Rocky Ford, 11/26/04

Driving through Mercer Island at about ten in the morning I got the call. " This is Sven, where are you, there's no wind and the parking lot is empty." Sven's mention of the parking lot tells the nature of my destination today. "Ephrata U-Fish" is the most descriptive moniker I've heard yet. Rocky Ford Creek is essentially a stock pond, albeit a nice stock pond.
Stock pond or not The Ford has some nice fish that will put a parabola in your rod. As I drove by the main pool (enroute to the parking lot) I saw Sven playing a nice fish from the far bank.
I took my time rodding up for a change. Maybe because after fishing I had to continue on to Spokane and face the in laws, today seemed like a good day to take things in stride. I strung up a 7wt line on my 9'9" 5 wt and tied on an olive woolhead sculpin. Satisfied with this rig I put on my waders and walked down to the "creek."
Sven was in the same spot and he had another fish on. There were maybe a dozen other anglers along a quarter mile section of water and so far Sven was the only angler I saw catch anything. I felt confident that I would get into 'em too, after all I was to learn "System Sven" from the self proclaimed, "Streamer King" himself.
I started out almost directly across from 'ol Sven and was into fish within ten minutes. I wasn't exactly suprised to catch my first Rocky Ford rainbow but the strike was violent and the fight dynamic. Only a Polaris missile can compare with a hooked rainbow when it comes to lauching out of the water. Even then a Polaris only launches once, some of these Rocky Ford trout gave a hearfelt (though less ballistic) encore. I didn't measure any of the ten or so fish I caught but I would be suprised if any of them were under 20 inches. Not a bad haul for a few hours of fishing.
Back at the rigs Sven had his camp already set up and a nice fire built too. We swapped war stories about the day's battles and congratulated each other on our fishing prowess. I managed to pilfer a beer from my buddy's cooler and mooch a dog off the grill before I had to get back on the road and see my fam for the holiday. Thanks Sven.

It has begun.

Flytimes is born.