Maiden Voyage...

Took the new boat out for a dip this afternoon and she performed nicely; given the rough windy conditions on the Lower...

Rookie couldn't swing the day off so I was accompamied by my friend Bill who owns a drift boat and who taught me a few tricky maneuvers when headed toward danger. We switched off and on thruout the day and I did just fine when it was my turn to row (kinda)....


The caddis were out in big numbers and swarmed us from the minute we stepped out of the truck to the end. Saw more than a few heads too and Bill managed to land a couple small rainbow on some elk hair imitations when we stopped to wade.


Had this pair of Mergansers (I think) swim near us off and on thruout most of the trip.


Bill is also one of our shops best customers, so between the two of us we had more gear than a half dozen fishermen could ever need..

"The boat is very responsive" Bill said a couple times, but didnt elaborate on what that meant exactly.

I only picked up on what he was referring too after I was in control of the oars and he was fishing on the bow and sarcasticly remarked:"Okay I guess were headed to the otherside of the river now huh..?"

It was pretty cool, but kinda took some getting used too. You'd make two deep backstrokes with oars and she'd scoot way out into the river away from the bank and before long you were trying to put her back where she just was instead.



Once Bill took over controls I too managed to hook and net a few myself using a tied crayfish pattern and fished deep with lots of split shot; given the flows spiked up to 2500 this morning..



Nothing huge, but at least we had a great first trip and caught a few fish, so she wouldn't have a skunk on her when Alex and one of his' coworkers takes her out this Saturday.

....


And best of all we the finished the day without putting a scratch on her.

..I was especially glad of that!

.

Cant wait till next time...


Moe