A few days ago I arrived somewhere upstream of Junction City before 4am. It was a deserted area that generally is devoid of people. I sat and mostly stared at the sky until the sun started to rise. What an incredible view. Thousands and thousands of stars. You certainly see nothing like that where I live, or where I normally fish for that matter.
It was a brisk 33 degrees by the time I geared up. I walked about 20 feet to get to the river to find a decent riffle. After stepping through, I had no takers. Not long after, I decided to move down river towards JC and try a different spot. Again, I made my way through several riffles and holes to get only one bump. The fish were no doubt in the deeper sections, but these were not very good for someone swinging a fly.
Again, I packed my bags and moved further down stream. After another couple of hours of swinging through some runs, I found this rock poking about 2 feet out of the water. It created a nice pocket behind and in front. I'd guess the water was about 7 feet deep immediately behind the boulder. A little deeper than what would be ideal. Casting across stream would of resulted in not being able to get deep enough. My game plan was to cast directly from above and at a slight angle, dangling the fly below. Allowing the size 8 soft hackle to drift in the currents and get pulled down by the hydraulics.
This was an ideal spot. Upriver of this boulder was some very fast/rough water. Below was another section of slightly less rough water. This rock was the first good resting spot for steelhead after coming up through the riffles. Because of its depth and relative safety, it also served as holding water if they wanted to stay longer. Simply said, it just looked good. So I wanted to make sure to cover it thoroughly.
That size 8 green/blue soft hackle with green body was just slowly moving in and out of the seams. The blue collar moved well and was perfect for this water. Just enough wire ribbing weight helped to sink it.
Hatchery Hen took this Size 8I dropped the fly in front of the rock, dancing it around in the soft cushion. On one of the swings, I had a deep tug. Big fish! I wasn't expecting it, and I probably pulled the fly right out of his mouth. I calmed myself down and repeated the cast. Nothing. I tried several times and switch flies out. Still nothing.
After going back to that original blue soft hackle, I tried another time and received a couple of pecks. Probably from one of the smaller fish that were in the area. Since I had covered the front of the boulder well, I now worked on the seams to the far side. After repositioning myself, I sent the fly down both sides in the soft/hard water edge. No takers. Finally, I put the fly well behind the rock and slowly stripped it through the soft water. Gave it several periods of rest to let the fly float around in the current.
At some point, I felt this very slight hesitation in the line. My thought process is to slowly raise my rod tip on any hesitations or light pecks to see if anyone is home. I only set the hook if I feel the weight of a fish or pulling of line. In this case, after raising my rod I felt resistance. Not long after, the fish felt me pulling and went in the other direction. I set the hook, causing the fish to take a short run.
At this point, I didn't know how big or little the fish was. However, about 10 seconds there was no doubt. I tried to pull in some line when she came charging towards me. As it was, I had a coil of line laying in the water at my feet. I quickly reeled it up so that I could fight her on the reel. After I accomplished that, I started to pull the fish who was now holding tight behind the rock. She didn't like the tugging and went even deeper, bending my rod completely over in the process. Upon seeing this, it started to dawn on me that this could be a big one.
I tried to pull her out of the hole and up towards the surface. I caught a glimpse of her and then immediately saw her take off downstream pulling about 20 feet of line out. It was by no means a brutal run. What she lacked in putting distance between us, she made up for with deep pulls that bent my 6-weight over, almost to the butt.
I didn't want to lose this one. The bigger fish I've hooked lately have all gotten away. She wasn't jumping out of the water or making blistering runs, so I had an easier time of it. After about 5 or 10 minutes of getting her close to only have her bolt for another run, I finally tailed her.
This hatchery hen measured 28 or 29 inches with a nice girth. Definitely a healthy fish and pretty darn bright to boot.
It was only 3pm, but I considered quitting for the day. I actually felt satisfied. However, instead, I opted to go and explore some new water. I traveled a ways down river and after having no luck, came back up river to finish the day almost where I had started. I had a couple more very strong grabs and a couple of short lived hookups. But no more steelhead to my hand. I did catch at least 10 trout in the last evening hatch. They were no more than 15 inches in size, but put up a good fight.
It was a great day and catching a good sized fish made the long drive home more tolerable.
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