{Tidal Potomac Fly Rodders} Re: The one that got away

Wow, I had almost exactly the same thing happen to me a couple weeks ago at the Tidal Basin! Except my knot on 3X tippet didn't hold and the fish gave it a mighty shake and broke my fly off. Learned my lesson there--now just using 1 or even 0x there from now on and also checking my knots. Never know what you'll get in there. I got it just to the surface and it made a really strong jerk and all I could see was brown as it flashed back to the bottom--also think it was a cat. I was using an articulated streamer at the time and stripping slowwwww... 

It's funny, my best "got away" story so far this year was a couple weeks back down in Rock Creek close to my house. I was chasing whatever I could get into. Tied on a popper, threw it up current to a calm area behind some rocks and something grabbed it right away. It was fighting me like crazy on my 4wt, meanwhile I was whooping and hollering. And then somehow the hook came loose and it was gone. Think I got distracted and let off for a millisecond. But it was the best fight I've had on my new Winston Kairos rod. Was either a bass or one of the freaking huge bluegills I spotted from the bike path that looked to be close to 10 inches.

On Monday, June 3, 2019 at 10:13:01 AM UTC-4, Collin Tatusko wrote:

Fishing the Tidal Basin teaches lessons in humility and patience.  

 

Hit the Basin yesterday morning as the sun was coming up.  Many fish stirring about....and after a few hours of nada top side or below the surface with streamers and the like...switched over to the bottom dwellers.

 

Put on a nice black hellgrammite looking bug-thing.  Not one cast later...BAM...and for the next 15 minutes (and a few folks passing by to watch)...played the fish on my line.  Guessed by the hard fight and staying deep (tide was on its way up) it was a catfish.  Sure enough...it was.

 

So there I was....big catfish on the line, finally tired him (or her) out, and got it up to the wall.  Pulled around my net, which was excessively small and decided 'hey, Mr./Mrs. Catfish isn't struggling so much, maybe I can lift it straight up the 6-8 inches and get it on the path".  That little voice in my head said bad idea; I heard the voice and brushed it off.  

 

Sure enough, started to pull straight up and POP...down went the fish and I swear...the catfish was smiling as he/she slipped back into the brown depth of the Tidal Basin.

 

So, heed my lessons.  And...if anyone catches a nice 15-20 inch big catfish with a hellgrammite lure firmly attached to its lower left lip...you are welcome.

 

I absolutely love fly fishing. 

 

Cheers

Collin

--
http://www.tpfr.org
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Tidal Potomac Fly Rodders" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to tidal-potomac-fly-rodders+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
To post to this group, send email to tidal-potomac-fly-rodders@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tidal-potomac-fly-rodders/8afa29a8-8f3b-4902-a67a-d9f9e5c71b14%40googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.