While out on my usual Sunday morning river patrol this morning along the Vedder Canal area I see the usual crowd working the runs below KWB. I find a few bottles and tins by the bridge and just as I am turning on to Keith Wilson Road I notice a $5 bill laying on the side of the road. Most likely dropped by the youngsters who had been partying in the area overnight.
I leap from the Leaf Mobile to retrieve the fin and just then two vehicles want to turn onto the dyke, one honks their horn as I am blocking the entrance way.
I quickly hop back into the LM and give a wave trying to apologize to the driver who most likely is anxious to get fishing.
I head down Keith Wilson, back towards the river, by the Hydro Bridge. When I arrive I see a good number of anglers, drift and fly guys working the run at the bridge. I turn around and head back up river and notice no anglers fishing where I had been having some success in February.
As I have mentioned on a few reports lately I have had no fish on, during this month.
I am thinking should I fish this morning or not as I have certainly been in a slump the last few trips but hey what a beautiful morning, water perfect, and the runs I like to fish are void of anglers.
I slip on my waders, cut up some nickel sized pro cured steelhead bait from my last fish I retained on February 25.
The usual place I cross the river looked too high but I give it a try. As I get part way across I turn back and go further up river to cross, no use taking chances at my age or any age for that matter. I stop a The Bell run to fish and just then my Cell phone rings it is Frank wanting to check on a few fishing related issues. After I hang up the phone I decide to not fish The Bell as I have only had one fish on there and I have fished it so many times without success.
I work the runs below The Bell quickly as my time is fairly limited today due to a meeting at my place dealing with the Spring Bar gravel issue. I see two anglers at the last run I usually fish so I decide to pay them a visit to see if they have found a fish this morning. One of the anglers is an angler from Washington State that I have met this year. He has had nothing but said the other chap had got one wild earlier.
When I reach the other angler I see it is John and he reports the fish he landed was a wild buck close to 18 pounds. He also said he saw a fly fisher take a hatchery a bit below him also, good I think there is a fish or two in the area. I visit with John a bit and then head back up river to the runs I previously had fished.
While I am re fishing one of the runs another angler approaches, it is bug pumper who is fishing with Winter Steel, they had nothing yet either. He reports he was into 3 yesterday including losing a hatchery at the beach. He thought maybe one of the three he could have hooked twice.
Bug pumper and Winter Steel head up river and I decide to cross where I had attempted to do so earlier. It was not as bad as I thought and with a wading stick it was fairly easy.
I am thinking of heading home but decide to do a few flips at The Bell that I had not fished as I mentioned above. It always looks so good but it had not been good to me.
I see bug pumper crossing above me, to fish The Diving Board run. I am going through the motions, casting without much purpose, my trip is over once again but it was a nice outing, hearing about a couple of fish and meeting some other FWR members. I even notice a little bit of algae on the pink wool and bait, too lazy to take it off. "Thats it" I say to myself as the Maple Leaf Drennan drifts near the tail out of the run, maybe 15 feet above where I had crossed the river a few minutes earlier.
Suddenly the MLD is gone, must be bottom I think as I begin to wind in the line. But whats this, a solid feeling, something is shaking on the end. Having not had that feeling for a while I had forgotten what a fish actually feels like.
Look at that, I actually have a fish on, on the last cast of the day too. Now the task is to to keep it from going down the fast water as I really do not want to cross the river again and besides where is my wading staff.
The steelhead clears the water a few times, I wonder if bug pumper sees it.
Its a nice bright fish it should be reflecting its chrome up river a bit.
I am able to keep it in the run and after a few minutes of back and forth action I have it in the shallows. I see it is a hatchery doe. With no fish to enjoy the last few weeks it will becomes the 7th fish to be retained this season, that is if I can beach the fish that is around 8 pounds. I guide it further into the shallows and then successfully onto the beach for my 12 of the season landed out of 17 hooked, my current dry spell at an end, for now.
It just shows one can always hold out hope when out fishing, right up to the last cast of the day or was it finding that $5 bill that had something to do with it?
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Topic: The Last Cast Can Pay Off, On The Vedder March 16 (Read 6287 times)