So what do you do when you have that one ticket left at the FATC charity dinner? I really want that Renzetti travel vise, but all that bourbon would be nice too. New reel, new rod, flies tied by Kenny. How about a guided fly fishing trip, that sounds like fun even though I never win anything. And the winner is – Bob Palisch!
So who do you invite on this adventure, obviously it has to be Jim Craig. Even though I have found all the FATC members to be helpful on the water, Jim was the first one to help me out on my first trip to Montauk with the Psycho midge. My morning that day was not what I expected, but after Jim gave me that midge, things changed, so Jim was my companion on April 19th for the float. We contacted Augy Knickmeyer and originally wanted to float the Current River, but he said that the river conditions weren’t up to par so we decided to try our luck on the Meramec River.
We met Augy at Scotts Ford and shuttled up to Meramec spring to put in. Due to the recent rains, the water was muddy and off color, but we were excited to get on the water and try our luck. Augy set us up with a couple flies and we were off. Below the spring Bob nailed the first one, a nice little rainbow and Jim followed up with a beauty shortly after. As we traveled down the river, it was obvious that it was going to be a tough day of fishing; the water was fast and muddy. The bite was slow, we each had a few strikes that we lost, but Augy kept with us the entire float, constantly changing flies to try to match the water conditions but the bite continued to be slow. We tried all the flies we could think of but sometimes we win and sometimes the fish win. We finished up the float with a few fish – not as many as we’d hoped – but the weather was beautiful, the company was great so 2 out of 3 ain’t bad.
Many thanks to Augy Knickmeyer for his donation of the full day float, and for his support of FATC. While we didn’t have a stellar day on the river, everyone that I talked with that has floated with him have said that they caught between 15 and 30 fish per person. Highly recommend that you give him a try and support the people and organizations that support FATC.
