Christmas Eve Present

Yesterday morning I was able to start my Christmas Eve on the Saluda River for an hour or so before running a few errands around town.  I started and ended the year on this river and I really should spend more time on it.  It's a great river as long as you keep track of the generation schedule.

The Spanish Moss hangs heavy in the trees over the river.  This hardly looks like your typical trout stream but they are in there.  The Saluda River is stocked each fall and there are a few holdovers that make it through the summer heat and periods of low flows.

With not much time to be on the water I tied together a double stonefly (One large and one small.  One drab and one flashy.) and began working a couple of the deeper runs and drop offs.

As I was winding down my quick Christmas Eve session the line went tight and I quickly realized that I wasn't playing with a stocker.  Several minutes later this seventeen inch present finally came to the net.

It was enjoyable to take the Scott Rod Company F2 825/4 out one more time before I'll pack up the demos and send them back to Colorado next week.  It was nice to finally put a heavy fish on this rod to see how it handled it.

This buggy looking stonefly, tied by MK Flies, looked like breakfast.

So...one hour on the water and then off to pick up a gift for Mrs. Manifesto certainly wasn't a bad way to start the Christmas weekend.  My Christmas Eve was complete and I felt like a kid that got to tear open a present early.  Good times.