The flight to Buffalo, NY was on time. I left NW Arkansas at 8:30 am and arrived in Chicago about 10 am. Here I met one of my fishing companions, Ken Barnes, he had been able to fly out of Springfield. We were on the same flight to Buffalo.
We arrived almost intact. One of Ken's bags (this is another story) was on its way to Colorado Springs, CO. We were not happy campers. Still, we all had enough equipment to support Ken so we headed to Erie, PA, in a sudden snow storm. Persistant calling back to the airlines had a good effect and the bag was routed back to Buffalo by mid afternoon, it finally arrived in Erie about Midnight!
Sunday was cold, below 20 degrees. Our fishing hole was a mile walk which kept us plenty warm. The warmth did not last!
As usual, at this temperature, water froze in the rod guides and immediately started giving us trouble. This became a huge problem when we used Ken's digital thermometer and it read 32.4 degrees. I believe, without a doubt this is the coldest water I have ever fished.
As devout Lake Taneycomo and White River fishers we knew that all we had to do was stick the rod into the water and the ice would melt off. EXCEPT, it did not melt! Every cast increased the ice on the guides, the fly line, the leader, the tippet and the flies. In fact after catching just a couple of fish our flies froze completely, they looked like marbles. This is when Ken observed that we could actually melt the ice on the fly by putting it in our mouth. We are all still hoping no horrible bacteria could survive in this cold water.
We discovered that you could make two to three casts and drifts before the fly needed to be thawed. Several times the fish would take and could not get the hook in their lip so we just played tug-of-war.
Several fish were landed with lines frozen to the rod. Challenging and exciting. Did I mention these were steelhead almost all over 5 lbs some at 8 or 9. We were really concerned about the guides getting ripped off of the rod.
John Herillko, our host on this trip prepared a hot meal for lunch. It was much needed and appreciated. Ken even carried in a bottle of Steelhead wine. Nice! You may be thinking that noone would have a cork screw, wrong! We ALL had a corkscrew in our fishing vest.
Difficult situations make for great stories and great trips.
FishON!
Harry