Well it was a long time coming . . .

Stuck here in Sudbury over the weekend with precious little to do
after the completion of the server upgrade. So yesterday, I wet a
line at the Vermillion river hoping for whatever. Two little bass and
one humungous strike that damn near pulled the rod out of my hands (a
northern no doubt). While fishing, I keep thinking about the
waterfall that's about 400 yards upstream. But lazy ass me stays at
the easy access and flogs away.

So now it's Sunday and with no forethought or planning, it's off to
the waterfall. Now, if I'd been a smart man, I would've been tying
clousers Saturday evening instead of watching the Roughies smack
around the Alouettes (I know at least one ROFFian whose heart was
gladdened by the thrashing). Equivalent in the No-Fun-League to
Buffalo whomping the Patsies.

Anyway, here I am at the waterfall, having done the bushwacking and
the rock outcrop crawling thing needed to get there, with no food, no
drink, few flies, one rod, one line, and a bit of tippet. I could've
taken the Loop Blue 7116 plus the rest of the gear, including most
importantly, my Rio BigBoy shooting heads. But nooooo, so little
faith had I in the outcome, that I've done nothing to prepare myself
for a positive one. This country is beautiful at this time of year
and I lambaste myself for leaving the camera behind. Note that I
don't regret the omission in the event of a fish.

From a distance, the waterfall appears to empty straight out past the
rocky point I had planned as using as my casting platform, but it
turns out that the current sweeps directly at the base of the point,
then turns into the main stem of the river. Crap! It means I'm
casting almost directly upstream, then allowing the fly to swing and
hope I don't snag up on the point. The Loop would be way better than
the St. Croix Jim Clouser 8 wt. as I'd have the reach to keep the fly
away from bank plus I could reach the slow water on the far side.

It's the most perfect looking pickerel water -- clear but tannin
stained, deep, rocky, cold, and well fed by the waterfall. I haven't
caught a pickerel in over 20 years and never on the fly. What to use?
On goes a striped bass clouser. (Fitting, a clouser fly for the
Clouser rod.) Flog, flog, flog -- learn the currents, find out the
hard way where the snags are, continually unknot the running line on
the Teeny 200. This is damn near hopeless and I'm really ****ing and
moaning about not having the Loop with me. The wind is a bitch,
blowing from my left (OK) or behind me (not OK) and at times my
backcast gets collapsed. Other times it's blowing almost straight at
me and I'm sidearming under it. Still, I'm getting decent distance
and the fly is getting down and fishing.

Snag, snag, snag. Deep water but I'm still hanging up. I've had to
straighten out the point on the hook, the dumbell eyes are now swept
back, like the wings on a jet, from all the rocks it's been pulled
across. With each hangup it get's more bedraggled. This is my only
white and yellow fly and I husband it jealously. ****, another snag
-- hell no -- it's moving! It's not fighting like a bass, it's not
thrashing like a pike -- good weight and lots of smallish vibrations
rather than big shakes. Could it be? After a minute or so, up it
comes and the unmistakeable head of a pickerel surfaces, about 20" and
around 2.5 pounds. Reach down and slip the hook with the forceps and
off he swims.

Felt like a kid with his first bluegill . . . .