I decided to spend New years eve and day differently this year. I booked at the Vedder River Inn to do some epic steel fishing. Dec 30th I fished with roe sacs and jigs all day and at about 3:45 pm i had my sacs stripped from me twice and it never came back for some more. I went through my bait kit and decided no matter how much I hated the pink worm and the fact that I have never caught a fish on it. Some avid steel head anglers swear by it. I decided to rig it up with my jig head. 3rd cast ... and Waccccckkk!! The thing took off like a train!!!! Tried chasing her but she snapped off my main line.. Tooted her horns and waived her tail good bye.. I'm wondering to my self..I never snap fish off but.... Hey sh*t happens.... So i rig up the pink wormy again and I check my lines to make sure I'm all good to go... Realizing as I cast that I for got to change my main line before steelie season this year...
.. And if you were guessing if my float went down again... It did!! Head shakes and this one also took off like a train and completely launches out of the water so I could tell it was a smaller doe somewhere around there 9-10 lbs... Had her on for a good while and thought to myself I'm landing this fish. SNAPPPPPP!! Gaddamn! It happened again! Regardless of the two losses I'm glad I'm able to read water better and get on fish more often!
The following morning which was New Years Eve. The first thing I did was go to Fred's and get New main line as well as new backing. At first light I hooked on to a steelie on the retrieval for about 5 seconds using roe sacs. Thinking to myself at least the line didn't snap this time. At this point I've lost 3 in 2 days. Not bad for finding fish, but now i just needed to land them.
Called it an early night to rest up so I could have an amazing New Years Day on the river. My plan was to fish 2 of the same runs I've been fishing but at the same time fish 2 new runs that I hadn't touched the last 2 days. I even ended up doing some exploring and hiked about 25 mins and found some beautiful water. No fish there though. I finally found another nice piece of water as worked my way down river. It was the most perfect run to land a fish. 4th cast in the float dips! I set the hook and I'm thinking Nooooo way! Head shakes and I'm on! I figured I've had some practice the last couple days and am ready and warmed up for this New Years Day fish. It was a pretty decent size in around the 10lb mark. At this point I've had her on for awhile and she's being pretty cooperative. I see the chrome slab only about 5 feet from me and I'm getting ready to land her. But, she wasn't done yet. It had one last move left on me.. "Death Roll"........ Heartbroken... gone....
All I gotta say is that It was a beautiful few days and some AWESOME fishing and lessons. Happy with the start of my 2013. To the pink wormiessss.. I AM A BELIEVER!
Here are some cool shots though. Enjoy.