Fly fishing with the Day Trippers on the Caney Fork...

October 26, 2007

What a fantastic experience it is to be on a gorgeous slow moving river with great friends, great weather… AND CATCHING TROUT!

Locals to the Rock Island TN and Caney Fork areas might recognize restaurant entrepreneur and fly fishing madman Edward Philpot. As crazy as I am about kayaking is just about on par with his thirst for fly fishing for the ultimate catch. As you can see from these photo’s, we had the time of our lives. Edward (Green Day Tripper), his visiting twin brother Paul (Red Day Tripper), friend Brandon Reeves (yellow Day Tripper) and my wife Sonia got our awesome fishing gear on, packed a great lunch, and set out for some hard fighting Brown and Rainbow trout. We were not let down. The Day Trippers performed great, and having the option to bring everything you could ever need just made the day that much better.

Brandon caught the first trout. Within 15 minutes from where we put on the river, I hear this yelling from about a hundred yards downstream…. "I LOVE KAYAKING FISHING" was the first comment, second was something about "I am the biggest Day Tripper fan in the world!!!". It was awesome to hear and even better to see the trout he caught. Looks like we are off to a great start. Well, shortly thereafter, Jeff is having bites, and so is Brandon again, but no luck landing any. When all of a sudden Edward hooks onto a great trout. This fish is jump’n and flipp’n all over the place. What an exciting time. He brought this trout all the way in and as you can see in the photo’s, she was a beauty.

The rest of the day was spent trying out various ways to fish off the Day Trippers. My wife Sonia (master fisherwoman) was spin casting and enjoying a leisurely soft drink. Edward was hanging his legs off to the side, Paul was leaning back with a smile from ear to ear, and Brandon was hard at work pulling out every fly fishing trick in the book. After a great lunch and some time relaxing on the bank, it was time to start floating again. But what was so obvious from the minute we were getting our gear together at the put-in to the end of the day, was that these boats are perfect for allowing to bring any/every thing you could want for a day on the water. The dry bag that comes with the kayak worked great for my new Canon camera, the tray was perfect for working with ones lures and/or flies while keeping a refreshment handy. The open space in the back was perfect for holding a cooler loaded with "Goobers" (peanut butter/jelly) sandwiches, and other snacks provided by Edward and Paul.

As you can see, the only thing missing was my 4 legged best friends Baloo and Sage. They were back in Colorado and had to miss this one. Next time!

Marty

Packed up for a big day!