I went in to this last weekend excited. Excited because I was going to see friends I have
not seen in months. Excited because it
was my last fly show until the fall.
Excited because THE University of Dayton Flyers won their first round tournament
matchup against Ohio State, thereby winning the right to play Syracuse (the
city where I was headed…likely making me one of few people to watch both of those
games deep in ‘enemy’ territory).
Excited because I was going to get a chance to fish the Salmon River
again and finally hit the water with good friends Allen Landheer and John
Collins.
I took off from work a bit after lunch time on Friday and
headed up the highway. My route would
take me northeast until I hit Lake Erie where I would follow the southern edge
of the lake around to Buffalo, and then across towards Syracuse. It was a three cigar drive on a sunny
afternoon and there was plenty of basketball to listen to along the way. I rolled in to the cabins that we were
staying at along the Salmon River a bit after dark. Allen Landheer and Rich Strolis were already
there so I quickly unpacked a few things to keep them from freezing and settled
in with a beverage in hand to watch some basketball. A short while later Kevin Compton rolled in and
joined the fun. Great stories and a little
fly tying took up the next few hours, making them feel like minutes. By morning I hurt from laughing too hard…and
maybe a little from that ‘one last cocktail’…
We woke up to the smell of bacon thanks to Allen thinking
ahead and being an early riser. We all
seemed to come to at about the same time and put a hurting on that pile of
bacon and some eggs before getting our gear back together and heading down the
road to the show. The show in this case
was the Tie One On event put on by the Iroquois TU chapter and Sparse Grey Matter. This was the third year for this growing
event, and this year they brought in Kelly Galloup as the headliner. There was a steady flow of people in front of
us throughout the day so it seemed to fly by as I tied and talked
streamers. They had Rich Strolis, Pat Cohen and I all sitting in a row so there was again a lot of laughter and ideas being tossed about. Around lunch I took the
opportunity to head over and talk with Kelly a bit which is always a pleasure…that
guy will sure get you thinking about streamers and streamer design. I had purchased a ticket for the dinner
banquet but as the day progressed there was sun coming through the window and
the wind was laying down. Eventually I
was worn down by a handful of guys that were heading to the river after the
show and decided that my dinner purchase was to be more of a donation…I was
going fishing!
The
show wound down and I stepped out with Allen to head back to the cabin for the gear. In my head I was fighting insecurity and
worry that my casting would have suffered from a three month layoff. As we arrived at the river I had a huge smile
on my face even though the river had been dropped overnight from somewhere
around 750cfs down to 350cfs and the temps were dropping, so the fishing was
expected to be tough. Al has been
fishing the river for decades so as we cruised along I got the dime tour of the
holes and runs along with some bits history that will never make it in to any
book. We hit the lot and got geared up then
headed down to the water and got in to a nice open run. The casting was like riding a bike…a little
rusty after the long layoff but it quickly came back, and oh man did it feel
good. I had a couple blown anchors but for the most part was getting the fly
out there as if I never stopped. We had
about two hours of stepping down through a run during which I had one tug and
saw a few thick fish fin through some shallows.
No fish to hand but it was great to finally be back out.
At
dark we got off the water and hurried back to the cabin, both to get some food
ordered up and to catch the Dayton v Syracuse game. Kevin headed out after the show but we picked
up another group of friends for the night.
Jess, Richie, Collins, Kavanaugh, Joe and his dad all started off
laughing at me living and dying with every play of the game. Eventually though they were all caught up in
it cheering right along with me. The
second half was far better than the first and when the clock hit zero with
Dayton up I went b-a-n-a-n-a-s…so awesome!
The rest of the night was a blur of more basketball, beverages and
stories. Not a bad way to spend an
evening.
As
we woke on Sunday we were pleasantly surprised that the forecast had been off
by over ten degrees, so rather than a bone chilling 8 and windy it was merely 20ish
with a light breezy. We quickly got
breakfast knocked out and then cleaned up the cabin before heading over to the
river to see about some fish. Al, John and I found a promising run that was
available and jumped in to a rotation.
About an hour in I had a fish that I totally farmed and blew what ended
up being my one real shot of the morning.
It was disappointing not to get one to hand but I did not feel as bad
since we only saw a couple fish coming out…the water drop and temp still had
them down. It would only have taken the
temperature rising a degree or two to turn them on, but that was not to
be.
About
noon we called it and walked over to Melinda’s Fly Shop. I have heard stories of the place but seeing
it in person just blew me away. Every
conceivable material, for both modern and old school patterns to be used on the
Salmon River, lined the walls from floor to ceiling. The place is a mecca. After talking with Melinda for a bit she
pulled out some private stock of classic feathers for Al and I to take a look
at, and I left with some serious goodies.
Eventually I had to stop looking or I would keep adding to the bag, so I
grabbed a cup of coffee and sat myself down in a chair to just soak it all in
for a bit before I had to hit the road.
Al took me back to the cabin to get my car and we BS’d a bit
before I got rolling. I expected some
weather but there were long stretches of highway that I never really saw thanks
to lake effect rolling through the region.
White-knucking at 20mph makes for a long drive, but I eventually turned
south at Cleveland and got out of it.
Needless to say I crashed hard last night…and dreamed of heading back!
Below are a couple shots from the river. Allen Landheer wanted to give me first crack
at any fish so as I jumped in he grabbed the camera to take some pictures. It was pretty cool to see what he was able to
frame up and to get some new shots of me on the water since when I am out most
shots are taken by me and not of me!
Can't wait until next time on the water!
-mike schmidt
