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[Every Day]

I wasn't suppose to go fishing today. Had tones of things I had to do... but of course Ryan ruins the day for me.
Right in the middle of my oil change, an anxious Ryan tells me he just landed a large buck. He then tries phoning me again, but is in and out of service. I assume he is calling because of another fish. We text back and forth and he finally gets me to head out at 5:30, because he says the wild buck he released has been sitting beside the same rock for 2 hours and that he wants a picture with it as he could easily grab the tail.

I arrive at around 6 pm after dropping my bro off at work, and find that the fish has moved, figures  . Ryan informs me that he had landed the wild buck and then the next cast landed a nice doe (also wild). He said both were chromers with the buck being a very large fish. The Ryan informs me he found a dead Steelhead the same size as the one he just landed    In 2 years of Steelhead fishing I have never seen a dead fish on the beach. Sure enough we walk up and a 12 ish pound hatchery kelt is laying in the shallows. I was wondering what had killed it.... We fished upriver and then decided to hit the other side of the river.



We get to the other side and are fishing our way down. I see a golfball and pick it up (was really bored), yell fore and throw it 3 feet left of Ryan. He looks over at me, oblivious to the golfball flying by him since he didn't see it. All of a sudden the ball hits a rock and flies back, hitting him in the jaw (havn't laughed that hard in a while)      We work our way down, I see a dead fish in the water and say "Another One?!". Ryan assumes it is a golfball and tells me to leave it alone  but then walks over to see another large buck lying dead in around 2 feet of water. Once again it is a kelt but this time it is wild. We pull it up from the bottom and find it has a gash leading up from its butt, definatley from a knife.



We work our way down another 10 or so mins and see a guy below us. By now it is 7:30 and I have hockey at 9 so I tell Ryan that I am leaving. He decides to come as well, and while we are walking out we see a marvelous sunset. A bright orange, glowing ball throws and eery orange shadow through the trees. Been a while since I have seen the sun looking like that. Snapped a whack load of pics, but not many turned out. Great way to end the day anyways 



I was unsuccessful in my 2 hour attempt. But at least we know there are fish around, clean ones too  Was quite dissapointed to see 2 dead fish in one day, granted I had never seen one in 2 years. All in all a great day, can't wait to get back out there on Saturday 

PS.... any guesses on the size of the buck (1st dead one). I was thinking 12-14 AT MOST. Ryan believes it is a lot bigger (of course) 

[drh]

You guys always seem to motivate me to go fishin,hopfully it'll be a good friday in more ways than one.

[Steelhawk]

Dead fish or not, nicely written 'journal'.  Thanks for feeding us info about our beloved Vedder almost 'everday' in the absence of the other journal. 

I guess some kelps are just too weak to make it back to the ocean, but who would slit open a dead fish??? Just a reminder to all that perhaps we should stay away from using baits this late season, particularly in the upper river where a lot of kelps are coming down, hungry and exhausted from their spawning activity. They proabably can ill afford more fights with their weakened but hungry body. This is the reason (protecting the kelps) the river will be open to flyfishing only starting May 1st. Funny though, why not allow lures too which are not going to be swallowed deeply, much like a fly? Anybody can explain that?

[younggun]

cus we need to keep the high class fly guys happy, and low class gear guys off the river!   

[marmot]

? Deeply swallowed like a fly ? 

In all my 23 flyfishing years I've had maaaybe 1% of my hookups being deep....not sure what kind of flies you are using?!?

It probably has more to do with the effectiveness of flies on winter fish compared to hardware. 

[bbronswyk2000]

Dead fish or not, nicely written 'journal'.  Thanks for feeding us info about our beloved Vedder almost 'everday' in the absence of the other journal. 

I guess some kelps are just too weak to make it back to the ocean, but who would slit open a dead fish??? Just a reminder to all that perhaps we should stay away from using baits this late season, particularly in the upper river where a lot of kelps are coming down, hungry and exhausted from their spawning activity. They proabably can ill afford more fights with their weakened but hungry body. This is the reason (protecting the kelps) the river will be open to flyfishing only starting May 1st. Funny though, why not allow lures too which are not going to be swallowed deeply like a fly? Anybody can explain that?

