Springerfest 2011 Part 2

Well, we had hot fishing for an hour and a half. The weather started to cool and so did the bite. We moved up river to what is now referred to as the "Otter hole". We didn't hook anything that night, otters or fish.

The nights were cold, especially the 2nd, where the low was set to drop to 34 degrees. Not a welcome temp when you are worried about cold water. The next day pretty much went like the first. We got up early and waited.......and waited. Nothing. By 11am, the sun finally broke over the canyon walls and the water started to get warmer. Just after 2, on of our rods went down and another hatchery fish was in the cooler. It is amazing what 1 fish can do for the mood in the boat. The feeling was eerily similar to a winter steelhead trip where 1 fish makes you feel successful.

The pressure was off for the day and we hooked up a half hour later 1 final time for that day. Luckily, we were running into hatchery fish, which always makes family and co-workers happy back home. The weather that night was predicted to rain, so we decided to break down camp a night early and go sleep in a dry hotel. We were not going to repeat our soaked camp experience like last year.

In the middle of the breakdown, Chad's buddy Ron came up around the corner in his boat. We thought he'd be around, but hadn't seen him either day. After he gave us a profanity laced hello, we agreed to meet up with him later and fish until dark.

We came up empty in the evening session and left Ron to spend the night on the water in his favorite corner. Chad and I got to the boatramp as the sun went down and decided we should just transfer our gear to the car and sleep on the boat. It all seemed like a great idea to idle downstream until we realized that it was not only dark outside, it was really dark outside! Luckily, my little headlamp was bright enough that alternating shots of each bank kept us safe. We got positioned next to Ron, who was just finishing up a bottle of wine. Listening to him tell his stories was ten times more entertaining than any basketball playoff game we would've been watching at the hotel!

The last morning, we scored first with a small hatchery fish. While Chad was fighting that fish, Ron got ripped across the river by a busty native. After that, nothing. Chad and I tried a couple of other spots, with no luck. We loaded our gear up and went home. My only regret was that we missed the fight later that day between Ron and an 8 foot sturgeon!

In the meantime, its back to the 2 hander for me. I even did some dry line casting last night!


The Camp

Ron hooked up in his sweet boat.