Bad Water Levels, Great Results

Upon arriving at Lusby Landing, Ryan pointed out that the water level was the highest it has been in 30 years. . . . great. That's exactly the reason we came here instead of Saratoga. I have to say I was a little skeptical. It didn't last long though. 3 minutes into the float, I was into a fish. Ryan had warned us that most fish were lost because anglers didn't allow them to run right from the get-go. This in mind, I let this guy do his thing. It wasn't much at first. I think it didn't realize he was hooked or it was just still sleepy. Eventually though he took the line and ran. I was impressed but the guide just nonchalantly called it average. I mentioned I would take average all day if it fought like this. I brought it in after awhile and was thrilled to know I wasn't going to be skunked this day. It was 17 to 18 inches. I'd take it.

Right around the bend I got into another. This one was bigger, about 18 inches plus. A fat hen too. She fought about the same way, still a little sleepy at first but soon got angry. Another boat floated by as Ryan netted it for me. The excitement shown in their eyes as we told them it was our second already. I was ecstatic. I was two fish up on my father-in-law! That's a first.
There was a nice stretch of about 100 yards right below where I caught the first two. This proved to be the perfect stretch. Not only did we have two doubles here but caught lots more the next day and the next while wading. I got into my third fish while Howard had his first on. . . . our first double. Howard's fish was a good one and mine was "too big for his britches." It was amazing too. He jumped about eight times before I got him in. A couple jumps nearly saw him in the boat. I never would have thought a trout could clear that much water and look so graceful doing it. It got 6 feet out of the water at times and soared perfectly while in air. Amazing!

As we neared the end of the run, Ryan would say" get you lines up and clean them off perfectly. I'll take us back up." He did this a half a dozen times here and added "Why leave fish to go find fish?" a great point I thought. We found a few more spots like Lusby along the way. I got one on the line that took me almost to the backing on my real. I got this one under control after about 10 minutes. I finally muscled him in after he bull dogged at the bottom for a while. This big boy was just under 20 inches. He had great color and a long crooked jaw too. He did happen to poop all over the boat while a held him up. It got all over Ryan's water jug too (as tough as he seemed to be, He wanted no more water out of that jug the rest of the day.) This guy could be my favorite fish of all time. A great specimen. Ryan even said that it was the type of fish that brought people to the North Platte. I'd take that one too!
I later caught another big male that had a broken jaw. Amazing it could still eat. It was a funny looking thing. I remember laughing hard during the picture. Howard caught a nice little brown. This was a big deal because they make up less than 3% of the population, a real trophy. He always manages to find brown trout.

We pulled into a nice picnic spot for a chicken salad wrap, chips, cashews, coke, and fruit. It was refreshing. After lunch I got into the back so Howard could man the front for a while. We caught a bunch more. Every once in a while Ryan would ask if the water seemed dirtier to me. It did actually. Before long, the water was mud and the fish weren't biting at all. By this time it was getting on to 5 and we had already been worn out with fish. I bet we caught 30 fish between us. Howard had a couple small ones but my smallest was no less than 17 inches, amazing! They took all three flies but seemed to key in on the red San Juans. Ryan gave Howard a handful of flies afterward for us to try the next day while wading. He gave us his card and invited us down to the river after dinner. His buddies were camping right below the dam. That's about all there was to do in this town, fish and drink afterward. It was a great float. We later found out that we had the most success out of all the guided floats that day. Not bad. I'd take that too.