This is not really a report per se, but more of a self reflection from a fisherman who's always learning and has struggled to produce as of late. I've been out to the flow three times in the past two weeks and have been skunked all three times, twice while "guiding" friends. It's just embarrassing trying to explain to a newbie that the fish, frothing and boiling throughout the river, just aren't biting, especially while everyone else is apparently "catching" fish (we've concentrated our efforts throughout the upper portions of the Vedder, Harrison and Stave). It became it apparent to me that, while I do ok during periods of moderate flow, I haven't learned how to adapt to low, clear water conditions, or any other conditions for that matter that differ from the optimum.
As someone who's spent most of his time on the river alone over the past few years, I believe that my growth as a fisherman has been greatly hindered, mainly due to a lack of creativity and willingness to experiment. I tend to run with the "go with what you know" attitude: spending most of my days fishing familiar places, usually using information that I've read about on this forum and losing faith quickly when it doesn't pan out in favor of what's worked in the past. I can think of two clear instances where this attitude has worked against me over the past year.
Case #1: October 5th, 2008 - When I don't feel like fishing alone, I'm usually able to coerce a friend into joining me, almost always ones with limited prior fishing experience. This particular day I brought a friend along who had a natural knack for fishing like I've never seen before. We arrived just after first light and the spot I was hoping to get was already taken, so he suggested, "why not fish right here?" pointing an fast flowing stretch of river that was quite shallow along most of it's width. I'd never have fished this spot alone but I figured what the heck. We settled down and I tried fishing any structure I could find while he tossed some roe into a deepish, slow flowing pocket about 3 feet from shore. Moments later, he yelled "I think I got a bite!", I thought to myself "oh yeah for sure... for sure you hit a snag" and dismissed it. Another minute later I heard splashing and turned to see a 7lb hatchery doe at the beach. He continued to catch several more fish that day, his first coho outting ever. That put me in my place.
Case #2: March 4th, 2009 - As it is with life, our priorities change with age and we become more focused with our careers. This was the case with by brother as he moved away several years ago to pursue his own. He rarely visits now, but when he does, we always reminisce about the olden days of fishing by hitting the Vedder (ala A River Runs Through It). We are polar opposites as fisherman, he is very creative and always looking to adapt. He visited a week after I had caught my first steelhead and I told him with complete confidence that I could get him into his first as well. There was only one problem... he forgot where he stored his fishing rod... So he improvised by putting his levelwind reel on a $10 Zebco spinning rod probably purchased 20 years ago at Woolco (remember that place?). I rolled my eyes and said, "you can't use that, a 10" trout could snap that". But he was reluctant and he headed off to the river. I must also add that I usually spend an hour or so meticulously tying hooks and preparing roe prior to a day of fishing, whereas he usually pulls out and ties on whatever the heck was in his vest the last time we went fishing. Regardless, we approached a steelhead lie that I had heard was productive but had not actually seen a fish produced from. We casted alternately: I tried a jig then tried some roe, he tried a pink worm. After about 15 minutes, I gave up and took a nap on the rocks while my brother persevered and tried all sorts of offerings. I was awoken suddenly by his screaming, "hey dude, I got one!" I couldn't believe it, he hooked and landed his first steelhead using a beat up copper blade and a 20 year old Zebco spin rod/level wind setup. That put me in my place.
If I think back throughout my fishing career, I can track down critical moments of development where I benefitted by deviating from a "safe" style of fishing and actually tried to use my instincts:
1. Most areas I was used to fishing never produced many coho. I eventually figured that the flows, although moderate, were just too fast for coho to hold. So I went out in search of water I wouldn't usually fish. I eventually found a 4ft wide slot of deep, slow moving water between the faster flowing water in the main channel and the shoreline (I was sure that no fish would be holding here). However, after one cast with roe, the float shot down and I was rewarded with a beauty ho.
2. Prior to this day, I never had much faith in fishing blades. For some reason I just never had much success with it, probably because I didn't know how to fish it (pull back on it? free drift? I'm clueless...). I arrived at a regular hole and couldn't buy a bite, so as per my robot technique, I switched to a colorado blade, not expecting much. I tried several free drifts first...nothing, then I tried holding back on it full on...nothing, what about swinging it?...nothing. I figured I was fishing a moderate flow so that I should probably just hold back on it just slightly. Eventually, the float shot down and I was soon rewarded with this beauty.
3. I don't typically fish the popular runs these days, but for some reason I decided to visit Prison Run since it was a particularly busy day at the Vedder anyways. Of course the run was packed from top to bottom. Luckily as I was approaching one nice run, a drunken entourage was just leaving, lawn chairs in hand, and empty beer cans strewn about the shore line (after this day I added garbage bags to my list of essential tackle). I figured that there was pretty well no chance of hooking up but that I might as well finish off the day here as the rest of my spots had not produced well either. I flogged the water for a good hour and half, along with 20 other fisherman, and as far as I could tell we were all tossing roe. I left my spot and walked up to an area where some rapids transitioned into the slower pool where everyone was fishing. Deciding that I had to present something other than roe (what was gonna separate my offering from everyone elses?), I tied on a colorado blade and tossed it into the choppy water. My float shot down immediately and I figured I had snagged a rock so I pulled back out of reaction to prevent it from getting worse. To my surprise, a nice coho started fighting back and after a short tussle I had this beaut to the shore.
4. Not much of a lesson here, but this is the day I learned not to lift a chum straight out of the water using my rod. Needless to sayd, I got plenty of blank stares at the store
.
Now I think its time that I deviate once again from what I know and spend a few trips exploring new water, perhaps new systems, for the sake of learning something new. I fully expect that my production will drop even further, but I figure it has to be better for me in the long run. Oh how sweet it is to be living the semi-retired life of a graduate student (hence the long winded post). After reading frustrated posts from others about their lack of production, I hope this post reassures you that you're not alone, we haven't all caught 44 coho so far this season!! (CK you lucky dog
). Perhaps all we need to do is refine our methods slightly and build up a bigger repertoire of fishing spots. If you see me stumbling around on the flow, don't hesitate to say hi and offer me some advice, god knows I can use it lol.
Thanks for reading,
Fisherama
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Topic: Confessions of a frustrated fisherman (part report/part reflection) (Read 3140 times)