Well met my friend at around 1:45 this afternoon after school. Decided we would give the Steelies another go today after losing one yesterday and landing the res bow, along with walking over top of one and missing a few more.
Park one car down where we normally come out (learnt from mistake yesterday of only taking one vehicle) and went up to our starting point. Day started out beautiful, a little cold but great non the less. The sun was shining and I was feeling pretty confident - About an hour later this was no longer the case. I kept saying we were going to get one today, but after finally getting down to the run where I hooked the fish yesterday (the "perfect" spot in my mind) and not having anyone home, I was very discouraged.
Kept walking down towards the next run thinking the whole time "we still have the run where my buddy missed those hits." We are finally one run up from the run I was thinking of. My buddy fishes the pocket water above, and I head to the head of the run. First cast my float goes down, hard. I pull back but nothing, bring it in and the skein is still on my hook with all the eggs popped. I feel it was a hit, but dare not tell my friend as he is being very skeptical today.....
I reach for a new chunk of roe, and there is nothing left in the bag. Thank goodness I brought a backup bag I thought. I unwrap the newspaper (used to stop freezer burnt roe in the zip-lock bags) and open the bag up - FROZEN ROE! Dang, but I figure what the hell and throw it out there anyways. Same spot, float down, and this time headshakes. I call my buddy, hand him the camera and he starts taping. 5 mins later I had the wild doe in the shallows. Popped the hook and tried holding onto her for a few quick photos (transported her to knee deep water). Very feisty fish and could harldey hang on, snapped a few shots and back she went.
Great day
Here's the fish :