Red-horsing around

I fished the Otter Tail River at Orwell today and managed to catch a few fish on the fly. It was the maiden voyage for the new 9 weight rod, reel and sinking tip line. All were put to the extremes today and performed with flying colors.

They put a pretty good bend in the rod. One fish that I caught got turned around in the current and headed down stream. Flows were really high this morning, running about 1300 cfs. It felt like I snagged a log. My 9 wt was bent nearly in half, I though it was gonna break. I finally just horsed the be-jesus out of the rod to turn the fish around. After pulling like a mad man, I finally got the fish within range, and discovered it was a redhorse. I was not surprised.
I can't wait to head back down there when the game fish season opens, as it was difficult to keep the smallies and walleyes of the hooks in some spots.
One note to self though is to keep the hand out of the way when a carp is running. The knuckle on my pinky got rapped pretty good this morning, ouch. Tight Lines!