The weather this morning was wicked.
The wind was blowing with full force, and the snowline descended to the river banks.
That, however, didn't deter my buddy Tad and I from hitting the flow.
Apparently, few people were thinking the same, as there were very few anglers out there.
As a curiosity, when we drove over the KW bridge around 8 AM, there were no fishermen to be seen at all. NOBODY at KW - unfrigginbelievable.
Of course, fishing the KW area didn't even cross our minds - we wouldn't be caught dead there. We will gladly leave it to those that enjoy that kind of setting.
We knew the weather was going to be c-c-c-cold, so we dressed accordingly.
It was just like in those days in January...thank Goodness for fleece gloves, as the wind was howling all day relentlessly.
Anyway, we hit one of the old standards in the mid river, and I had a huge dark fish on after a few casts. The fish was in the high teens and made short work of my 8-pound test leader.
After losing that fish, I switched to plastic worms tied on 10-pound test - better safe than sorry.
We changed location several times until we finally arrived to my favourite spot. I'd rather not name it, as it gets enough pressure already.
As Tadeo and Zulu the Dog wandered off downstream, I remembered an old piece of advice from a veteran steelheader friend: "When the robins are out, forget the pink, go natural." So I tied on a brown plastic worm - the closest I had to the real thing.
Second cast into a tailout and the float went down with a vengeance! Fish ON!
It was a nice 10 pounder which I managed to tame in a few short minutes. Of course, not having anoyone around to help with the camera makes taking pictures quite the chore. Fortunately, the fish was hooked solid and proved to be quite cooperative, so I managed a few shots.
Here is one of the fish lying docile in the shallows:
A closeup of the head to show the type of worm it fell for:
And 'the shot' of the day. Heck, if you have an underwater camera, you ought to use it, right?
This picture shows a wound in the mouth that had been inflicted by who knows whom, what or when...
Not five minutes after releasing the fish, Tadeo showed up and when I told him I had just landed a fish, he promptly tied a similar worm on and got a fish on his first cast!!! LOL! Me thinks my buddy is now converted to non-pink plastic!
I took a picture of his fish, but the camera was in movie mode, so all I have is a short movie, which I don't have the know-how to edit. It was a nice wild fish, similar in size and shape to the one I had landed. Unfortunately, once it came to hand, the fish didn't stay on Tad's hook long enough to allow for a photo-op.
After another fifteen minutes in that spot, we moved on to other venues, finishing the day below Tesky's rock. There were mayflies everywhere, and the swallows were feasting on them. Here's a macro shot of one of the flies that used my backpack as a resting platform:
Except for one more very suspicious dipping of the float which produced nothing, that was it for the day.
One fish each to the beach, another lost in battle...all in all, a great day on the flow on a very cold and windy Saturday in late April. It sure felt like January.
The fish are still there for those who try hard. I will probably hit the flow one more time next weekend, and then I will start to gear up for some trout fishing in the interior. I am very much looking forward to it.
Tight lines to all,
Milo
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Topic: January in April on the Vedder: April 19th, 2008 (Read 4056 times)