What did this thing eat?

In the "Poudre '09" battle, I definitely jumped into first place today with this monster catch. Look at the girth on this baby! Not a pretty trout by any stretch, but man what a fight!




I'm not joking when I say that this fish stripped almost every inch of fly line from my reel. It hit the fly like a ton of bricks and then just ran and ran and ran. I'm actually a bit surprised that the leader didn't snap.

You win, sensei. For now, anyway.

sen·sei(sěn'sā', sěn-sā')
n. pl. sen·seis

1. A judo or karate teacher.
2. A teacher or mentor.
3. Used as a form of address for such a person.

My old man fills the bill, both on the river and in life. But like any good sensei, he's not quite ready to hand over the title belt just yet.

For the past few weeks, we've been re-enacting a father/son duel we've carried on since I got my first pair of hip waders and learned to securely attach leader to fly. It's come to a head recently on a stretch of the Poudre. The water level feels just short of perfect at this time of year, and the diversity of the river offers fast shallow riffles that run into nice holding areas, in addition to long flats that are deep enough and slow enough to fish to some nice browns. Our last couple of trips out resulted in a couple of good photo ops.

A careful review of the photographic evidence leads me to believe that Dad (pictured on the right) holds a slight lead in the size category. As we head into the crucial month of August, here are the head to head stats:

Most fish caught: John
Biggest fish caught: Dad
Least number of flies lost: Dad
Most water in waders: John
Most bottles of mosquito repellent used: Dad
Most leaders replaced: John

So there you have it. While I may have a slim lead in total numbers of fish, I'm clearly losing the battle of efficiency. August could be my undoing - once Dad's recently replaced knee heals completely, we'll be covering the same amount of river, and then it's trouble for me.

Either way, I'm having a blast.

Poudre 'Bow, location secret!

What a great way to start a Saturday! Two drifts, two rainbows. 20 minutes of inner peace. Can't beat it.

I landed this one on a prince nymph just at the juncture of a fast, shallow riffle and a large, deep holding area.