Due to time constraints, you are about to get another lame fishing report.
Went to the Feather a few weeks ago. The weather was cloudy with comfortable temps. Lined my two hander with a compact scandi and an intermediate tip in the morning and a floating tip in the afternoon.
Stayed in the Low Flow section, and actually stayed in just two runs the whole day. Saw a ton of salmon. Also got a glimpse of a few large steelhead that jumped out of the water to take a look at me.
Caught several smaller half pounders under 20 inches. Got one big tug near the end of the day. I was picking up my fly for another cast and WHAM! I wasn't prepared and the fly came right out. Lousy timing. That would of surely been the biggest fish of the day.
Fished a multitude of flies of various sizes. The smaller steelhead patterns in 6-8 seemed to get the most attention. Even caught a couple of fish chugging some skaters in some dead spots in the middle of the river.
Things are going to be busy with me until Spring of next year. Maybe even longer. I don't know how much fishing I'll be able to do. Wish I had time for more.
With this slow spell comes some exciting fishing news. I'll share later on what that is.
Showing posts with label feather. Show all posts
Showing posts with label feather. Show all posts
Dec 8, 2010
Apr 2, 2010
Feather River
It seems that every time I go fishing on the Feather, I spend more time driving than fishing. Okay, maybe that is an exaggeration, but man, those roads in the Wildlife area are slow going.
I arrived about 2 miles downstream of the 162 bridge (in the Wildlife area) 30 minutes before sunrise. I scoped out this spot on the satellite maps, and since I hadn't been here before, there was bound to be a little risk associated with my first destination.
As it turns out, I had to walk downstream pretty far to reach any decent riffles. I don't know how long it took, but when you are anxious to get in the water, it feels like forever. I'd guess I walked a good 20-30 minutes. Missing an opportunity to fish just as the sun was rising.
I finally found some riffles. Nothing I could step and swing through. You more or less would position yourself at the top of some riffles dumping into a pool and angle casts off to one side or another. No down stream stepping possible. I wouldn't exactly call this ideal water for how I like to work. All of the negativity was erased about 20 minutes in when I caught my first fish.
She took the fly about 70 feet away from me as it was slowly swinging through. And when I say slowly, I mean slowly. It was creeping along. When it happened, I felt absolutely no tug. There was enough bow in the line that the hook set happened automatically with no input required on my part. Actually, I didn't even know it happened. A fish jumped about 2 feet up into the air. I remember thinking to myself, "is that fish attached to my line?" After all, she was about 30 feet away from where I had guessed my fly must of been. Before I could finish my thought, I felt pressure on the line. Oh yes!
Recently renamed to - the "Blue Widow Spider"
I started gathering my wits and reeling in. She was a bruiser. She peeled off about 20 feet of line and started tugging. I recovered some line and then she shot out of the air a second time. We had a tug of war match going on for a few minutes. I'd reel some line in, and she would take off. My rod tip was pulsing up and down as she went deep down thrashing about. I finally caught site of her a little bit later and she was good sized.
By the time she was in my hand several minutes later, I held her up to my rod to get a measurement. Close to 22". Not a huge fish, but she was thick. Very healthy. If she had been to the ocean, it was a while ago. She was very trouty looking. This was no half pounder. The fly she took was a sz10 generic green soft hackle with a grey wing. This fly has been good for trout in the past. Accidentally, I bent it later on in the morning and had to retire it. I'll be sure to tie up some more.
What a nice start to the day. I decided to give the pool a rest and walked downstream. The next run required some tricky river crossings. The run produced no grabs or bumps. Several hours later, I decided to stop by the same pool from earlier, where I caught that nice fish, before heading back to the car.
I really did not like fishing this spot. But, it is hard to resist when it actually produces. I tried for another 25-30 minutes with nothing to show for it. My 10 foot intermediate poly leader was toting about 7 feet of tippet. Two flies hung off. A small size 12 generic soft hackle, and the recently re-named "Blue Widow Spider" (because it is such a killer!!). This fly has been so effective in the past, it is hard to resist in clear water conditions.
