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PFF v23 was a blast...

Started by Woolly Bugger, May 23, 2011, 13:13:30 PM

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Woolly Bugger



Rain delayed soccer games prevented me from arriving at the PFF v. 23 at the usual start date, but after  my daughter's last game of the season I booked over the blue ridge to Shady Valley to join the crew. I pulled in to the field around 3 and after sharing a beer and catching up with the latest fishing reports I pitched my tent and then headed out to find some water to fish. The TVA was up to its usual tricks, so I had to wait for the falling water on the SoHo.

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The fishermen were stacked up in the river, I counted 15 from where I stood.  I was hoping for a spinner fall but that didn't happen. There were a few risers and I targeted them, picking off two fish before they stopped rising all together. I got low holed and felt too crowed so I quite, perhaps I should have waited it out but I didn't want to miss dinner at the camp.

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Good times around the fire and good cheers with old friends. Some of ya'll stayed up way too late! Jis sayin', Carter, Kyle, Shane and the boys from Ohio are the usual suspects!

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I got up while the coffee was brewing and headed out after two cups. I went back to the SoHo, my favorite hole was already occupied so I drove on down the river and found a stretch to fish. I had a nice area to myself, a flat, followed by a long glide which flowed into a deep fast pool the emptied into some choice pocket water that flowed into a fast run and long wide riffle which emptied into a deep pool and ended in another flat! 

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I rigged up with a pheasant tail and a mercury midge dropper. The action was almost nonstop! The rainbows were especially aerobatic with leaps followed but strong runs. The bronws held deep and dogged, occasionally thrashing the surface. I lost three good fish in a row! One was almost to the net, another ran back at me, jumped high into the air and spit the hook, the third one got down into some didymo and came unbuttoned.

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Later I switched to a scud pattern and that triggered many more catches, at one point I caught five fish in four cast! Now you may be asking, how in the hell did he do that? Well, as I was releasing the first fish, my fly was trailing in the water and a little rainbow came up and smacked it!
I was catching rainbows 4 to 1 over the browns. I stayed there until I needed a break at 1:30, I headed to the Sunday buffet at Webb's for a great chow down! Great food, waders welcome, I like that!

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Back on the river I went to another favorite run, where I found a few good fish, one big brown, which I though was firmly hooked, lead me all over the river, up and down the run and then it blasted out of the water, did a complete summersault and spit the hook, that fish would have easily measure 24" .

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I was walking down the road to another spot when Rhody drove by and stopped to invite me to float the 4 o'clock release.  After having a beer at Juddy's, we put in at the bridge and floated on down the river. Rhody hooked up first with a nice brown, I took me a while to get into them. There weren't many bugs and we didn't see any risers until we got down to the lower part of our run. There the sulphurs were sailing down the river and the browns were taking them on the surface.  There were just at or just beyond my casting/mending ability but Rhody stuck a few. I managed to get one that was rising a bit closer behind the boat.  Weather stated to move in, but appeared to be staying to the south of us and we continued to cast to the risers. Then the wind whipped up and we knew it was time to head to the takeout! Before the anchor was up the rain pelted us.  Despite the 30 knot wind blowing upstream, Rhody managed to make some headway and we were at the takeout in about fifteen minutes.  The rain let up a little. Was glad I had some dry clothes for the drive home!

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Double rainbow, freakin' awesome dude!

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150 miles of thunerstorms to get home!

thanks to all the strawbosses, the cooks and the rest of the crew for a good time!

ex - I'm not going to live with you through one more fishing season!
me -There's a season?

Pastor explains icons to my son: you know like the fish symbol on the back of cars.
My son: My dad has two fish on his car and they're both trout!

diaz dassie

bastage! Y'all truly suck :P
You got out and thats a sign, so when we goin bluelining ::)

Woolly Bugger

Quote from: Transylwader on May 23, 2011, 13:35:22 PM
bastage! Y'all truly suck :P
You got out and thats a sign, so when we goin bluelining ::)
Kylie was lookin' for his drkin' buddy, jis sayin'
ex - I'm not going to live with you through one more fishing season!
me -There's a season?

