Well, out for another day of fishing. Got out to the river at first light and headed to maybe get a repeat of the other day. Water was perfect, at least 4ft of visibility and overcast.Worked some runs with no takers. Moved a ways down river and while i was working a run, picking through it, noticed that two other fishermen were crossing the river over a rather large tailout below me. Thinking maybe they might have startled a fish, I worked the tailout a little more closely. After about 10 casts, I felt a sudden pull on my float and a very short seesaw battle ensues, with me coming out on the short end of things.
I reel my gear back in and see that my roe bag has been torn open with only 2 of 5 eggs remaining. I bait up with another bag and try for 10 minutes with no luck. Then it occurs to me that maybe rather than moving up, has he faded further back into the tail end? So I wade in well over my knees and begin casting again. After about 5 minutes my float goes for the dive and once again a steely breaks the surface, only he has decided that he wants to leave this run and head down river. Only problem is I can't cross at this particular location so now I'm faced with running upstream against the current, all the while hearing line screaming from my reel. Finally I get onto the beach and reel as I run downriver to get back some of the line that I have lost. Fortunately the fish is still on the end and I reel in to see that it's a hatchery of about 9 lbs. So with the help of my buddy that's fishing with me today we land it and bonk it. Done at 10:00 am, but stuck around for another 4 hours hoping that my friend would get his fish as well. He fished other locations while I stood there and kept him company. No luck but saw another fish about 14 to 16 lbs. landed.
Bumped into Chris as well and had a chat. Boy does he clean up a lot of garbage that other people have left behind at the river. It's a shame that people abuse the river like that.