roughfisher.com

I got an early start to the day. I woke up at 330AM to head down to the local trout lake. I got there in plenty of time to start fishing an hour before sunrise. I had a pesky beaver slapping his tail at me, swimming back and forth in front of me in the dark. I'm sure that helped attract the fish. When light came, the beaver finally decided to move on. Unfortunately, the morning didn't improve as I left for home just after 800AM without a bite.

After a few rain showers, and yes, snow showers throughout the day, the skies began to clear early this evening. I felt like a glutton for punishment, so I grabbed my gear bag and threw it in my truck and headed down the road. The only beauty about the "opener" is that it re-opened one of my favorite spring spots on of the Otter Tail to fishing. Luckily, the crummy weather had put off the crowds and I was the only down there. I grabbed my 6 weight and tied on one of my soft hackled prince nymphs and a couple of small split shots. I walked down the bank to find the current eddy that was holding a ton of white suckers a few weeks earlier. There were still suckers here spawning! I hooked up with a fish on my first drift, but unfortunately it was foul hooked. After a couple more chances and a foul hooked walleye, I caught and landed the first white sucker of the day. This male had nicely developed tubercles. When I grabbed the fish to remove the hook, he released milt everywhere. It was a mess. Of course the sucker decided it would be funny to splash me at the same time. I had milt all over my pants, jacket and hands. Regardless, the day took a complete 180 from this morning. I proceeded to catch over a dozen more suckers over the next 2 hours. A couple of females were quite full with eggs; another male released his milt, but this time I was wiser and avoided the shower.

It was a great way to end the day. I love roughfish on the fly.