A slow finish to a successful week

 

After going without a bite yesterday and putting in the most time on the river for one day this season, I thought I should be able to change that today.

A bit of frost greeted me and the other early anglers who were on the river at first light, which was coming a little earlier, by 3 minutes each couple of days. Hopefully winter is slowly slipping away, lets hope so as we have seen enough snow this year.

I settled in with another angler who I know at the scene of some other action this week, we were pleased to see the water in good shape once again today. We felt there would be a fish waiting for us as the run looked so promising once again. I was hoping that it would be a wild fish for the tube.

The other angler had the first chance but on the strike he came up empty. A few minutes later it was my turn as the Maple Leaf Drennan dipped. On the strike, I made contact but for the 4th time out of the last 6 hookups, the fish was only on for a head shake and a splash before it was gone.

We worked the run and were joined by other anglers in this and the surrounding spots but I saw nothing on for the two hours when I stayed in the area. There were a dozen or so anglers most of the time.

I decided that it was time to do some exploring and checked out some new areas but that would be after a visit to Tims for some refreshment and a snack. I also checked in with The Master and he had released a hatchery and heard of one wild landed but not tubed as no one was around to do that honour.

After a leisurly break, I was back at the river a bit before noon and I ended up walking over a mile of river. I found some nice spots but the only opportunity I had was when not looking at my float. Instead I was watching my footing while walking down river in the middle of the drift and I felt a good tug, but the float was above water when I looked up. I did not even see it going down. It would not give me a second chance.

I fished for another 30 minutes down river and then returned back to the mentioned spot again and to see if the fish had forgotton about the feel of the hook but it would not or had moved up river. It was near the end of tubing time, three o’clock and the rain started falling. I was tired too and I had another mile to walk back to the Leaf Mobil.

My day started with an opportunity and ended with another chance when for the only time during the whole trip I was not watching my float.

It shows once again in sports angling things can happen when you least expect it.

This entry was posted on Friday, January 30th, 2009 at 10:18 pm and is filed under The Journal by Chris Gadsden. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.