The 6th One Bug is behind us, what a great weekend it was. After two years of high water and wind, the weather cooperated and the fish were up for a banner Saturday, and then a humbling Sunday.Working from Sunday night on. Above is a picture of half of the winning team from Orvis, with Ryan Bunn holding the trophy as his partner Tyler Atkins and the rest of the Orvis boys headed back to Vermont. Atkins also one the individual trophy as the angler with the most points. With over 1,400 points Bunn and Atkins have surpassed any team high total in six years. Below is Tyler with a fine brown trout landed with guide Jeff Church.
I headed up Thursday and picked drift boat from Roscoe and met fellow guide Charlie Limbert at the Capra where we'd call home for the next four days. We stopped by Border Water Outfitters and gave Coz a hand over the next few hours trying to assign the One Bug contestants to their beats for the weekend, all the while making sure the teams were split and on different beats each day, not on the same beat as their partner, and had different other team boat mates each day. May sound easy but it ain't. We ended up what two rivers meet and watched as the tail out came alive as big fish sipped Olives as they went down. Below is a the fish that ate as the sun went down and the full moon rose.
We whooped it up Thursday at the Blue Stone Grill and woke up Friday wanting to fish before the opening On Bug dinner and auction. We hit the West Branch, and besides a dozen anglers bunched up and one here and there, we had what ever we wanted to ourselves only seeing two other boats all day. It was slow till the bewitching hour and then the Hendricksons turned on and the fish started to eat. It was a classic great day, missed a few, flossed a few, hooked a few, and landed well more than a few. The best part for me, as always, was just being there and watching it all go down. As 6 o'clock came and went we knew we had to go, but just as we rowed our we found some more fish bunched up and eating like it was their last meal.
Friday nights dinner and auction was great. Held under the big top at Firman's Park once inside you felt like you were back inside the Capitol Theatre. Good food, good drinks, good laughs, and a fun auction made for a great and late night. I found a lucky contestant who was the high bidder on a picture of a Hendrickson that I took and framed up.
We also did a lot of blind casting and Martin had a fish take as I followed his drift down the middle of the river. As he went to set the hook the slip knot I tied gave way leaving him out a 100 points for keeping his fly. He was then ready to take a nap as his boat mate fished looking to rack up some points.
After a long weekend Sunday night came and the last supper and awards were given out. The Squirrel Award was up on the block and Coz asked for stories about the guide who saved the fly, and 100 points, for their client. This years winner was Ryan Furtak who waded through high water and scaled a limestone wall at Fireman's Park to save Terry DiSabatino's fly that was wedged in between the shale. There were all kinds of awards for the different categories and the one the guides always
like to be in the running for is the top guide award. It's presented to the guide who has the most points over the two days, this year Darren Rist took the top honors. It was another great year and I am glad to be a part of such a great event with so many good people. Always a thanks to Dan Plummer and Sherri Resti and the entire FUDR crew who work so hard for the river and putting this all together.
