Double Dose of Mojo - Floating with my Bride and Hardy meets Cabela's

My wife Wendi decided that she'd float with me in my drift boat for the first time yesterday afternoon.  We did a short local stretch for a quick afternoon/evening float.  Wendi brought her phone, some paperwork, and some sale ads and was good to go.

I hit a few spots in the nice shade on river left as evening approached.  I fished a favorite run with anticipation, but the glare made it tough and I regretted stopping there because of having to bang into rocks in that shallow stuff which jolted Wendi around and made her back hurt - note to self, next time pass that spot up.

Hit another favored run with high hopes, nothing.

I figured to close out the evening at a nice classic run near the take out.  I came in a bit lower in the run to avoid banging the boat around on the rocks near shore.  Wendi was on her phone with an insurance guy getting car insurance quotes while I walked above the boat, figuring to allow myself space to extend my line enough so that by the time my fly would get even with the boat, I had a good working length of line out.  I had my Ambush head and a strip or two of running line out the tip.  On about my second cast, my fly was even with the boat and I was looking down at my reel to look at a bit of loose running line I had after the cast.  Just then, I heard a good splash at the fly and saw the rise in the periphery of my vision, and fish on!  I managed to keep my loose line from tangling and the steelie took off.  After a few back and forth runs I had the fish just about banked on the gravel bar and it somehow caught some traction and took off across the run again.  I got the steelie back in and it started heading for my anchor rope so I put some pressure on to keep it from tangling.  I got it cleared of the anchor rope then had it coming back to shore and the hook pulled out, Dang it!!  Ah well, again, can't bonk em all, got a good fight out of him/her.  Looked like a typical 8-9lb steelhead, fairly bright with a hint of pink.

The Green Butt LW strikes again, plus Wendi saw the whole thing from the rise to the end of the battle, she was quite entertained.  She was going to video me with the fish on, but she was still on the phone and her battery was running low.  Also, I was using my brand new Cabela's TL R 11' 6wt switch rod that was on sale my local Cabela's and it was a deal that I couldn't pass up.  Maybe my new toy has some mojo.  Didn't know $80 could buy me so much fun.  My 3 7/8 Perfect and 9wt Ambush were an ideal match on this little rod.

So I had a great day with my three B's - my Bronco, my Boat, and my Blonde.