It was early April of 2015 and it was time of year where you REALLY want to go fishing because its been a long winter and you have been off the water for too long. There have been a few warm days here and there thus producing a false sense of hope that local waters are warming up and that fish might start biting. This however is far from the case and the water is still just too darn cold...or so I thought. To bide my time and keep my anxiety at bay, I decided to attend an Iron Fly. Now if you've never attended an Iron Fly, let me tell you that it is a heck of a time. They are usually held at a watering hole and you will meet folks from all walks of life. There are tying challenges, prizes, efforts to get new folks involved in fly tying, and a boat-load of fun. I decided to attend this event because of an advertisement that I saw when reading the blog at The Midwest Drift. I was a little apprehensive to attend because I don't like to compare my tying skills to those of others. My confidence is fragile to say the least and while I have admiration for others abilities, I usually find some sort of frustration in the sense that I think "Now why the heck can't I tie like that." However, my desire to meet other folks that were like-minded was stronger than my self-consciousness issues and in particular, I wanted to meet Luke.
As I had suspected, Luke was a heck of a nice guy and so was everybody else. Everyone was having a good time, crazy flies were getting tied, and I was learning A LOT about local waters from other anglers. Out of all the information that I received that night though, Luke's advice was what hit home with me the most. He asked me where I lived and I said it was not too far from Blue Springs Lake. He asked me if I had ever fished for wipers/hybrids there and I said that I didn't have a big enough boat to chase fish around a lake that big. He informed me that I didn't need a boat and that my chances at catching some wipers/hybrids were pretty good by just fishing off of the dam on the lake. He suggested that I throw shad/baitfish flies on an 8 weight and to cast as far as I could into the main lake. He told me that the wipers/hybrids were pushing shad into the dam to feed on them at this time of year and that they could be caught from the bank. He also told me that they were tremendous fighters and could get into the 8-12 pound range. To say that this was enough information and detail to get my blood pumping would be a gross understatement. The next morning found me and my buddy Pat headed to the dam to investigate this phenomenon.
There was a light drizzle and it was a little chilly that morning. However, that wasn't a bit of wind and that's good for me with a fly rod. When we pulled up to the parking lot, it didn't take long to see our first hybrids/wipers. They were 50-75 yards off the bank and were doing something that I haven't seem them do since. They seemed to be rolling on bait like tarpon. They weren't blowing up the surface with aggression like I have seen them do since and they seemed content to slowly feed on bait that apparently couldn't move very fast. While this made us optimistic in terms of hooking up with one of these critters, they were also A LONG way off the bank.
Pat started off throwing some jerk baits and swimbaits while I started with shad-like streamer. We slowly worked our way down the dam and tried not to break our ankles or necks on the slick rocks. It had been almost an hour and while we saw fish moving, we just weren't getting any bites. Truth be told, my arm was getting a little tired from throwing my 8 weight and it looked like things just weren't going to happen for us even though it was just nice to be on the water and having a CHANCE to catch fish.
I had switched to a fly that I was using for the first time and to me at least, it looked pretty good moving through the water. It is a fly I call The Brave. It earned this moniker because about a week before it hooked a 7 pound channel cat in a farm pond. I just happened to be wearing an Atlanta Braves hat at the time and it seemed like an appropriate name. I also thought that this fly was going to have to be pretty brave since it was going to hopefully be placed in front of some pretty big and angry fish. It has since become my favorite streamer that has landed some nice-sized fish for me in the last few years. We were just about to call it a day and I was on my seventeenth last cast. I was almost done with my retrieve and getting pretty close to submerged rocks that I could see. I felt a "thump" and was pretty sure that I had bumped a rock...but at the same time, I was fishing close enough to the surface that I hadn't hit a rock all day. My mind quickly reverted to a lesson that one of my dad's buddies taught me a long time ago. He said whether you think you have a bite or you think you might be snagged, set the hook because what do you have to lose...so that's what I did.
I can only liken what happened next to hooking into the back of a Ford F-150 that is driving away from you. To my shock, I had a fish on the line. To an even greater surprise, it was into my backing before I could even let Pat know that I had one on. I have only felt this type of experience 7 total times in my life and I can replay them each in my mind with perfect clarity. The fight lasted about 10 minutes and two things ran through my head. Once was that I was on the verge of praying not to lose this fish. Two, was what had I gotten myself into? I felt like I was incredibly out-gunned and that I didn't have the equipment to land this monster. I was throwing straight 8 pound fluorocarbon on my 8 weight and there were rocks everywhere. If a knot didn't hold, if the line hit a rock, or if the line was just too weak, it was over. I felt like I had brought a knife to a gun fight.
The fight was incredible to say the least. There were 3 long runs that got in and out of my backing and the power of this fish felt like pure electricity surging up the line and into the rod. I had my drag set really low because I didn't want a drag system to be the reason that I lost this fish. I instead palmed the real on many occasions and applied the pressure myself, as I saw fit. When the energy reached my hand, the connection was real and it really felt like we were locked in mortal combat. Someone had to win, and someone had to lose. Either I would lose an amazing fish and memory or it would potentially lose its life. However, after a grueling fight, a sore right forearm, and some great advice from Pat, I finally got the beast into some shallow water. To say I put a death grip on this fish's lower lip would be an understatement. The tale of the tape was 8 pounds, and 24 inches long. I had a hold of this trophy and it wasn't going anywhere but up on my wall. That's when it dawned on me. I needed a taxidermist!
Now let me clarify that statement really quick. I don't eat fish. I know, its weird, but I don't like the taste. Thus, I don't like to kill fish; however, I was going to make an exception for this dude and here's why. Hybrids/Wipers are sterile and cannot reproduce so it wasn't like I was going to be wiping out an entire generation by killing this one fish. Also, the Missouri Department of Conservation stocks them on a yearly basis. Finally, this was a legal fish to keep and I decided that I was going to use a little slush fund from Christmas/birthday money that I had received to pay for my first skin mount. While I had a little guilt, my taxidermy man that had been in business for over 30 years said that this was the first hybird/wiper that he had mounted that had been landed on a fly.
Since this day, I have loved to fish for hybrids/wipers. I firmly believe that they would pull any other species of fish in Missouri (except maybe flathead catfsih) around by the tail. I still have a lot to learn about catching these fish on a fly, and I know it sounds cliche, but I'm still totally hooked to this day. It was an experience unlike any I had had up to that point in my life. It wouldn't have been possible without my buddies Luke and Pat and they will forever be connected to this memory. I could not be more grateful for the experience, friends, and fish!
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