Welcome once again to the Fishing Journal and hope everyone got out to vote today. I look forward to the results and must have this report completed by 7.
After scouting a new area last night that looked very inviting I decided it would be worth a try first thing this morning. Last night I walked back to my vehicle with Ross who also was planning to return to the same spot so I knew there would be two on at least at this run.
I decided to try this area as the good old KE and "Root Run" had dried up for me the last 2 trips, maybe it was the dropping river levels in that area or maybe the fish were just not there on those visits
I arrived a little late at the new spot and 2 vehicles were ahead of me and just as I was halfway to the river I see Ross pull up behind me.
I briskly walk toward the river as daylight is breaking and see two anglers in the run I want to fish so I go to another run that is not quite as deep but very fishy looking just the same.
I have made a few casts when Ross joins me at the run and we fish together, Ross is using a worm, I my roe bags.
After a few casts the Maple Leaf drennan is gone from view, I strike but nothing is there. I tell Ross I just have missed one. Both of us throw a number of casts in the zone but no takers until I put on a fresh roe bag. On the next cast the float is gone once again, I strike with the same results. Of course it could have been a trout or a white fish one never knows.
We continue to flog the run but could not make this steelhead or another one give us another opportunity. A number of other anglers start to arrive on both sides of the river but we have seen nothing taken around us in the first hour of fishing.
I decide to leave Ross to the run and try a few slots further downstream a bit. I am fishing a side stream off a gravel bar but the slots are marginale at the best. I am just thinking of wading the side stream and go further downstream but the sidestream looked a little deep and swift to wade.
As I walk up the gravel bar I look at the main river where I am walking and something tells me the run opposite had some possibility.
I have just put on one of the egg sacks I had picked up last week that someone had dropped or thrown away. There had been about 24 of them and I had landed one fish and had a head shake on another so I knew they worked.
On the first cast in my new discovered run float down and the fight was on.
The fish is a feisty, even though it does not become aerial or break water it journeys up river, across the river and down river trying to rid the hook that I hope is firmly embedded.
As we have resumed brood capture after taking the weekend off I start to wonder what I will do if it turns out to be another hatchery fish. Will I take it as I have not retained one since January the 3rd.
My wife is anxious for another fish for the table as I am as well but taking that fish will mean an early end to today fishing. As the fish nears the shore I see it is indeed a hatchery, still wondering what I should do the fish partly makes up my mind for me. As I bring it to the shore it starts flipping about pounding it side on the rocks, should not have brought it to shore in the shallows. As well I see there is some blood coming from the mouth, not bad but bleeding. These two facts make up my mind as I mark my third steelhead for 2006 on my license.
I have just finished marking my license I see Ross is into one This fish takes off downstream towards where I am. In slips into the sidestream beside me. As it goes over the shallows of the drop off Ray who is now fishing the spot I got my fish says 'Its a hatchery no fin" I tell him he has better eyes than me.
As Ross guides it to the shore we see Ray was correct, so I get my hands on the second steelhead of Ross the day as I grasp it around the head for Ross and hand it to him as Ross has his first hatchery fish of the year.
We have Ken snap a picture of the almost identical pair, both does in the 11 pound range.
Ross heads for home and I wait around the area for a while hoping someone will connect with a wild for the tube but it does not happen. I have coffee with Terry at Tims and weight the fish in a Fred's and it is a little over 11.
My day came to an early end but it made my wife happy and the fish made for a lovely dinner.
Tomorrow is another day and I hope the float goes down again and this time it will be a wild.
Better news that has come in, the Conservatives are
rolling, rolling, rolling right along to become the government in power.
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Topic: A Double On Monday, Vedder On Jan. 23 (Read 3224 times)