A new plan

Sometimes things don't go as planned.  Sometimes several things in a row don't go as planned.  And sometimes you just gotta say "Screw this crap!" and go fishing anyway.

The plan was to go to bed at a reasonable time, get up decently early, and take my boy fishing on a small lake with the kick-boats.  After staying awake till 4:00am that plan went the way of the crapper, and so we decided to make it an evening trip.  This actually worked out great, since it gave me some time to tie up some jigs to try something different.

Arriving at the lake at about the same time as the afternoon cloud cover does has its advantages, namely the cooler temps and increased surface action, and with no lightening to be seen we were set on taking full advantage.   Unfortunately, it was then that I realized we had lost an oar out of the back of our truck.  (So, if any of you found an oar up Mayfield Canyon I'd like it back.)  Glad I still had my fins with me.

Altey was the first to find a fish.  He hooked up on a black woolly bugger that I tied with one of these pink beads for a head.  He was fishing with a spinning outfit today, so he had his fly about four behind a half filled casting bubble.  He did it all himself, including the net job (thanks to uncle Jeff's Christmas present net!) like an old pro.

His life jacket wasn't really that loose!  He had to un-buckle to get the camera
out, after he released the fish he was quick to do it back up again!

I got my first fish of the evening on a black marabou jig, that I tied on a white jig head with an orange eye.  A scrappy little fish that was fun to play in since I was using my ice fishing rod.  The tactic for me was to dangle a jig with the ice rod while fishing a dry dropper on my fly rod.  The next two fish came to the fly, a silver and black copper john, though I managed to miss several hits on my second rod while playing these in.  It was then back and forth between the two rods while Atley had reeled up and was enjoying his first time out on the water in a kick boat.  Seeing as he was having fun I didn't bother him too much till the rain finally found us and ended our night.

Not huge, but a ton of fun.

On the ride back Atley tried his best to talk my ear off while we were both spotting deer.  Despite so many set backs we still managed to have a good trip.  Hope you can get out and enjoy the water.