Third Times a Charm

My dad and I had already fished together twice this spring and our combined total of fish caught between those two outings was three.  I invited him to go fishing with me again on Saturday and I was hoping we would have some better luck.  This time we headed for one of my favorite southern Minnesota streams.

The last thing I like to see when I'm exploring a new section of river is the dreaded "No Trespassing" sign.  Besides not being able to walk the banks of a certain section of stream I always seem to get a certain song stuck in my head.

Oh, signs, signs, everywhere there's signs

Blocking up the scenery, breaking my mind

Do this, don't do that, can't you read the sign?

We don't need your banks anyway.  

 Beautiful place.

 I guess the Skulpin Bunny works on Smallmouth Bass as well.

 I was off to a good start.

 Pretty soon Dad had a bend in his rod.  He thought it was another bass.

 But it ended up being a Brown Trout.

 Nautilus.

 Soon I switched to this Olive Beadhead Rubber Legged Bugger that I have slayed them on in the past.  The trout just couldn't resist it.

 I've have caught so many trout on this stupid thing.  I think the hook is an extra long size 8 with a big old brass bead.

Another one bites the dust.

 Then dad caught one on his Dumbell Eyed Yellow Fox.

 It was turning out to be a great day.

 The river has current.

 A little while later my Dad caught his biggest Brown Trout to date.  It was 18 inches.  Nice trout dad.

 Sometimes when my arms are tired from fighting trophy after trophy I just take a break and photograph the scenery.

 Beautiful place.

                                                                            I tried nymphing unsuccessfully for a few drifts and then decided to go back to streamers.  When I was looking through my fly box something caught my eye.

One night last winter I was tying up a few Carey Specials.  If I tie any fly pattern the same exact way more than three times in a row my head starts to hurt so that night after tying three Carey Specials I changed the materials.  For the body I used olive ostrich herl and for the collar I substituted peacock herl.  This constituted a great innovation in fly pattern design.  Instead of naming my new creation the, "Eddie Special" I decided to name it the, "Special Ed".

Well when I saw the Special Ed in my fly box I decided to give it a whirl.  I still had a split shot 26 inches up from the fly which I left in place because the Special Ed is unweighted.

On my very first cast with the Special Ed a trout came out of nowhere and slammed it just as I was pulling it out of the water.

Two casts later bam!  Another trout couldn't resist the temptation of the Special Ed.

What a beauty!

 Look at that smile.  I should have been a model.

After releasing Special Ed's second victim I caught yet another trout.  Now I know how Bethke must have felt the first time he tested the the Pink Squirrel.

When I started fly fishing back in 2006 I always knew that I would someday invent a fly pattern that would change the face of fly fishing as we know it.  Only thing is that I didn't think it would happen so soon.

After nailing those three trout in short order it was time to call it a day.  And a good day it was.

Eddie Rivard Fly Fishing is now on Facebook.

https://www.facebook.com/eddierivardflyfishing