just got back from the mighty thompson and thought i would give a report.
took a couple of friends who are new to steelheading. one buddy has been once before and has hooked a couple of steelhead on his first time out and the second buddy has never been steelheading before.
started fishing at about 7:30am on the 28th. first hole got skunked and almost frost bitten. temperature for the day went as low as -15, snow covered the ground and there were no other fishermen on the part of the river that we were fishing.
tough casting when your fishing rod eyes freeze solid and your reel starts to freeze. also, feet where freezing to the rocks.
second hole, my one buddy who has been before hooks a nice steelhead about 12 lbs. loses it right at shore as i was holding his rod so that he can release the fish.
the extreme weather was too much to handle (buddy's feet were so cold that when he took his sock off to warm up his feet, there were black spots all over his feet?? can't be good) so we went and checked into our motel and headed up river to fish a secret hole. too windy and really really cold so we headed back down river to fish another hole.
at the fourth hole, the same buddy that hooked into the first steelhead of the day hooked another one that ended up being around 15 lbs. beautiful wild steely.
http://i127.photobucket.com/albums/p133/fishingbuddha/thompson%20river%2006/IMG_1035.jpgnot much action for a while but damn cold. usually i can handle the cold but it was getting a little un-bearable.
my bait (shrimp) was freezing in my bait box and making it really hard to put on my hook.
after fishing hard for a while the same buddy hooks into another steelhead but ends up snapping the line and losing it.
(looked like a decent steely)
called it a day and went to warm up and get ready for the next day.
december 29th - today.the morning started out really cold and windy but we toughed it out. after a couple of holes, the sun started to come out, the wind died down and the temperature rose a bit. we hadn't hit a fish all morning so we thought we would go for breaky.
after our meal, we decided to go to a hole where we caught a steelhead the day before. as we parked the car we noticed there were some big horn sheep across the river. i mention that this is a good sign because i always get skunked when i don't see the big horn sheep. took a few photos and pursued on our walk to the hole. also came across a coyote.
http://i127.photobucket.com/albums/p133/fishingbuddha/thompson%20river%2006/IMG_1038.jpgfirst cast i felt a light bite so i tossed it back to the same spot and wham...fish on. didn't feel very big at first but as i tried to muscle the fish in i soon realized that this wasn't a big trout but in fact a large steelhead. beautiful colour and weighed over 15 lbs.
http://i127.photobucket.com/albums/p133/fishingbuddha/thompson%20river%2006/IMG_1044.jpgthe day ended up to be a beautiful warm december day. no wind, warmer temperature and blue skies. fishing for wild steelhead while big horn sheep grazed on plants on the other side of the river.
had to start thinking about heading home but decided to hit one last hole. after a few minutes i hooked another steelhead but let my buddy who has never caught a steelhead before bring it in. this fish was a very fiesty steelhead but only weighed about 12 lbs.
http://i127.photobucket.com/albums/p133/fishingbuddha/thompson%20river%2006/IMG_1057.jpgall in all an excellent but extremely cold fishing trip. saw some wild life and hooked five steelhead in two days. also landed a two pound trout and a two pound whitefish (i think...see pic) all fish were caught drift fishing with a corkie, wool and shrimp (actually my prepared shrimp was too frozen so we used cocktail shrimp. this worked awesome so i think i will be fishing with cocktail shrimp for now on.)
as we drove home, i tried to explain to my friends, the steelhead newbies, that i have fished with guys on this river who have never even sniffed a steelhead in eight years and that this fishery is a very tough fishery and the steelhead is very elusive. (hard to convince when my my one friend has only fished for steelhead twice and has hooked five steelhead.) in fact when i first started fishing for steelhead it took me a few years to figure it out. the tip that i think helped out my buddies on this trip was simply, keep line in water and bounce it back to as close to the shore as possible. you would be suprised how many steelhead are hooked right along the river bank.
here is a pic of a non steelhead. i think its a squaw fish but not sure.
http://i127.photobucket.com/albums/p133/fishingbuddha/thompson%20river%2006/IMG_1037.jpgcheers!
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Topic: extreme steelheading December 29th (Read 4727 times)