The First Drift

November 16th 2012....  I had been counting down the days for months till it's arrival.  Hiking  (for me) is required in finding new digs and or reaching old favourites.  This day however I would fish some great new water for the first time ever via drift boat.   Floyd and I were booked with Mike Verhoef of Flyfitter's for a full day drift and the tools for the day would be Spey rods.  We would swing for aggressive fish.  Truth be told, I couldn't leave my trusty single hander at home so it was rigged and packed. Unknown to me at the time,  It would see hardly any action and would not take a single fish during our trip.

  The Location of the drift was finalized the night before.  We  arrived early at our meeting location the next morning.   Mike arrived  shortly after pulling a frost covered drift boat behind his vehicle.  We packed up our gear and were off to our put in spot, soon after we were drifting down the river.   We approached our first run,  Floyd graciously gave me the first pass.  Big thanks to Floyd.   As I neared the end of the run I got a good solid smack mid swing.  Eventually  I landed the first fish of the day.
           

After working the run for about 20 minutes with no takes we jumped back in the boat and continued our adventure.  The next spot would have  Floyd set up on river right and myself casting from the boat on river left. Within minutes the 13'-6" Loop Evotec was bent again.

This time the strike would come at the end of the swing while twitching the intruder.

 

The day flew by as we drifted from run to run.   Early afternoon we stopped for lunch.  Floyd and I fished while Mike warmed up the tasty homemade soup he had prepared the night before. We also ate sandwiches and sweets.   For the remainder  of the day we would fish four more nice runs.  As it turned out we would not see anymore fish that day, but it didn't matter. It was an incredible trip, and very relaxing.  Seeing the river from a drift boat for a day was a real treat.  I think I will have to treat myself again and again....

 Until then, I guess it's back to following deer trails, or making my own...