We both hooked up with fish early and confidence was high. Around the corner was one of the river's "known" steelhead runs. Most of the time during the summer, drift fisherman are parked there, making it difficult to work a swung fly.
Well, being November 27th, the gear dudes weren't there. I started up top and Simon took the bottom. I hook and land a fish about 5 casts in. I go back, work out my line to the same spot and I get grabbed again. Fish to the beach again. Simon has seen enough. He wants my spot. I gladly switch places with him. The homeowner with the riverfront property makes his way down to river and starts chatting with me. Yep, I hook up again, but lose the fish mid battle. The homeowner is frustrated with me losing the fish. We share a laugh, I keep casting and the line comes under tension again. This time I put the fish on the beach. The homeowner looks at me like a begging puppy. I barely finished asking him if he wanted the fish before he responded. I tagged the fish and handed it over to him. He had the thing cleaned out and on the smoker before we left the run! Simon also learned his lesson about switching spots.
We both ended up getting another fish and our day was complete. Simon cleared his schedule to go back for round 2 this morning. Fishing was solid again.
On a funny note: As we took out today at the ramp, another boat was dropping off their trailer. They asked how we did and responded with "we got a few". They wanted to know what was working and we went with "swinging leech patterns". This prompted the long stare and this comment: "Huh, so you were like flossing them then?"
Yeah pal, we were flossing them....................
This small fish was bright and spunky.
Getting the mojo warmed up for winter.
Getting the mojo warmed up for winter.
good work, thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteThanks Dan. I enjoyed that article you wrote for Deneki.
ReplyDelete