Numba 9...Numba 9...'Zee Germinz'

Number 9 is the first trout that I have caught on a fly of my own creation... which is a big deal for any fisherman...as it very well should be.
The circumstances surrounding this great little fish are also special.
This was a winter fish...a fish from the outflows. As a matter of fact the date on the photo is Jan 20th so this would've taken place right around this time of year.
The dead of winter..
The 'Outflows' are where the petrochemical industry dumps warm water into the freezing cold St Clair river. After becoming a 'Sarnia Trout Guy' it didn't take me long to find out about them.
Although apparently they are not as good as they used to be (a common..and very suspect fishy theme)they still give up fish from time to time and I don't need much.
The most important thing they give me is an excuse to get out of the house in the winter.
My friend Jason had given me the 411 on the fishing the discharges. At the time there were only two or three that were accessible to the public and sadly now there are none...DAMNED FENCES!!!
Obviously the really good ones were the ones you couldn't get at.
Jason used to fuel my imagination with stories involving breaking the ice free at the boat launch and positioning a car topper right over the outflow trout water.
"A Brown trout on every cast"....
Browns have always been neat to me.
I faintly remember my old man bringing a Brown Trout home one day and the excitement that went with it. I was about 5 years old at the time. It seemed to have stuck with me.
So down to the Chemical Valley I would go and flail away.
Spawn never seemed to work and it took me a long time...for whatever reason ...to get onto minnows.
The first little Brown came on a spinner.
A Black Double Loon spinner.
Oh the Magic of that moment. I could barely catch my breath.
I remember thinking while looking at my first beached Brown ..'The spots are right ...but this fish isn't Brown at all' ...Beautiful Silver...with that butterscotch back. Those open water fish are really spectacular. As Chrome as any October Steelie.
That fish almost made the list. That was a special moment. First Brown...and more importantly...the first fish I ever released.
Pivotal really.
Because these fish wouldn't eat spawn and because the water they chose to swim in was really warm we kicked around the idea that fly-fishing with nymphs might be the answer.

Field and Stream it is not...LOL

So here is the fly that I created.

HA...
Whatever...it worked...
So armed with my new creation, 5 wt Bass Pro fly rod and a healthy dose of beginners luck off I go.
I arrived that day to a fisherman leaving....which always sucks ass.
I had run into this dude before and we'd developed a bit of a comraderie about this madness. All he had for me was a shake of the head and gloom. "You should've stayed in bed young man. No fish."
Oh well... I think that in my heart of hearts I didn't really believe that I was going to catch anything anyway and I carried on.
I hadn't strung up yet and I was glad that this other fisherman hadn't seen my flyrod or I would've felt like an ass.
So I hit the water ....make a few false casts and lob it into the flow. I mended the line ..just like I'd read about..(books...no internet back then for me) and let the outflow carry it out to the river...
First drift and there it is...
The first thing I did was look over my shoulder now hoping someone had seen this ...

NUMBER 9

I wish the picture had been better...but what a great moment.
There is number 9