FYI its not "Kelp" its "Kelt"

Do you flyfish? Deeply like a fly? Show me some pictures where a steelhead is hooked deep by a fly. Bait yes fly no....

[coho_killer]

Dead fish or not, nicely written 'journal'.  Thanks for feeding us info about our beloved Vedder almost 'everday' in the absence of the other journal. 

I guess some kelps are just too weak to make it back to the ocean, but who would slit open a dead fish??? Just a reminder to all that perhaps we should stay away from using baits this late season, particularly in the upper river where a lot of kelps are coming down, hungry and exhausted from their spawning activity. They proabably can ill afford more fights with their weakened but hungry body. This is the reason (protecting the kelps) the river will be open to flyfishing only starting May 1st. Funny though, why not allow lures too which are not going to be swallowed deeply like a fly? Anybody can explain that?

FYI its not "Kelp" its "Kelt"

Do you flyfish? Deeply like a fly? Show me some pictures where a steelhead is hooked deep by a fly. Bait yes fly no....

I think this guy everyday should write a book he knows so much on fishing he can teach us a thing or too!

[Steelhawk]

Ooop, I guess I step on somebody's toes.    It goes to show no one likes to have their fishing preferrence bashed, even ever slightly. 
Sorry, just poorly worded phrase guys. English is not my first language.    (I have re-worded the original post)
I mean lures and flies are alike in that they are not natural stuff and so should not been swallowed deeply, so why let fly guys fish and not the gear guys?
FYI, I do tie my own fly and fish them for trout and salmon. 

[Terry D]

I don't quite understand the "they are not natural stuff and so should not be swallowed deeply". To my way of thinking, if you're putting food, or an imitation of food, in front of a fish, then are you not expecting a fish to eat it and swallow it. 
Plus I accept non-feeding migratory fish will strike at 'things' even though they are not meant to be feeding.

[Every Day]

Dead fish or not, nicely written 'journal'.  Thanks for feeding us info about our beloved Vedder almost 'everday' in the absence of the other journal. 

I guess some kelps are just too weak to make it back to the ocean, but who would slit open a dead fish??? Just a reminder to all that perhaps we should stay away from using baits this late season, particularly in the upper river where a lot of kelps are coming down, hungry and exhausted from their spawning activity. They proabably can ill afford more fights with their weakened but hungry body. This is the reason (protecting the kelps) the river will be open to flyfishing only starting May 1st. Funny though, why not allow lures too which are not going to be swallowed deeply like a fly? Anybody can explain that?

FYI its not "Kelp" its "Kelt"

Do you flyfish? Deeply like a fly? Show me some pictures where a steelhead is hooked deep by a fly. Bait yes fly no....

I think this guy everyday should write a book he knows so much on fishing he can teach us a thing or too!

Thanks ck....
maybe read who the post is ACTUALLY from though 
And IM suppose to pay attention before I post 

By the way, yes I do fly fish.
I tie my own flies now and enjoy catching cutties, more so than Steelhead.
I have never seen a deeply hooked fish on the fly. Thankfully I have also never seen a depply hooked fish on bait either 

[Steelhawk]

I don't quite understand the "they are not natural stuff and so should not be swallowed deeply". To my way of thinking, if you're putting food, or an imitation of food, in front of a fish, then are you not expecting a fish to eat it and swallow it. 
Plus I accept non-feeding migratory fish will strike at 'things' even though they are not meant to be feeding.

Well, one thing for sure, we are not fish so we don't know exactly how they think when they strike at something. 

But based on collective experiences, some baits are inhalled more deeply than the artificials. Perhaps fish do test or mouth their 'food' before they decide to swallow or not. It is commonly accepted that wool induces a fish to mouth it because of instinctive reaction to the colour of the wool (suggesting of food colour), but that fish can spit out the wool when they realize that it is not the real stuff. But due to the small filaments in the wool fiber, they just stick to the fish's teeth making it hard to spit.

Yes, shinny metal lures are the things non-feeding migratory fish will strike at out of aggression or territorial instinct. 

[marmot]

I see what you are trying to say steelhawk.  Sry I misunderstood, you're right though it was a little unclear

The other reason that it may be fly only during that time is that there are simply less fly anglers than gear, further reducing the pressure.