After one of my swings, I started stripping the running line back for another cast. Somewhere as I was quickly pulling line, I felt pressure. This fish was smaller. I didn't feel as much deep pull. But what I did feel is a very strong/quick fish that wanted to do anything it could to rid itself of that hook. The Blue Widow strikes again! Even stripped through the water at ridiculous speeds, it will catch steelhead.
The most recent victim must of shot out of the water a good 5 times. As she started getting closer, I realized this was a true half pounder. She was very bright. Hadn't been in the river very long at all. After picking her up, I could practically see my reflection in her 15 inch profile. Even though she wasn't a big fish, she fought with incredibly power. I was very surprised to see how small she was. I can't imagine what it must be like to catch a fresh 30+ inch steelhead. I hope I can have the pleasure some day.
It was time to walk back to the car. I was hungry and ready for another access point. Unfortunately, I didn't realize at the time, I was about to spend the next hour and a half driving around. Reminds me of the last time I was at the Feather. Too much time driving on those rough roads.
I drove up to Bedrock park and decided that it wasn't worth the time. Went upstream to see what else we had. Nothing looked ideal. I'm sure there were fish in there. But I was hoping for a true step and swing piece of water. Either it was hiding from me, or didn't exist in this spot.
Drove back into the Wildlife preserve, right past where I was earlier. Another 4 miles on the crappy roads brought me to a spot where I caught the fish earlier. Unfortunately, there wasn't an easy way to cross the river to get to the best spot to swing a fly. So, I tried to find another access I remembered from the map. No go. Back to hwy 162 and then 70 south. Got off on Pacific Heights and found another entrance to the preserve. I've been here before and figured it was worth another try. Spent the next few hours with nothing to show for it. It was now afternoon and very sunny out. The fish were probably down deep. Not willing to move for a fly just under the surface.
After debating with myself on where to go next, I decided to leave and go further downstream, outside the low flow section to a spot I'd been before. It had some decent runs. Again, nothing really happened. I messed around until the sun started going down and the little fish started rising to a hatch.
I continued to swing this area and caught some small fish and received one very strong and deep tug. I'll never know how big it was, but it felt like a good sized fish. Well into the 20's.
By the time it was getting dark, I was ready to go home. I had been on the water for more than twelve hours (minus the driving from spot to spot). Previous to the drive that morning, I had only gotten a few hours sleep. I was plain exhausted after a long day of swinging flies.
While not a crazy day of catching fish, I managed to catch a few. Two of them were great battles and exciting moments. Thanks Feather!
I arrived about 2 miles downstream of the 162 bridge (in the Wildlife area) 30 minutes before sunrise. I scoped out this spot on the satellite maps, and since I hadn't been here before, there was bound to be a little risk associated with my first destination.
As it turns out, I had to walk downstream pretty far to reach any decent riffles. I don't know how long it took, but when you are anxious to get in the water, it feels like forever. I'd guess I walked a good 20-30 minutes. Missing an opportunity to fish just as the sun was rising.
I finally found some riffles. Nothing I could step and swing through. You more or less would position yourself at the top of some riffles dumping into a pool and angle casts off to one side or another. No down stream stepping possible. I wouldn't exactly call this ideal water for how I like to work. All of the negativity was erased about 20 minutes in when I caught my first fish.