Pastor explains icons to my son: you know like the fish symbol on the back of cars.
My son: My dad has two fish on his car and they're both trout!

diaz dassie

Quote from: Woolly Bugger on May 23, 2011, 13:36:33 PM
Kylie was lookin' for his drkin' buddy, jis sayin'
Oh sweet Jesus. I'll take the lobster red suntan from the beach this weekend over a night of drinkin shine like it's beer :o Yeah, that lad can smack it like it's no-ones bidniz -0-

Phil

#4
Yeah. Kyle (the bastige), Shane, and Carter duct taped my tent up around the outside at 3:30 a.m. Sunday. They were having a big time.  :laugh:

Nice pics, Wooley. It was a blast of a trip.

diaz dassie

Quote from: Phil on May 23, 2011, 13:48:42 PM
Yeah. Kyle (the bastige), Shane, and Carter duct taped my tent up around the outside at 3:30 a.m. Sunday.
Did you go to bed at 8:30PM? Shit happens ;D

Phil

#6
No, actually I hung out with them in the dark away from the big azz campfire (we left there about 11) until about 1:00 a.m. Partying going on.  :D :D The sombitches rolled my tent after I passed out.

I'll just post a couple of pics -- my camera skills ain't as good as Wooleys, and I forget to take pics most of the time. It was fun, though --

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my camp site --

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flatlander

Woolly,
Is the dog in the background of the picture with the beer dead or just drunk?

Woolly Bugger

Quote from: Flatlander on May 23, 2011, 17:22:18 PM
Woolly,
Is the dog in the background of the picture with the beer dead or just drunk?

that's Tater, and I think he's drunk, but I didn't give him any beer...
ex - I'm not going to live with you through one more fishing season!
me -There's a season?

Pastor explains icons to my son: you know like the fish symbol on the back of cars.
My son: My dad has two fish on his car and they're both trout!

Phil

Tater has the mange, and likes to rub up on ya when you camp at Juddie's. It's best not to pet him....

Woolly Bugger

Quote from: Phil on May 23, 2011, 17:53:53 PM
Tater has the mange, and likes to rub up on ya when you camp at Juddie's. It's best not to pet him....

he's cured now... mange free for 6 weeks and counting....  :P
ex - I'm not going to live with you through one more fishing season!
me -There's a season?

Pastor explains icons to my son: you know like the fish symbol on the back of cars.
My son: My dad has two fish on his car and they're both trout!

The Dude

The rainbows in that stream really are beautiful creatures.
I was born by the river in a little tent, And just like the river I've been running ever since, It's been a long, long time coming, But I know change is gonna come.

Leedawg

Tater is high on life man! Hate you "made" rhody keep you out in the rain Woolley. Like my anchoring spot in the pool? Need to come float with us when the madness kicks in. Still a wee bit early. Nice Pics. Looks like great weekend! Nothing like curbside service there eh?

Jfey

Yup, great long weekend at Shady Valley.  Still in disbelief of the weather, but no complaints.  Great time seeing eveyone again.  Can't imagine a better crew to hang out and fish with for a few days, although the copious amounts of stomp/shine/scotch/bourbon/vodka/jager etc does make the conversation somewhat easy ;D

Fished The Beaverdam on Thursday and caught a hellacious coffin fly spinner fall that we fished until we could barely find our way back to the car.  Got up early and headed to the Doe Friday morning and then back to the Beaverdam for more coffin fly action.   Saturday was SOHO all day except during generation.  Got to meet Jack Prater and spend some time with him Ben Bishop and GQualls on the back porch.  Also got to see Blake almost jump out of his shoes after Jack put a fake snake on the front seat of his car... still laughing about his reaction :D

CreekScum's chili was damn good, PHG made an awesome breakfast and Curtis and Crew did a helluva job on the chicken.  Big thanks for keeping the food warm until we got back!

Big thanks to JT and Creekscum for strawbossin it.   As JT put it "without some sort of organization, you would end up with damn 20 jars of salsa and no toliet paper"  The strawbosses do a lot to make these trips run smoothly.

Also, thanks to Shane for the shirts, sweet as always. 

Here is a quote from my buddy Darrel after his first Shady Valley show that sums it up:
"One of the best effing camping trips I have been on dude – great food, people weather and of course the fishing was off the hook!!" 

I caught fish on everything from a sz 6 double bead stonefly and size 10 Coffin fly down to a sz 22 midge and sz 22 bwo dry.  Pretty freaking sweet.



Pre-trip drinks
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Lots of gear
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Home base
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Gearing up
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Coffin Fly, not a great pic, but I was too busy fishing to get a good one
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Jkelly hooked up
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Darrell hooked up
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World record warpaint shiner??
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Lots of fish caught... no monsters, but enough to keep me happy
These guys fell to coffin flys
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A few of the many SOHO feeshes

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Cool fog coming in on the SOHO at night
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Can't wait to do it again next year!
Yup, going fishing

kylemc