We had some unseasonably nice warm weather in the last week so I decided to call up a buddy and go flyfishing at a small lake in the Blue Mtns a few days ago. Figuring there might be some chironomid action going on I decided to pull the old pumpkin colored Fenwick FF84 out of the closet that I havent used in a while. I tied up a dozen tungsten beadhead chironomids the day before assuming the action was going to be hot. When we got to the lake there were only two other people fishing. I started with an indicator and chironomid but after 30 minutes I realized it wasnt doing the trick so I switched to a Teeny T200 on the same rod with a wooley bugger and fish the bottom just above the weed bed. Casting the T200 line with the FF84 was an absolute pleasure. The action of the rod and the heavy 24' "sink tip" was like a slow motion catapult, so easy and effortless to fire a long distance. A couple casts and fish-on. These were small to medium sized rainbows.

After fishing a couple hours I decided to keep a few for a shore lunch. Fish tacos. It was a good retirement day for the books!

Thanks for looking.

I’ll second all that. And retirement is by far my favorite gig.

Thanks guys.

I retired 3 years ago. These kind of days I enjoy the most (perfect weather, good fishing, great shore lunch, and most importantly I didnt feel rushed to get home and prepare for going back to work!)

You were certainly living large at the lake. I wish I had been there in a comfortable chair around the cooler for lunch and feeling the tug of those Rainbows. Thanks for sharing. When I can't go fishing, it's still a joy to see pics and read about others who were able to fish.

Tight Lines- Ken

Awesome ! Will keep some fish on my annual spring trip in a couple weeks.Mostly crappies and sunfish.White bass and catfish.Been getting better at crappie on the fly.Caught at least 50 on flies last year right in front of the cabin. But it is a deep lake and 3 in a boat spinning gear is what we mostly use.We re down to 25 of us. Used to be 60 guys.Same trip for 30+ years.Fish fry on the last day is still great.Except for Lake Michigan perch i keep 0 fish these days.No one eats them but me.

fish tacos

one addition Mike, the thinnest possible stripe of Remoulade

Thanks everyone.
Congrats on retirement Kern Golden and Upstream. Odonata the reel is a Hardy Cascapedia I purchased several years ago from Harris Sportsmail when they had great discounts on Hardy reels. Hersh, have a great spring trip! Hope you slay em. Ron, you are right about having a "secret sauce" for fish tacos. Mine was a mixture of sour cream, mayonaise, garlic, cayenne and lime juice.

BTW I pulled a similar trip at a different lake a week earlier with my Graywolf ultralight spinning rod. Same tacos, perfect weather.....

Awesome. Thanks for the recipe Ron!

Have been cooking whole trout filets,skin on,cajun blackened style for a few years now.Great grandma's cast iron fry pan on the grill.The stockers here never make it past june so either we eat em or the turtles do.Ron Tabsco is the only hot sauce i will use.Got into a heated discussion about hot sauces as there are 1000s these days it seems.How many are hand selected peppers and aged 3 years?Only one i know of.My son is a firehouse cook and great at smoking fish and game and has a lot of the cajun creole classics perfected.He will love that sauce recipe,i will too.

@gmrpeabody, if you ever replace that with finesse casting combo, you'll discover a whole new bait monkey on your back.
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