Just another damn... what???

So a bunch of us met up at the Ausable for a few hours of fishing. It was recently stocked with a good number of large fish.

With 6 of us fishing various areas known for lots of large fish, there was one hookup. Just one.

And it rained a lot - which is alright, except that it was mid 40's and I don't have any real rain gear. Even I got cold, which is pretty hard to happen.

Around 11:30 and after about 4 hours of fishing, my friend and I decided to head south towards home. We figured on making one quick stop to make the best of the day and then heading our separate ways.


We arrived at our destination and immediately heard splashes and saw fish not only rising, but slashing at bugs on the top of the water. Pretty impressive, and the water was 3 ft from the edge of the road.

We both tied on dry flies and my friend said

Get ready, you're 2 minutes from your first fish of 2008 and the end of a long skunk

I began drifting right over a couple of fish that were attacking the bubbles on the surface. He hooked up on his 2nd cast with a cookie cutter 12" rainbow to save his day from a skunk and came over to coach me.

7 or 8 drifts in and BAM! I missed a hit.

7 or 8 drifts later and it was over. The first fish of 2008. 8 months of nasty, cold hands, sub zero, ice in the guides days had payed off and I landed a fish. Good god almighty, it finally happened.



My very own 12" cookie cutter fresh stocked dumb-assed rainbow trout and I'm pretty proud of it. This marks the christening of the rod my wife bought me, my first rainbow trout, and my biggest trout to hand. Previously, that honor was held by an 8" brown trout.

Of course, he was released. They taste like dog food when they're fresh from the hatchery anyway (or so I'm told).