| Access | Wildlife Preserve | |
| Air Temp | Low 40, High 61 | |
| Water Temp/Visibility | ~57 F / 6+ feet | |
| Weather | Sunny/Partly Cloudy/td> | |
| Flow | Not sure | |
| Time in/out | 6am, 7:30pm | |
| Leaders/Lines | Compact Scandi | |
| 10ft Int Poly leader | All day | |
| 7 & 12 lb FC tippet | ||
| Flies | Various Soft Hackles | 3 |
| Blue Widow Spider, sz 8 | 2 | |
| Various steelhead patterns | bumps/tugs | |
She took the fly about 70 feet away from me as it was slowly swinging through. And when I say slowly, I mean slowly. It was creeping along. When it happened, I felt absolutely no tug. There was enough bow in the line that the hook set happened automatically with no input required on my part. Actually, I didn't even know it happened. A fish jumped about 2 feet up into the air. I remember thinking to myself, "is that fish attached to my line?" After all, she was about 30 feet away from where I had guessed my fly must of been. Before I could finish my thought, I felt pressure on the line. Oh yes!
Recently renamed to - the "Blue Widow Spider"I started gathering my wits and reeling in. She was a bruiser. She peeled off about 20 feet of line and started tugging. I recovered some line and then she shot out of the air a second time. We had a tug of war match going on for a few minutes. I'd reel some line in, and she would take off. My rod tip was pulsing up and down as she went deep down thrashing about. I finally caught site of her a little bit later and she was good sized.
By the time she was in my hand several minutes later, I held her up to my rod to get a measurement. Close to 22". Not a huge fish, but she was thick. Very healthy. If she had been to the ocean, it was a while ago. She was very trouty looking. This was no half pounder. The fly she took was a sz10 generic green soft hackle with a grey wing. This fly has been good for trout in the past. Accidentally, I bent it later on in the morning and had to retire it. I'll be sure to tie up some more.
What a nice start to the day. I decided to give the pool a rest and walked downstream. The next run required some tricky river crossings. The run produced no grabs or bumps. Several hours later, I decided to stop by the same pool from earlier, where I caught that nice fish, before heading back to the car.
I really did not like fishing this spot. But, it is hard to resist when it actually produces. I tried for another 25-30 minutes with nothing to show for it. My 10 foot intermediate poly leader was toting about 7 feet of tippet. Two flies hung off. A small size 12 generic soft hackle, and the recently re-named "Blue Widow Spider" (because it is such a killer!!). This fly has been so effective in the past, it is hard to resist in clear water conditions.
After one of my swings, I started stripping the running line back for another cast. Somewhere as I was quickly pulling line, I felt pressure. This fish was smaller. I didn't feel as much deep pull. But what I did feel is a very strong/quick fish that wanted to do anything it could to rid itself of that hook. The Blue Widow strikes again! Even stripped through the water at ridiculous speeds, it will catch steelhead.
The most recent victim must of shot out of the water a good 5 times. As she started getting closer, I realized this was a true half pounder. She was very bright. Hadn't been in the river very long at all. After picking her up, I could practically see my reflection in her 15 inch profile. Even though she wasn't a big fish, she fought with incredibly power. I was very surprised to see how small she was. I can't imagine what it must be like to catch a fresh 30+ inch steelhead. I hope I can have the pleasure some day.
It was time to walk back to the car. I was hungry and ready for another access point. Unfortunately, I didn't realize at the time, I was about to spend the next hour and a half driving around. Reminds me of the last time I was at the Feather. Too much time driving on those rough roads.
I drove up to Bedrock park and decided that it wasn't worth the time. Went upstream to see what else we had. Nothing looked ideal. I'm sure there were fish in there. But I was hoping for a true step and swing piece of water. Either it was hiding from me, or didn't exist in this spot.
Drove back into the Wildlife preserve, right past where I was earlier. Another 4 miles on the crappy roads brought me to a spot where I caught the fish earlier. Unfortunately, there wasn't an easy way to cross the river to get to the best spot to swing a fly. So, I tried to find another access I remembered from the map. No go. Back to hwy 162 and then 70 south. Got off on Pacific Heights and found another entrance to the preserve. I've been here before and figured it was worth another try. Spent the next few hours with nothing to show for it. It was now afternoon and very sunny out. The fish were probably down deep. Not willing to move for a fly just under the surface.
