My report starts Friday Jan 13th. I got off work early and headed to the river to fish the afternoon. Fished through a few sections of water with no results. Float dipped while drifting through a beauty piece of water but couldn't get it to come back if it was a fish. After continuing through the run I was going to move to another area but changed up my presentation and ran through part of the run again. In a slot that i had hooked a few fish last year, the float dropped and fish on. Good fight and when I was able to get it close, I saw that it was a nice sized wild doe. I tailed the fish, put my rod down and snapped a quick pic in the water, and off she went. Nice way to spend and afternoon.
I wasn't able to get out to fish yesterday, but was back at it this morning Jan 15. Was up early and bundled up. Drove up river and met up with some fishing partners. After waiting for it to get a bit lighter, we hiked to the area I had gotten the fish on friday. The water was in great shape and just looked "fishy" with it's snow lined banks. As i pulled the cover off my reel, I then realized when i had oiled my reel before leaving the house, I had forgotten to put the big screw back that holds the spool on.....DOH!! Very fustrated, I hiked all the way back out and to the truck and had no choice but to drive home. Big pain in the butt, but atleast i live in Chilliwack so it could of been worse. Sure enough, the screw was sitting right on the edge of my tool box where i had forgotten it earlier. After topping up my coffee I was back on my way. Was going to just fish the lower river, but the water looked too nice where I had come from, so back up river I went. One of my friends had already worked through the prime area I was lined up to fish before I had to head back home. Nothing, he says. Well i work my way down the run and in the exact same area as I had hooked the previous fish, first cast and fish on again. This time it was a 10.2lb hatchery doe. I figured after all the running around in the morning I deserved fish for dinner, so I bonked it and called it a morning. Helped me get over my earlier doofus moment.
Nice to get a couple fish in back to back outings in the colder weather. Something about snow on the ground while chasing steelhead just feels right.