Hello and welcome to another steelhead fishing report. It has been a few days since I last posted due to a very busy schedule, but I will try to post reports as often as I can.
The night before, I had checked the local forecast and they were reporting that the weather would be cold and clear. The river was in excellent shape when I last fished it Tuesday so I decided to make the trip out. The alarm clock was set for 7 AM. Time flew quick and morning had now arrived. I quickly gathered up my gear for the day and I made the short walk out to the lower river. As I approach the river, I see that the river has dropped a bit with perfect visibility. Today I decided on fishing some boraxed chunk roe instead of the usual roe bags as I have been pretty well blanked with the bags up until this point. The two hits I've had thus far have been on chunk roe. Anyways, I start at the head of the chosen run and start to cast away enjoying the scenery and the peacefulness.
It was bloody frigid might I add. My hands turned to ice within a matter of 5 minutes or so after arriving. I should have remembered to wear my gloves. Oh well.
I continue to work my way downstream, imagining the float diving and thinking of how great the fight would be. As I make one of my final casts in the run, I look behind at the trail as I had heard a noise. When I look back, I cannot see my float anymore. I pull back half heartily and feel a definite head shake. Finally! After 8 trips so far and two missed fish, maybe today, the last day of December 2015 shall reward my efforts with a fish. Unfortunately, things don't go my way and I once again lose the fish within 40 seconds. I am not sure if it was a dull hook or the fact that my hands were so cold I could not reel in well. Either way, the fish was now lost and a feeling of utter disappointment arose within me. I put on another fresh chunk of roe and continue to fish the rest of the run. The float stays dry. I move down the trail and fish a few other runs with no success. I talked to a couple of rods along the way who hadn't had any success except for one guy who caught a small whitefish. It was nearing 11:30 AM and I was getting very cold and tired so I decided to pack it in for the day. What a beautiful day to be out. The sun was shining and the river was prime. The trails on the lower have quite a few patches of ice so be careful when you walk down there in the morning, very slippery. I almost wiped out twice.
Despite losing all three of the fish that I have hooked thus far, I feel confident that I will get one in the new year. Not too many guys hook anything in December so having hooked three gives me great confidence in my ability. One of my friends pulled out a nice hatchery doe of about nine pounds the other day which is a good sign. Anyways I hope you all have a great New Year's Eve and I wish you all the best of success on the flow! Thanks for taking the time to read my report. Here are a couple pictures I took early on in the trip.