My son & I fished the Tripping with the Triploids fishing derby on Rufus Woods today and had a great day as far as fishing together goes. We finally got into some fish shortly after noon but nothing of size that was able to put us on the board.
All told there were 238 entries which at $50.00 per entry put about $11,900 .00 into the purchase of more Triploids for restocking into Rufus Woods.

Our day started out 3:30 am, 42 degrees and a slightly cloudy half moon. The 30 + mile run up river to the lower pens was spooky and very cold to say the least. Rufus Woods looks totally different at night when it’s hard to see the banks or make out any land marks. When the sky, horizon and water all look the same color it’s time to slow down which we did after nearly missing some rocks in the area of well #3. (Lesson Learned)

As stated above, we got into fish shortly after noon when we started fishing the eddies and slow river sections casting single hooked barbless spinners towards the bank. We hooked three one pound scrappy natives in short order then began catch and release in hopes of landing a larger board worthy Triploid.

By the time we loaded the boat at 2:30 and weighed our fish and we were done for the day. The weather had turned to a very sunny 82 degrees making the wait for the BBQ and the hour and a half drive back to Waterville something not to look forward too. Feeling dejected, we didn’t stick around for the award ceremony. The folks that put on the derby did a great job. Prizes ranged from a $40,000.00 boat for catching one of five tagged fish to $500.00 for heaviest fish. Prizes were awarded for the top 15 places and I plan on attending the derby again next year. I did hear of one tagged fish that was caught but I’m not sure if it won Dave Graybill’s boat or not. If it didn’t win the boat it was worth $500.00

The high light of the day was when I snagged up on a cable at the lower pens. We had put all new 8 pound test Trilene on all of our reels prior to the derby in hopes of avoiding any issues of braking off while fighting a winning fish. Before I understood how much stretch there is in 150 feet of new Trilene we were given an incredible demonstration involving what can best be described as a shot from a cannon. With my rod securely in the rod holder the drag began to do its job by paying out slowly as I made the turn back towards the snag in hopes of at least saving most of the line if not recovering the trolled fly. I misjudged the rivers current and the amount of tension on the new Trilene. When I removed the rod holders locking ring the rod shot out of the holder like it was shot from a bow. My son described the sound like one of those big hobby rockets that you can purchase in most hobby stores and I think the rod actually skipped a couple of times when it hit the water.