Part Two now after returning from baby sitting duties. I just noticed on my drive home the temperature on the car thermometer was reading 10 degrees with a strong West wind blowing so things maybe not the greatest tomorrow. I think we may be getting a snow melt up a bit higher on the mountains now so we better check the river gauge before heading out tomorrow.
After getting my cell phone and a hair cut in town I head back to the river thinking where to go. I decide to phone Lew and see if maybe he would like to go out for the afternoon.
The reason was two fold, Lew is a great fishing partner and we seem to have good luck fishing together. I think over the years one of us hooks or lands a fish nearly 75 percent of the time when out together.
During our conversation Lew says son Ken has taken a nice hatchery earlier in the day so that made me enthused as it had Lew. Lew said he would meet me at the hot spot, shortly.
I arrive first and head out to the river when on my arrival I see 3 anglers on the bar with one of them not not fishing, it is Mel who has been the lucky one. It is then Mel told me about Coho Cody being into a couple or maybe it was his partners he was fishing with.
Anyway I fish one run and an angler across from me misses one but I find nothing so I decide to head down river. Just then Lew is coming to the area, I point I am going down he points to say, going up. I know we will meet up later.
I work through some good water quickly, looking for another first cast biter, no other anglers around at all, where I was but I am sure it had been fished earlier in the day. That never bothers me as fish are moving all the time, especially in the colored water conditions. I then see Gwyn appear on the scene as well.
I reach a super looking spot that had fish written all over it with a good covering log in the run as well. Steellhead of course like to lay around such structures. On the first drift through, float down, I strike but nothing once again as I am caught a bit off guard. As the strike was a bit feeble I let the float drift again and it disappears again, I strike once more but again the fish gods are not in my favour.
Needless to say my bait is a bit beat up so I put on another, a quarter size piece of the pro cured coho roe.
I cast and cast through the same area but the fish it seems to be a bit wise now, who can blame it after having that tasty morsel yanked from its mouth, not once but twice within a few seconds.
I then try a bit further out, closer to the woody debris and once again the red topped Maple Leaf Drennan has gone swimming, for its full lenght.
This time I set the hook properly and it pays off in aces of spades as first a good head shake, then the line leaving the center pin at mach 1 speeds.
Even though I have caught a few steelhead over the years one still feels the excitement within, I notice my heart pounding a few beats above normal, it feels like that anyway.
The fish makes its first run, fighting that foreign thing in its mouth, I bring it back towards me, it then head down river, up river and then towards the snag. I slacken the pressure off a bit, the fish drops back as I hoped it would, away from a possible tangle in some limbs of the partly sunken log.
After maybe 5 minutes of playing time I see it for the first time, not big but bright as it twists a few feet from me. It looks like a hatchery but it takes another couple of minutes until I get a good look, it is indeed a hatchery steelhead so I gently ease it ashore. It is a thing of beauty, one of natures most beautiful fish I think, I guide it further away from its escape route. It is a buck and like I said not big, around 9 pounds but not a scratch or blemish on it, perfect.
I am please not only with my first steelhead of the 2008 season but finally making the most of my chances.
I mark my license and phone Lew, partly to boast of my success.
He says he will head down my way, I am sure we both hoped there maybe was another steelhead in my new "hot spot", one for Lew too, maybe. Lew arrives in quick order as does Gwyn who most likely has smelled fish too.
The boys work the area to no avail so they decide to head back upstream as do I, walking with them.They kid me about my success something like, "the river must be full of them if I caught one". I didn't dare ask them why they did not have one then.
I leave Lew and Gwyn to their chores while I take my Fish, my Steelhead, my Iron, home for a fish dinner.
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Topic: Searching For Iron On The Vedder, The Journal For January 3, 2008 (Read 4374 times)