Pat comes from big fishing family. Pat's dad, Kevin, has been fishing as far back as I can remember. Pat himself landed, and had mounted, a fairly huge rainbow trout back in college, and proudly had it displayed in our dorm room. I have vague memories from childhood of walking the path around Maramec Spring with Pat and his family, and for the longest time didn't put it together that we were there so Kevin could fish. I've only been fly-fishing for a few years, and somehow have never gone fishing with Pat, so I'm very excited about this trip.
The Plan
Pat and his family are heading down to Bennett Friday during the day, and I won't be able to join them until Saturday morning. I plan on waking up early enough to leave my house at 4:00 a.m., and hightail it down to Lebanon. Google says it's two and a half hours away, so barring any freak early early morning traffic, I should make it to the park around opening bell at 6:30 a.m., hopefully earlier. It's going to take a full thermos of coffee and expert bladder control on the drive down there, but I'll manage.
I'm heading there on May 16, and am writing this post on May 6. That gives me ten solid days to tie flies, clean gear, monitor the weather, and dick around at fly shops getting the latest tips. Mike Swederska posted that he had a lot of luck last week at Bennett using a Root Beer Dry Emerger pattern. He was nice enough to post a recipe and directions as well. After a quick, and surprisingly cheap, stop at Tom Hargrove's fly shop, I was able to tie a few of these last night.
 |
| Root Beer Dry Emerger |
