusty’s Wedding Gift—
Then a Bigger Surprise on John’s fly!
“Johnny Striper-Slayer" --but I think Johnny Garr-O is better
It was a great day on the water. Even though, I got the goose egg on the stripers
, I’m not too bitter about it
….I got several slashes by gar, I lost a BIG smallie after a good fight and shallow water take, and I had a goliath fish pull me into the timber and break 20lb fluoro tippet
.
Good times
Travis
