Caney report 9/17-9/19 MTFF & broken rod

[Vern]

Had a great outting with MTFFnthis weekend. I arrived Friday mornong set up camp, inflated the pontoon boat and headed below the dam. A little slow caught about 20 on a olive bugger, but no really large browns. Saturiday we started about 12:00 and fished the falling water. caught about 20 nice trout using a copperjohn dropped off a dry. Missed 2 huge Browns, one at least 22 and one (maybe the water made it look bigger) I would swear was 30". Call it buck fever but I set the hook way to hard and end up with the dry stuck to my hat and no copperjohn. Then we got into some nice Rainbows 13-14", I brought about 8 of the little footballs to the net. Then I did something really stupid. Grabbed the leader to pull the flyline back through the last two guides, yea I know not to do it, but I did. Snap, my 2pcs orvis trident Tls became a 3pcs. that was my favorite tail water rod, and they have not made it since 04, and the matrix in my opnion is not even close to being the same rod. I am waiting on Orvis to call me back as I write this. Well I hiked back to the truck and pulled out my frequent flyer combo rod from behind the seat. 7' 5wt, It took me about 30 min before I could cast well enough get the good drifts needed. Finaly I got back into the groove and caught abot 20 more fish. But still no big brown.
Decide to fish all day Sunday, my wife has almost forgiven me! I also had a Orvis clearwater Gaintfish uses (he decided the homecoming dance rated higher that fishing) It worked OK for but it felt like a telephone pole compared to my tls. Caught around 30 fish, then missed another huge brown, this time the leader broke at the surgens knot, next time I took the time to tie a blood knot. Then I saw a nice Brown rising to my dry, soft little slurp and the fun was on, after a fun few minutes we finaly brought her to the net. Not a monster but around 18-19".

We had a great time, everyone of the members (20) caought fish with 3 or 4 of us having well over 120 fish weekend.

http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k310/VERNONKOFC/caney%2009/brownsept09-1.jpg
http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k310/VERNONKOFC/caney%2009/brownsept092.jpg
http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k310/VERNONKOFC/caney%2009/olympus233.jpg
http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k310/VERNONKOFC/caney%2009/olympus231.jpg

[Maglite]

Nice work fellas! sorry to hear about that rod, you should get something nice in return from Orvis though.

[gutshot]

Looks like they just stocked some browns and rainbows. How little were they?

Glad you had a good time.

Get any pictures of the big browns?

[stuart]

About your rod, tell Orvis you don't want the rod replaced. They may have some tips left and will be able to fix yours. I done this with an old Rocky Mtn. They replaced a broke guide and rewrapped the whole rod and sent it back. But the first thing they mentioned was to replace it with a TLS at the time. I didn't want it my RM is a full flex and a 9ft 4wt full flex it impossible to find now. All worked out great and they were super to deal with. Give it a try.
STU

[Maurer]

what weight and length was your trident?

[bigpopper]

Great report and pics Vern!

[Vern]

8'6 2pc 5wt tip flex. I called orvis and they may have a tip to replace it.
The farther down river you went the bigger the fish. Near the dam 9-11", closer to Lancaster 11-14" footballs. the biggest brown was 25".