Broke out the heavyweights ( a long story)

[gillchaser999]

My shoulders and elbows have been handling flycasting ok for the past month , so I dusted off a few long flyrods to see if I could handle them .
In spite of a threat of thunderstorms I grab up a couple of rods and headed to lake Kedron to try to get in a little casting time .
It started raining on me on the way , but slacked up when I got to the lake .
First up was a 7’ Cabelas CGT 3wt that fishes better with a five weight or heavier line . I was wanting to toss a size 2 bass popper and thought this combo might work .
Nope ! On my false cast the popper hit me in the shoulder as it passed by . Well, at least it wasn’t my head and it didn’t hook me .
A quick walk back to the suv and I threaded up my St Croix 7’11” 7wt Mojo Bass . A rod I bought but never fished much . Don’t even remember how it cast .
Before I could get back to the water , the sky opened up and I hurriedly jumped into the RAV4 front seat and after 15 minutes of a frog strangler and watching five guys who were on the lake when the storms hit try to all load up their boats , I headed home until the afternoon, hoping the rain would quit .
The rain stopped after two o’clock and after my lunch settled I headed back to the dock around four .
This time I left the CGT at home and took my old 7.5’ St Croix Premier 6wt.
I tried the Mojo Bass with a 7wt line and it really needs at least an 8 . This one will definitely go back into storage .
I lined with Premier with a 6wt line and it was surprisingly fun and easy to cast . I was casting large foam hoppers with it and then switched to a size 6 Miss Prissy popper , both cast well . I even hooked up on what felt like a nice gill on the MP popper but it came unhooked about halfway in .
I swapped out the 6wt for a 4wt line and tied on a size 12 rubber legged spider and on my first cast hooked a five inch gill . I went on to catch three more before a family stopped on the dock in front of where I was casting and spooked the school under the dock .
By then the sun was out in force and there’s no shade in the evening at this location.
It was a learning experience. I probably should keep a log of what line works best on what rod , but that would take the fun out of it .