Wading at the Grey Reef

Back at the Grey Reef, Nick and I decided to hit the Lusby stretch where we launched the boat the previous day and had such good luck. Although the water was quite high, it only went to our thighs until the drop off. This made it so we could wade were the weeds were and cast into the deeper, original riverbed. We got there at about 4:30 PM and saw Ryan with another client.

I was wondering what he was doing in this stretch at the end of the day. Then I remembered that he must have floated the upper stretch this day, right below the dam. He yelled out “Howard, is that you” I said Yes. He said they had just caught a couple of nice ones and pointed to the sweet spot. I waded my way to were he pointed and was fast into a fish. I yelled to Nick so he could hurry and fish that stretch of the river as well. We each caught a few and were very satisfied with our luck. Nick caught a huge 21 and a half inch rainbow that evening, the biggest trout of the trip thus far.

Let’s hit this place in the morning, we both agreed. We got up at 6:00, ate our shredded wheat, and were on the river by 7:00. We were hoping to fish this stretch before the guides with their clients launched. Then we planned to go downstream to one of the other hot spots we learned about with the guide. At 9:00 we figured we had caught enough fish to put down the others for awhile so we went back to the car to head to another spot.

Nick mentioned he needed to pick up some more flies so we went to the fly shop. There was still a group of clients getting ready for a float so we went in with wet waders and all and joined right in, buying flies, leaders and such. Driving back to the river we thought we had rested the Lusby stretch long enough that we ought to just go right back, where we knew the fishing was good. Nick immediately caught 3 or 4 right in a row. This was amazing fishing.

I went a bit further upstream than where we were concentrating our fishing earlier. While getting the debris from the line hanging down on the water, I saw my Thingamabobber dive under the water. This was something I liked about the fishing here. When the fish struck, the indicator would go under water, not just hesitate slightly. I set the hook and the fish tore off to the other side of the river. It then jumped a couple of times. The fish was way across the river, the line deep in the water, but this fish was in the air. This was excitement! It then tore down river and I followed as quickly as I could, given the weeds and deep water. I got the fish near the shore a couple of times but each time it got close to the weeds, it would take off again. By this time I was downstream from Nick and near the next bend in the river. Good thing we were using 3X tippets. I muscled the fish over the weeds near the drop off and finally into my net. It was a gorgeous hen rainbow. It measured 23 inches, the biggest trout of my life. What an awesome morning.

I waded back out to the drop off and let the fish go where it could be free from the weeds and be able to access the deep water. She hung out a minute or two until I coaxed her into the deeper water and she swam off. I looked at my watch and we had about 15 minutes left before we needed to leave in order to get back in time to check out of our cabin by noon. I cast a few more times without much hope of catching another trout since I figured I had just spooked any fish still in that spot. But no! I got another strike. This ended up being my last cast at the Grey Reef and I was rewarded with a 20 inch gorgeous male rainbow.