Terry and I are filming the first show of the season tomorrow so we wanted to get out and get the rust off. The wind is howling at about 30k so we are going to head up to Woodstock and hope the wind doesn’t bang us around to much in the river. We launched the boat and headed upriver to fish just below the Hartland covered bridge. This is the longest covered bridge in the world at 1282 feet in length and it has been in use since July 1901.
The fishing can be phenonmenal at times just below the bridge but with the crazy weather we have been experiencing this week we had to settle for just good fishing. I started off by rigging a Blue Fox in line spinner on a 6’6″ Crucial medium action rod and a 2500 Stadic reel spooled with 8lb Seige green mono. Terry started off with a Ghost XRap and tried a variety of baits as we worked the current edges. We got a nice mix of Smallmouth Bass, Speckled Trout and Rainbow Trout. Terry got the biggest Speckled Trout of the day, a nice 14 incher, on the XRap. Being good guys we invited the trout home for dinner and let the bass go.
On the way back to the ramp we saw a large bird that we presumed to be an Eagle flying ahead of us and figured we would get a better look at it in a minute with the boat running at 50MPH. Not a chance, with the 30 k tail wind that bird was moving and I had to kick it up to 60 to catch up to it. Who knew they could fly that fast even with the wind. Turned out it was a big male Bald Eagle.
We also ran into my buddy Clark Rayner who was out fishing for Musky. He was having a good day with four hook ups and two fish over 40 inches to the boat. He was still at it when we headed back to the ramp. Tomorrow we do the show and the weatherman says cloudy, showers and 20 to 30 k winds again.
Rick Greene
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