After debating with myself on where to go next, I decided to leave and go further downstream, outside the low flow section to a spot I'd been before. It had some decent runs. Again, nothing really happened. I messed around until the sun started going down and the little fish started rising to a hatch.
I continued to swing this area and caught some small fish and received one very strong and deep tug. I'll never know how big it was, but it felt like a good sized fish. Well into the 20's.
By the time it was getting dark, I was ready to go home. I had been on the water for more than twelve hours (minus the driving from spot to spot). Previous to the drive that morning, I had only gotten a few hours sleep. I was plain exhausted after a long day of swinging flies.
While not a crazy day of catching fish, I managed to catch a few. Two of them were great battles and exciting moments. Thanks Feather!
May 10, 2009
Trip Report: Feather River
A week or two ago, I became the proud owner of a new spey rod. Instead of building another, I decided to simply purchase a 6-weight. Ever since, I've been itching to try it out somewhere other than the casting pool. The original plan called for a trip to the Yuba. However, the flows were much too high and I figured this would be an excellent opportunity to visit the Feather.
I've never been here before, so I went through my usual intelligence gathering. Satellite maps, flow reports, fishing reports, and contacting some people that have been there. It was decided to try the area between the hatchery and Palm Ave.
At early morning, pre-dark, I entered through one of the many gates to the wildlife off Larkin. The road was nothing more than gravel and rock. Pretty darn bumpy and rough. A maze of unmarked trails made for some navigation problems. However, my first stop was pretty easy to find.
This river is big! The sat maps don't do it justice. Even with my two hander, there was no way I could cast across the whole thing. So, I concentrated on what I could reach. Started with just the leader out of the tip and swung a generic soft hackle with a larger size 4 steelhead fly with black flowing spey hackles. Both were attached to a couple of feet of mono and then a 7ips sinking leader.
Didn't see any signs of life, but the river looked fishy enough. I slowly inched out more line on each cast. Eventually, I was casting out 60 or so feet, swinging it down, letting it hang, followed by a few steps down the river. This went on for a while. No bumps, no bites. Nothing. Birds were out, diving into the river for what I assumed were fish. So I kept at it until the river got too deep to comfortably wade.
Not long after, I chose to crawl up the bank and back into the car. The road was easy to follow since I could just hug the river, but it required slow-going. After spotting another fishy looking spot, I started swinging again. By this time, the wind was whipping along at 15 or more mph. I'm not sure what it is, but anytime I plan for a day on the river, it gets windy. Today was no exception.
After a few wind knots, I had the line swinging 60-70 feet out. There were no boulders or any other targets to aim for. It was a wide open search and destroy mission. I prefer targeting fish holding spots, but these larger rivers make it difficult at times. As usual, I tried to position myself so that my downstream dangle was on a current seam. Just in case someone was lurking on the slow side waiting for food to flow down the fast side.
About 10 minutes and 50 tangles later (lots of debris in the water), I felt a bump in the heart of the swing. I resisted the urge to set the hook and just let the fly swing further. Just as the fly came to the end of the swing-- WHAM, the fish hit a second time. He followed the fly a pretty good distance, at least 30 feet. The line went tight and the fish took off for the middle of the river.
This is the fly that caught the first fish of the day.
At some point I caught a glimpse and noticed he was pretty good size. A few minutes later I had him to hand and put him up to my rod for a measurement. Earlier, before leaving home, I measured from the butt of my second grip to the top of my first. It is 23 inches. This hatchery fish stretched slightly beyond. I'd guess he was 24-25 inches and bulky. He took the size 4 spey fly and after removing it, I set him free. It was only 9am, and this would be the last bite I'd have until the afternoon.
It is a blur to me now, but at some point I got back in the car and drove further upstream. The road got worse and it became harder to figure out which direction to go. Not one, but two and a half HOURS later I was fishing again. I did a lot of really slow driving trying to find a place to fish. Nada.
