Trip to Ice House Reservoir

I wasn't sure how the day would turn out since we were expecting a small storm in this afternoon. I went anyway. Got to the lake at 0900 and made the decision not to put in the Float Tube Cumberland. Couple of reason why not. One, the water was 46 degrees and I couldn't force myself to sit in that cold of water flippering around the lake. Second, the wind was blowing somewhere around 15 - 20 mph. Didn't want to fight the wind either. Thinking I never should have bought that thermometer on a retractor. OK, call me a weenie.

Gathered up my fly rod, vest, bottle of water, and assorted flys and strolled across the dam. Figured I'd fish somewhere in the lee of the trees or the dam or something. At least give it a shot. Half way across, I noticed a guy kind of hidden in the rocks fishing. He said he'd caught one, but that was all. I questioned, slip sinker, "yes", Power Bait, "yes", fluorocarbon leader, "no". More about that later.

Got to the other side of the dam and took up position on a point right by the spillway. Wind was calm here and since I've never fished this side of the dam, I didn't know what to expect. Put on the Montreal Bucktail Whore. Come on, I had to try it first. Two false casts and the fly dropped about 40 feet off shore. Well, the line dropped, the fly was no where to be seen. What the hell happened? Don't know, couldn't find it behind me and it wasn't on the end of the line. Oh well, I'll tie another. Put on a black Wooly Bugger and, Damn, the same thing. Line hit the water, fly was gone. Looked around, nothing. Put on another black Wooly Bugger, but this time I side stepped five feet and out went the fly. On the second cast, fish on. Then fish off. Couple of casts later, a good bump, then nothing. Tried a Thinmint, Green Wooly Bugger, and a black Marabou Leech and nothing. On one cast of the Marabou Leech, it got stuck in a rock behind me and guess what? Found the MBW snagged on that same rock. Never did find the black WB though. Flys must go to the same place as odd socks. I think that some day we will discover the fourth dimension and all the odd socks and lost flys will be there.

Strolled back across the dam and took up position at the place Ken and I fished last time up. Threw out Black WB, Olive WB, black ML and just couldn't get any interest. I went back up to the truck and traded my fly equipment for spinning and soaked some Rainbow PB. By then it was just me and the geese.



To make a long story short, from 11:00 to 11:50, I caught 8 and was able to release 3. Took the 5 home to Bob to replenish his stash. I still firmly believe that the fluorocarbon leader is the key to the slip sinker rig. Helps that they stocked last week too.

That's it for now. One of these days I'll get the Float Tube Cumberland back in the water. Summers a comin".

Till next time.

Mark (Shoreman)