First Fishing Trip Of 2017

Well, I still have yet to catch a trout in the snow.

But I came THISCLOSE over the weekend.

Surprise! Snow in March!

As I spoke about last week, I took the kids up for opening weekend at several lakes along the Tucannon River in the Dayton/Pomeroy area.

Well, as per usual, we got a late start to the weekend's planned fishing trip. I had the usual delusions of grandeur on Friday with several "dad" chores in the way before we could hit the road. I had thoughts of leaving Friday. Then Saturday, just before noon sounded like a reasonable target.

By the time we got to Dayton snow was falling and the wind was blowing.

We spent the night in Dayton at the new hotel. The girls were in heaven with wi-fi, pool, and breakfast waffles.

It was a snowy drive down the steep dirt glade on Patit Road the next morning, but the girls were happy to see all the deer so easily. Despite reports of the winter being so harsh on wildlife, these Tucannon deer looked pretty darn healthy to me as did the rather large turkeys I saw.

The wind was still cold and the snow was still on the road when we pulled up to the first lake. I hate bait fishing for trout, so I rigged all the rods with water bobbers and flies despite the cold. I got more than a few looks when we mobbed up without tackle boxes.

The wind was hitting us in the face, so we didn't last long at the first lake. Then we moved to Blue Lake.

Within three casts we had our first fish on, which before too long meant someone asking me what we were using.

"Where did ya get that?" a curious kid asked.

Turns out the kid worked where I had bought all my flies and bobbers, but had no idea what he was doing on his own and had a girlfriend with him to impress.

He asked for help and showed me his tackle box, which was filled with rooster tails he had been ignoring.

For those of you who want to know what worked, the hummers I had worked great. If you can't find the bugger hummers, a plain one does just fine. I used a black tail with olive body and it worked the best.