I decided to check out the fish hatchery up near the dam. What a fish-ladder. If you haven't been here before, you've got to check that thing out. It is quite the run. Someday I'm going to come back here with my wife and son, we'll check out the rearing ponds and the underwater viewing area. I was too eager to start fishing again to bother today.
I drove more and more. Good thing I laid out a ton of potential fishing spots mapped out the night before. Those roads in the wildlife area are a major time waster. Next time, I'll go in and out of a few gates, but not drive through the area any further than I have too. It is just too time consuming. Unless you have a beater of a car, it pays to drive a little slower to avoid the dents (some sections of bigger looser stone requires 4wd and a high clearance, be careful if you have a 2wd car).
Eventually I found a spot to fish again. It had been so slow, that I looked for deeper, slower water. I even put on an absolutely huge split shot on and two heavy flies to get down. It didn't help. No bites.
I wandered downstream to this really neat little spot. It was very hard to get to, and you had to balance carefully on these rocks, but the water looked so fishy. I spent quite a bit of time here with no results. Even though fish were starting to rise for bugs, I couldn't fool anyone. Out of casting range, I saw an absolutely huge trout jump out of the water. It was quite the sight to behold. If it weren't so windy, I'd be able to target the rising fish more easily.
I decided to go back to the car for some food. It was probably 3pm by now. After the long walk up a steep hill, I chose to get in and drive somewhere else instead of walk back to the river to a spot that wasn't producing. Besides, this was a day for exploring anyway.
I found this island that looked absolutely incredible. Such a great place to fish. Unfortunately, I couldn't get out to it. Not that I didn't try. There was this narrow strip deep water keeping me from crossing. I was very disappointed. If the water was slightly lower, I could of made it.
Discouraged, I walked downstream to end of that island. When the two forks joined again, there was a swirl of current. Far out into the river, the two swirls met and made this great back eddy. The water just seemed to stop here. I was thinking that this had to hold fish. How can I get to it? Sure enough, a few minutes later I saw fish rising. I tried different angles and casting to various drifts to try and get into the slow water. But the current on either side was pulling my fly out.
The answer was to wade a little further upriver and cast at a very awkward angle, down and across. I had to put out 70-90 feet of line to get to it. On that very first successful cast, where my fly just sat in the slow water-- WHAM! I scrambled back out of the current to slower water where I could bring the fish in. This guy measured about 22 inches. He put up a good fight.
I worked this eddy for a while. There was a 45 minute or so window when they were hitting on almost every cast. There was also something very big lurking in there. Or maybe several big ones. I lost two flies tied on 8lb mono and had the hook straightened on not one or two, not three, but four flies. The hits were so hard, it was alarming.
A few minutes later, I cast my fly out about 60 feet, lifting the line high out of the water trying to keep it from getting swept in the faster current, the fly swung almost in a dead drift as I fed running line in to keep it drifting beyond 90 feet. Smack! Hit again. But this time, the hook didn't bend, he was staying on.
Instead of running away from me, he came flying towards me. I stripped in line as fast as I could to try and keep it tight. Before you knew it, I had about 50-60 feet of running line under my feet. This was not good. It was a big fish and I wanted to use the reel. I reeled in the slack, but it got so bunched up from being loose, that my reel got jammed with line tangles. Somehow I kept the line tight and untangled the running line from my reel at the same time. I carefully waded over to the slack water.
I worked the fish to my hand that was in the water waiting for him. A tailed him, but when I tried to pick him up, my hands were so shakey. I've never been like that before, I was physically shaking from the adrenaline. I couldn't keep a grip on him. Maybe he felt my moment of weakness and had another spurt of energy. He took off between my legs. Sure enough, he had looped the tippet around my boot and the line broke. Buh bye. :( If I were to guess, he was upper 20's. But, it was hard to say for sure. At least mid 20's. Whatever size he was, the excitement gave me the shakes and he got the better of me. Good for him.
This section was very productive. Over the course of an hour or two, I caught 5 fish. None of them were under 20 inches. I lost several more and had some really big grabs. Still, I decided to move on before it got dark.
