Have had a somewhat lousy season...
The expected epic pink salmon run was mediocre, Fraser fishery delayed, and Coho numbers are down. I got into a handful of salmon, but nothing that exciting...by-catch of humpies, and cutting off coho jacks is underwhelming.
However, my favorite fishing hole didn't let me down.
I made serious preparations in the spring for an epic season but the lack of rain put a stop to that.
I thought that this recent rain could finally bring in some late season fish, but the river was too high and fast this weekend. When I noticed that the levels were dropping coinciding with a peak tide I made the decision to rearrange my work schedule and give it a try.
Conditions looked perfect...deep pool, nice drift, gin clear water. Spent a few hours changing gear with nothing...started to get discouraged. Even last year, the river was at least full of older biting fish to break up the monotony. The resident heron was also nowhere to be found...the magic was missing.
I briefly got into a dark spring that in consistent pulls took my spoon with him into the rapids. Started to think that perhaps these hookups are just my lure lining the fish and I'm wasting my time attempting to connect with something worthy. Even the previous season had many bright fish surfacing frequently to keep the spirit alive...not much was alive this day. I was considering hanging it up for the season, even got rid of my last bit of roe that afternoon not intending to do any more bar fishing either.
Then I remembered what a tackle store pro told me...fish with confidence. His example was retrieve your cast as if a fish is chasing your lure at every moment.
So I changed to a new color spoon, and with focus worked the run paying close attention to speed and varying of retrieve.
In a few casts felt a strong resistance and thought I had a snag...but then felt a familiar head shake.
This is what came up...
Also, credit to Trophy Tackle. Best money spent to-date on spoons and spinners.