Guest Blogger: Joe Dellaria, Woodbury MN

Have you ever looked at a spot on a river and thought to yourself “Wow, there has to be a fish there!”? Then you fish it thoroughly and nothing-totally bewildering. Years ago, I went through a phase where I spin casted for trout. This happened after I had just finished fly fishing a hole and caught nothing. A spin caster walked up to the exact spot and after three casts with a Rapala, he hooked and landed a nice 16” brown. I was amazed and dumbfounded. To my total astonishment he threw the fish back while saying, “Too small” with a disgusted voice. I promptly started asking questions about his catch rate and size of fish. Impressed by his accomplishments, I switched to spin casting.

This is not the point of my article, but I needed to set up why I was spin casting in one of those “fishy spots.” It was late summer and overcast, a storm front was on its way when I reached this spot where I never had a follow or hit prior to this day. Despite my lack of success, I began casting through the section (My wife claims I am part bull dog!) expecting nothing to happen as usual. My cast went perfectly up against a partially submerged tree in the water and thankfully just missed two branches in the water. Just as the Rapala cleared the last branch the water exploded. The fish hit the lure so hard he knocked it 3-4 inches out of the water. I was thinking “Oh, I hate when that happens,” when to my amazement the fish hit the lure again. In my excitement I over set the hook and pulled defeat out of the jaws of success. My heart rate goes up every time I tell someone about this incident. more…