Went to the Dark side on the Cosumnes

Life long Fly Fisherman. I haven't uses a spinning reel since my SoCal Surf Fishing Days in the 70s.  Cleaning out the garage I found a tackle box and a Shimano FX100 reel in perfect condition.  I am also a gear Junkie so I just couldn't let the gear go to waste and I only had fly rods so I spent what wouldn't raise my wifes eyebrows and bought a medium action Ugly Stick



and of course I had to go use it 

So up I5 Yak on the roof to the Cosumnes River Preseve I went. Ok I have never been there at that low a tide.  Rudder up most of the way down the slough and I thought I would have to get out and drag the Tarpon across the bar at the main channel.  The reeds were out of the water and the black banks were exposed.  I caught 2 bass and 2 bluegill nothing big but lots of fun



Near disaster when I forgot my GoPro was on my hat and not tethered. Took the hat off and the camera went into the drink and started to sink.  Knowing that everything else in the yak was tied in I did the only rational thing flipped out of the yak and dove down and grabbed it about 5 feet under.  Came up to a turtled yak. Fllipped it back over Rods were sill in the scotty rod holder, Ice chest in the elastic as was my trolly.  My NRS PFD didn't ride up and let me leisurely push the yak to the shallows and climb back in.  Since it was 95 out that water really felt good.

Yak got a bit dirty



Nice afternoon. There were 7-8 folks fishing from kayaks having a good time last Sunday.  Only negative was that the lot was packed people not finding any parking and the REI adventure school van and Yak trailer hogged up 4 parking spots on a crowded weekend.  I put a Thanks for being good corporate citizens and setting a great example for others to follow, Way to represent REI...Not,  on the windshield

Thanks for sharing the story Buzzcut1.

Great Report.  I love the old FX reels.  Sadly my fly rods don't get much action these days...  Welcome back to the lazy side 

And the dark side gets another one.  You can just send me all your fly gear.  I hear once you go dark, you never go back.

Sounds like a great day! I still have an old shimano AX quickfire rear drag! Its works fine but I rarely use it. When I go to the Darkside I prefer more modern gear. HAHAHAH , but sometimes I perfer really old stuff when flyfishing. I have a really really old Pheluger Metalist 1492 with the Diamolite line guide and bonite handle.

I personally love the quickfire function for all of my spinning reels. I know they are cheap compared to most other gear but I haven't lost a fish due to poor quality. Even Shimano has gone away from this feature for the most part.

I think I used to (or maybe still do) have one of those quickfire reels too.