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[chris gadsden]

After checking the river this morning and a visit with The Master at the river we saw there was about 18 inches of visibility, "plenty fishable" Nick says. As I could not go out to later in the day to fish I would have to leave the river to Nick. The river was void of many anglers, especially for a weekend. After leaving Nick and having not too much time before going to watch one of the grandson's skating I went for a short walk to check out some other parts of the river to see if the recent high water had made many changes to the runs I had been fishing. Of course the high water always changes the runs some what and creates some nice side streams that I like to fish, that is if you can access them.

With the grandfather duties complete I finally made the river with less than 2 hours to fish. When I look upstream and down I only see one angler below me, the visibility has improved some, around 2 feet now. I have several runs I wish to fish and move quickly through them so I can cover as many holding spots as possible. I am using roe bags again today but they temp no fish. I decide with about 20 minutes of time left to try an area I had not fished this year. On the way to the area I meet up Dick and his wife who are out for a walk. We are going the same direction so we walk along together chatting fishing of course, he like me has no steelhead to the beach. As we near where they will be heading in another direction Dick says, "There is a nice slick over there". I reply "yes I noticed it on my earlier walk today". As I slip over the bank Dick says,  "I will watch you for a couple off casts". A couple  casts yield nothing and Dick and his wife wave goodbye. I am just about ready to move to the last run I plan to fish and then the Maple Leaf Drennan is down, completely submerged. For once I am on the take and set the hook firmly. At the same instant as I make contact with that solid feeling a steelhead is doing a somersault, completely out of the water. I am just starting to think, wow that is a nice one when for the fourth time this year my hook flies free, darn not again. Hoping it may be a greedy one and give me another chance but no, the fish has learnt its lesson well and I donot get a second opportunity at the 10 or so pounder.

With my heart still pounding from the brief bit of excitement I leave the new hot spot, Dick's Slick to try one final run before dark. By the time I reach it darkness has pretty well closed in on me and the river, I have only time for a few casts before I call it a day. As I trudge back to the Leaf Mobile I still have the vision of that steelhead clearing the water and thinking when will my plus minus average gain a plus, maybe tomorrow?
 

[Steelhawk]

Nice journal again. Thanks Chris and thank for the constant update on the River condition. I cancelled my trip on Thursday with the rain pouring non-stop. Well at least save the gas $$$.

But today, when I woke up, the sun was up high and bright. Time for the hawk on a steel hunt. Got to the river near noon. The river was high and coloured, but upon closer look it had almost 2 ft visibility. Great. I looked at some lower runs. With the high water they looked like the ocean... So I left them to Chris   and headed up to the mid river.

Two ft visibility is enough for my pocket water fishing. In coloured water, instead of making 2 to 3 drifts of a pocket, I would make 5 to 8 passes to make sure the pocket is empty of fish. Talked to two guys who said they had 2 fish earlier in upper. So it was exciting news. The fish are in with numbers. So I said good bye to them and I set about walking and wading into my usual no man's land. I was walking along my way  and casting to any good looking spots. With the amount of rough drifts in fast rocky water, I found my roe bags not durable enough. So I switched over to a #5 BC orange gooey bob on a 3/O Gammi. It looks great in coloured water and durable against any rocks it may hit. After a while I was into a good piece of slick water, with fast water all around and a bit of bottle neck. Fishy!!!  I carefully stepped back and casting almost at the edge of the water. Then I progressively drifted further out. In high & coloured water, steelies can be found in shallow water really close to shore. About the 3rd drift at about 4 ft from shore in about 3 ft of water, WHAM! The float vanished. I was in good anticipation so the hook set was just perfect and solid, as the fish was directly in front of me at a 90 degree angle. The hook firmily lodged in the jaw of the mighty steelie as I could feel its weight by the solid hook set. The silver bullet leaped out of the shallow water and I could tell it was about 15 lb. Great. It was madly running, shaking, turning, twisting and I was fervently praying...    Finally, luck came my way. The fish tired out and I got the silver beauty in close. Hatchery! Great! A wide body doe.  Wow, fresh fish for dinner. I had no camera with me. So here are the shots in the front yard when I got home. The fish are there and the water is improving fast. Go get them boys. Good luck and tight line.

[Sabre]

Nice fish steel hawk, and thanks for the report. 

[hue-nut]

thanks for the reports guys! beauty there Steelhawk! Chris what kinda hooks are you using just kidding

[typhoon]

I think that's the biggest Vedder doe I've seen. Any idea how long it was?

[chris gadsden]

thanks for the reports guys! beauty there Steelhawk! Chris what kinda hooks are you using just kidding

Most likely ones I picked up on the beach while picking up tins and bottles.   Going out now to see if I break my losing streak, I am 3 ahead of the Leafs at the moment. 

[Steelhawk]

I think that's the biggest Vedder doe I've seen. Any idea how long it was?

I am not very good at estimating length. But you can see from the rod background that it is of good length. It is one of the fattest doe I have landed.

[dennyman]

Great looking fish Steelhawk. Well done!!

[Tex]

Woohoo!  Beauty fish, hawk!