Further downstream, I found another good looking spot, but didn't have any luck. Between it getting dark and the swarm of mosquitoes that were attacking me, it was time to go.
This was a unique experience. It is the only time I can recall that I caught this many fish and not one was under 20 inches in length. Normally, I'd get a few small guys. Happily, I'd take that next time out.
I've never been here before, so I went through my usual intelligence gathering. Satellite maps, flow reports, fishing reports, and contacting some people that have been there. It was decided to try the area between the hatchery and Palm Ave.
At early morning, pre-dark, I entered through one of the many gates to the wildlife off Larkin. The road was nothing more than gravel and rock. Pretty darn bumpy and rough. A maze of unmarked trails made for some navigation problems. However, my first stop was pretty easy to find.
This river is big! The sat maps don't do it justice. Even with my two hander, there was no way I could cast across the whole thing. So, I concentrated on what I could reach. Started with just the leader out of the tip and swung a generic soft hackle with a larger size 4 steelhead fly with black flowing spey hackles. Both were attached to a couple of feet of mono and then a 7ips sinking leader.
Didn't see any signs of life, but the river looked fishy enough. I slowly inched out more line on each cast. Eventually, I was casting out 60 or so feet, swinging it down, letting it hang, followed by a few steps down the river. This went on for a while. No bumps, no bites. Nothing. Birds were out, diving into the river for what I assumed were fish. So I kept at it until the river got too deep to comfortably wade.
Not long after, I chose to crawl up the bank and back into the car. The road was easy to follow since I could just hug the river, but it required slow-going. After spotting another fishy looking spot, I started swinging again. By this time, the wind was whipping along at 15 or more mph. I'm not sure what it is, but anytime I plan for a day on the river, it gets windy. Today was no exception.
After a few wind knots, I had the line swinging 60-70 feet out. There were no boulders or any other targets to aim for. It was a wide open search and destroy mission. I prefer targeting fish holding spots, but these larger rivers make it difficult at times. As usual, I tried to position myself so that my downstream dangle was on a current seam. Just in case someone was lurking on the slow side waiting for food to flow down the fast side.
About 10 minutes and 50 tangles later (lots of debris in the water), I felt a bump in the heart of the swing. I resisted the urge to set the hook and just let the fly swing further. Just as the fly came to the end of the swing-- WHAM, the fish hit a second time. He followed the fly a pretty good distance, at least 30 feet. The line went tight and the fish took off for the middle of the river.
This was the first time catching a fish on this rod, so I wasn't familiar with how it would feel. But it felt like a big fish. He wasn't peeling line off, however, at 65 feet out, it was rather challenging to maneuver him back to the slower water.
This is the fly that caught the first fish of the day.At some point I caught a glimpse and noticed he was pretty good size. A few minutes later I had him to hand and put him up to my rod for a measurement. Earlier, before leaving home, I measured from the butt of my second grip to the top of my first. It is 23 inches. This hatchery fish stretched slightly beyond. I'd guess he was 24-25 inches and bulky. He took the size 4 spey fly and after removing it, I set him free. It was only 9am, and this would be the last bite I'd have until the afternoon.
It is a blur to me now, but at some point I got back in the car and drove further upstream. The road got worse and it became harder to figure out which direction to go. Not one, but two and a half HOURS later I was fishing again. I did a lot of really slow driving trying to find a place to fish. Nada.
I decided to check out the fish hatchery up near the dam. What a fish-ladder. If you haven't been here before, you've got to check that thing out. It is quite the run. Someday I'm going to come back here with my wife and son, we'll check out the rearing ponds and the underwater viewing area. I was too eager to start fishing again to bother today.
