No Hatch- No problem!

Create your own hatch. Not really. So over the last week, I had 6 days off to do nothing but fish and hunt Pennsylvania turkeys. No turkey yet, but we played with a few. Still alot of time left. Truth be told, I could have ended it at 6am on opening Saturday, but I didn't pull the trigger. Might be a little regret left there....
So we went fishin'. Plan was to spend five days with the bros from WVA, PA, and MI to do our annual spring fishing trip. usually consists of alot of solid fishing, some BS story telling, beers, Captain Morgan, some late nights by the fire and early mornings chasing gobblers. This year it was reduced to a small covert team of three- Joe, Bob and myself. The three of us met a day earlier at base camp only to find the river high and dirty. Not high and dirty, but effing high and effing dirrrrrty! So, we made some calls to the other guys and let them off the hook. Save your dance card punches for better conditions.

I don't have much to report on the first few days, other than it, well, most of it sucked. We ended up making further drives at $4/gallon in search of a little cleaner water, in hopes to salvage the trip. The search led us way East, and in retrospect it was a good move. Streamer fishin' was on and even a little Hendrickson action came to be in the afternoons. We did catch a few fish (pigs) on dry flies, but mostly, hard charging sled-dog browns off the banks. It was exciting fishing and one of the best days I've ever had streamer fishing. There was that much action. Throwing 7wts, sink tips and tandem hooked flies in all the right places produced results like you always expect them to. It was damn near epic.

So here I am on Tuesday night, sorting through hundreds of pictures, dirty, wet gear, finding deer ticks on everything (including me) and cleaning boats and pickup truck interiors. I gotta go to work tomorrow. Not looking forward to it. Reality alarm clock just went off.

RED TRUCK DIESEL RODS and REELS
I also took out the new Red Truck Diesel 9'5wt rod and Diesel Series 5/6 reel. The rod is sweet. We left it rigged with a floating RIO Grand WF-5F, 9 foot hand tied leader tapered to 4x with a #14 Hendrickson on the end of it. The rod was great for medium to long casts from a drift boat. what stood out most to me was its weight. It is a 3 ounce 5wt rod, feels good in your hand paired up with the Diesel reel. I would best describe this rod as a lightened up older original Scott G series rod. slightly stiffer in the butt section, but the tip feels oddly close to the old G's. (If you know me, you know that I think the original Gs are some of the best dry fly rods ever made). The Diesel fought exactly three trout- an 18", 19" and 22.5" browns, and has only thrown dry flies. I would classify this rod as an excellent fishing tool- and at the end of the day, that's all that matters. It isn't a contest as to who has the most "space-age" materials, science or technology. It's simply a no BS 5 wt fly rod that throws a fly nice and feels good with a heavy trout on the end of it. The Diesel reel is sweet. It is a pretty familiar design of a very well known old school reel. Tall and narrow, the 5/6 is a perfect match for the Diesel rod. It has a nice sounding clicker "drag", fine brass line guard and a palming rim- again- No BS trout reel. I had two of the three fish into backing on the reel, and never once felt like I needed a $600 drag mechanism to stop either of them. The rods and reels can be purchased here.


.....One more.... ok?