I got an email from Mary Nell. She wanted me to take her and three friends on a guided fly-fishing trip.
They were all retired professionals. I had guided her previously and looked forward to the trip. With four anglers, I would need another guide to help me. I gave Danny Barker a call and fortunately he was available. We met them at their chosen lodge, River Ridge Inn.
Mary Nell and Lynn are experienced anglers, but Leila and Jan were first-timers. It was best to put an experienced angler and novice in each boat so the guide could concentrate on the novice angler.
We decided I would take Mary Nell and Leila on the first day and fish at Rim Shoals. Danny took Lynn and Jan to Buffalo Shoals. On the second day, we would swap around. That way the ladies would get to see more locations on the river and get to fish with two different guides.
I drove to Rim Shoals. It was a cool start but promised to get warm in the afternoon. The water was fairly low with about 3,000 cubic feet per second or less than one full generator.
I began with a short casting lesson for Leila. She picked it up quickly. I then rigged a couple of fly rods. I used a size 14 pheasant tail nymph with a ruby midge dropper. We motored upstream and began fishing. We were into trout almost immediately.
The fishing was really good. Mary Nell is an accomplished angler and caught several nice trout on the first drift. Leila picked it up quickly and soon had several trout to the net. At noon we broke for lunch and rested for a few minutes.
We were all eager to return to the river. Usually the fishing slows a bit in the afternoon. On this day, the catch was good, even later in the day. We finished with about 35 trout and returned to the lodge.
The next day we started early. On this day I had Lynn and Jan. The conditions were similar to the previous day. I began with the same flies. The catch was not as good. I tried all of the usual spots, but the fish were not biting as well as they had on the day before.
Danny motored up from Buffalo Shoals to meet us for lunch. His day had been a bit slower also. We discussed flies, and on his suggestion I changed out the pheasant tail nymph for an egg pattern.
We returned to the river and caught a few, but it was still slow. We finished the day with a dozen trout.
Some days are just better than others. The ladies did not mind. They just loved to be on the river. The trout were a bonus.
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