I drove more and more. Good thing I laid out a ton of potential fishing spots mapped out the night before. Those roads in the wildlife area are a major time waster. Next time, I'll go in and out of a few gates, but not drive through the area any further than I have too. It is just too time consuming. Unless you have a beater of a car, it pays to drive a little slower to avoid the dents (some sections of bigger looser stone requires 4wd and a high clearance, be careful if you have a 2wd car).
Eventually I found a spot to fish again. It had been so slow, that I looked for deeper, slower water. I even put on an absolutely huge split shot on and two heavy flies to get down. It didn't help. No bites.
I wandered downstream to this really neat little spot. It was very hard to get to, and you had to balance carefully on these rocks, but the water looked so fishy. I spent quite a bit of time here with no results. Even though fish were starting to rise for bugs, I couldn't fool anyone. Out of casting range, I saw an absolutely huge trout jump out of the water. It was quite the sight to behold. If it weren't so windy, I'd be able to target the rising fish more easily.
I decided to go back to the car for some food. It was probably 3pm by now. After the long walk up a steep hill, I chose to get in and drive somewhere else instead of walk back to the river to a spot that wasn't producing. Besides, this was a day for exploring anyway.
I found this island that looked absolutely incredible. Such a great place to fish. Unfortunately, I couldn't get out to it. Not that I didn't try. There was this narrow strip deep water keeping me from crossing. I was very disappointed. If the water was slightly lower, I could of made it.
Discouraged, I walked downstream to end of that island. When the two forks joined again, there was a swirl of current. Far out into the river, the two swirls met and made this great back eddy. The water just seemed to stop here. I was thinking that this had to hold fish. How can I get to it? Sure enough, a few minutes later I saw fish rising. I tried different angles and casting to various drifts to try and get into the slow water. But the current on either side was pulling my fly out.
The answer was to wade a little further upriver and cast at a very awkward angle, down and across. I had to put out 70-90 feet of line to get to it. On that very first successful cast, where my fly just sat in the slow water-- WHAM! I scrambled back out of the current to slower water where I could bring the fish in. This guy measured about 22 inches. He put up a good fight.
I worked this eddy for a while. There was a 45 minute or so window when they were hitting on almost every cast. There was also something very big lurking in there. Or maybe several big ones. I lost two flies tied on 8lb mono and had the hook straightened on not one or two, not three, but four flies. The hits were so hard, it was alarming.
A few minutes later, I cast my fly out about 60 feet, lifting the line high out of the water trying to keep it from getting swept in the faster current, the fly swung almost in a dead drift as I fed running line in to keep it drifting beyond 90 feet. Smack! Hit again. But this time, the hook didn't bend, he was staying on.
Instead of running away from me, he came flying towards me. I stripped in line as fast as I could to try and keep it tight. Before you knew it, I had about 50-60 feet of running line under my feet. This was not good. It was a big fish and I wanted to use the reel. I reeled in the slack, but it got so bunched up from being loose, that my reel got jammed with line tangles. Somehow I kept the line tight and untangled the running line from my reel at the same time. I carefully waded over to the slack water.
I worked the fish to my hand that was in the water waiting for him. A tailed him, but when I tried to pick him up, my hands were so shakey. I've never been like that before, I was physically shaking from the adrenaline. I couldn't keep a grip on him. Maybe he felt my moment of weakness and had another spurt of energy. He took off between my legs. Sure enough, he had looped the tippet around my boot and the line broke. Buh bye. :( If I were to guess, he was upper 20's. But, it was hard to say for sure. At least mid 20's. Whatever size he was, the excitement gave me the shakes and he got the better of me. Good for him.
This section was very productive. Over the course of an hour or two, I caught 5 fish. None of them were under 20 inches. I lost several more and had some really big grabs. Still, I decided to move on before it got dark.
Further downstream, I found another good looking spot, but didn't have any luck. Between it getting dark and the swarm of mosquitoes that were attacking me, it was time to go.
This was a unique experience. It is the only time I can recall that I caught this many fish and not one was under 20 inches in length. Normally, I'd get a few small guys. Happily, I'd take that next time out.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)