A Remembered Day

Dan & Betty Orr’s Day of Shad Fishing with David Fussell

Betty and I were excited to be the winning bidders for a trip to the Roanoke River with David Fussell at the last Triangle Fly Fishers Annual Pig Pickin’. We didn’t realize just how exciting it would turn out to be. As the beginning of the shad run fast approached, Betty and I arranged our schedules and took a Friday off from work to try our luck at shad fishing. Something we had never done before. We met David at the boat dock at Weldon, NC at 1:00 on Friday, March 12.

Having little experience with swift river fishing, David kindly lent us his reels with sinking line and provided the ‘magic’ flies. David put together a two fly rig (using both a spoon fly and brown/orange wooly bugger) for each of us and we were ready to fish. By 1:30, we were out on the river fishing. By 1:35, we were catching! We were hooking into fish with exciting frequency and by 6:30, as the last light from the sun dipped below the trees on the western shore, we had hooked and landed over 160 fish between the two of us! Most of the fish were in the 2-2 1/2 pound range with Betty catching a couple that must have pushed 3 pounds! Many of the hook ups were doubles and at least 5 times we each had two fish on at once (one on each fly of our rig)! Also to our amusement, I caught a rather large carp (see Terry your tutelage did work!) and a white bass. This must be some sort of 'poor angler's slam'!

This was, without a doubt, one of the most exciting days of fishing we have ever had. All the way home we talked about how this would be a remembered day of fishing and how other TFF members would have to dig deep into their wallets or purses to win the trip with David next year!

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