With Aaron earlier this week

Monday and Tuesday I fished with Aaron Snell.

We were to be joined by Kathryn on Tuesday, though with the Merkin upcoming and knowing that most of the day would be spent with me pining for more practice we decided that I should go it alone with Aaron and try to grease the groove a week before the tournament.

Day One:

We left at 8, which felt earlier than usual from the recent time change. Our first three stops were lacking any fish, but on our fourth stop we saw a school of permit. I never got a shot at this school, but as they led us down the edge we saw a single that gave us an opportunity to present the fly. I did, though this proved fruitless. Again, we had a shot–again, we were unable to seal the deal. This continued in fits and starts for another few hours, until we found ourselves on a white sand patch that was populated with what must have been hundreds of permit. They split and moved together, and after we had some interest from the smaller fraction we threw again at part of the school that had moved away from the first. No interest. We moved down the edge and saw more fish, and while we put the fly in the middle of them and they didn’t spook neither did they eat the fly. Once more we had a shot at a different group, as disinterested as the second.

We continued on, and after the tide change doldrums we found a few single fish tailing away on the flat. I took what shots my shattered ego would allow, never coming tight.

Day Two:

After the many shots without anything coming together for us on Monday, we left with high hopes for our fishing on Tuesday–our second and final day. We returned to where we had found the Great Many the day before, and had decent fishing. The schools were still together, though they seemed at times to be actively feeding. This didn’t help us, however, as our efforts were met with a total lack of participation from the permit.

We looked more, found more, threw to more but were unable to get something done. A frustrating couple days, to be sure, but at least I can rest assured that I’ve left some of my bad luck behind. The Merkin starts on Tuesday, and Monday I’m fishing with John for our prefish scout session.

More to come after the Merkin,

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