Mums the Word

The rain and wind has been intense. Originally, the plan was to go fishing on Tuesday. However, since the forecast was for 35-40mph gusts, it was probably best to leave it alone. Thursday rolled around and while it was supposed to rain, the wind was to be light. I decided to put on the rain jacket and head out. Where did I go? Well, for once, I'm not going to say for reasons that may become obvious.

Access	Undisclosed
Air Temp	Low 43, High 52
Water Temp/Visibility	~? F / 3 feet
Weather	Cloudy / Rain
Flow	~? cfs
Time in/out	6:45am, 5:30pm
Leaders/Lines	Compact Skagit/Scandi
	11ft of T10	Morning
	7.0 ips Poly	Mid Afternoon
	12 lb FC tippet
Flies	Generic Steelhead	0
	Various intruders	0
	Top Secret Steelhead	0

Arriving to location #1 at sun-up. There was no rain or wind. I sauntered down to the water and perched myself on a rock. I stayed here for about an hour trying various flies. Water visibility was approximately 3 feet. Nothing. Not even a hint of a fish was present. I did get a chance to try out some newly tied intruders. They looked great in the water.

I hopped in my car and headed upstream to location #2. Found my parking spot and made it to the water. Started casting with no sign of any fish. I was disappointed, by not surprised. Up until this point, my confidence in this area was slim at best. That was about to change.

As I was walking upstream alongside some very fast water. Not exactly the place I'd expect steelhead to hold. A large fish jumped clear out of the water. Someone is home! I made short 10' casts with various flies with no results. At least I knew they were around.

Went downstream to some water that was running a little slow. I sent out a new fly design of mine to see what it would drum up. As I'm hoping for something to happen, I noticed a large fish jumping multiple times out of the pool. This was the second large steelhead I've seen to this point. More confidence. These guys were very active today. This guy in particular came completely out of the water 4 to 6 times in about a four second period of time. What was he doing? I'm not sure. But, I did get a good look at him. He was big!

I couldn't reach him with my casts, so I continued stepping downstream. Not long after, I got a good sized bump. After backing up and trying again. Nothing. Switched flies and stepped through. Nothing. Backed up again with the original fly. Bumped again! Kept trying in that same spot with no results. Time to move on.

After more stepping. Another bump! These fish were very aggressive today. If only I could get one to hold on.

Five or ten minutes later, after several more bumps, I felt this slight pressure on my rod. I set the hook and then there was a tremendous yank as the fish realized what had happened. The line went tight and the rod started throbbing violently. It was the biggest fish I've felt in a very long time, if not ever.

Then it happened, the fish jumped out of the water 3 or 4 times in about 2 seconds time. He was pissed! Even more impressive was his size. I'm guessing he was 35" and very thick. On one of his jumps, something went wrong. The line went limp and after reeling it in, realized he broke my 12lb tippet. Not at a knot mind you, just a clean break about a foot down from the T10 sink tip.

I was both disappointed and excited at the same time. I lost an incredibly large fish by my standards. However, at the same time, I had the pleasure of hooking an incredibly large fish. It was great while it lasted.

Too bad he stole my new fly that was working so well. Of course, I only had one and had to compromise with something similar. I got a few more good bumps with other flies, but nothing was as impressive as the one probably still attached to Mr. Steelhead.

Throughout the day, I had hooked, but not landed, around 5 fish. Most of them felt pretty large, as far as I could tell, only one of them was a half pounder.

Near the end, as I was standing in thigh deep water, I saw a flash out the corner of my eye. Either my friend was back, saying goodbye, or one of his brothers made an appearance. The fish surfaced two or three times within 5 feet of my legs. He was either chasing something or playing. Whatever the case, the fish in this pool were active, and obviously fear less of this wading fisherman.

Weather wise, the wind was quiet. The rain stayed away until around 2pm, where it was steady until Sunset. I'll be back! Possibly as early as Monday.