It’s been a great week down here in Phoenix, Arizona. I had a couple successful gigs and our friends Steve and Lisa Berry have looked after Granny and I well as always. Best of all, Steve has taken me fishing every single day and we have found some incredible fish.
For our last day, Steve asked me to choose the place. I wanted one more big grass carp on a dry fly. The grassies have been exceptionally tough this week with the low clear water in the canals and lakes. But I’ve stung a few so why not one more. We visited one of my favorite’s canals and in less than an hour I had a beast sip my olive cicada like a New Zealand brown trout, only this grassie was bigger than most New Zealand brown trout!
Steve had his buddy Isaiah with us today. Isaiah recently started carp fishing and I’m not sure he was completely sold. But he watched this fish munch my fly so I’m guessing that now he is. Isaiah was also kind enough to shimmy down the canal ladder and somehow get this fatty white Amur into Steves trout net.
The three of us fished hard on this canal another hour or two. Another friend of ours, Mike Faulkinbury, joined us as well. I got two more big grassies to eat my fly. Unfortunately the first broke the fly off. I’m pretty sure I dinged it of a street light behind me a few backcasts earlier. I should have checked things. Then I put on my next favorite fly, a Rainy’s Grand Hopper. But the foam body on the new ones is very hard and the hook gap is small. I missed the next eat.
After a great lunch at The Bar, we hit one more canal for the afternoon session. I watched Mike land a dandy of a grassie on one of his custom Green Drakes. Unfortunately for me, I ended up on the phone with Delta for three hours. There’s a giant snowstorm approaching the Midwest and our flights for home are in jeopardy. Long story short, Granny and I aren’t flying tomorrow, but rather on a redeye tonight. We need to beat the storm. And it’s crucial we do; I have a flight for TX on Monday morning to go fishing with some buddies.
That’s all from Phoenix. As promised, my speaking season is on break and my fishing season has begun. There’s lots of great adventures coming from here on out!