Thursday I took a whack at the Blackberry River at Beckley Furnace in East Canaan. Tickled a couple some distance below the furnace and then connected with this decent brown in the big pool under the main dam just upstream of the furnace.
I had the wrong tool for the job -- a 7 foot 5 weight bamboo rod made from a Phillipson blank by Emil Grimm, who had a fly shop in Phoenicia, N.Y. for a few years in the mid-1980s. (Emil disliked Mario Cuomo so much he refused to charge sales tax, which might have had something to do with the shop's demise.)
My late father bought two of these rods and gave me on as a college graduation present, along with a bus ticket to Richmond, Va., where I had sort of a job lined up, playing incidental music for dance classes at Virginia Commonwealth University. We were horrible but the dancers looked good.
Now I have them both.
I lobbed the heavy mop fly into the maelstrom and stripped it back, from the left (furnace) side. There wasn't much room and when Barney the Brown seized the mop it was a bit of a struggle to horse him in.
I couldn't help thinking that another couple of feet of rod would come in handy.
And of course I forgot the net so I did something I almost never do and photographed the fish in my gentle embrace. He moved just before I snapped the photo, which is why all you see is belly. I didn't want to fool around, I wanted to get him back in the water.
Which I did. He got his bearings and moved off quickly, no doubt muttering a bit.
By the way, it was pretty nippy out there and I was very glad to be wearing this balaclava thing, as recommended by Mr. Troutbitten.
Fly Fishing in the Winter -- Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes | Troutbitten
