Much needed time on the water

[Spydeyrch]

Life has been crazy!!! It has been so full of just STUFF that I have barely had a moment to really breath. What with work, my responsibilities at church, my little girl being born on the 5th, family stuff, etc. But thankfully that moment was heaven sent this last Saturday.

The rain hit last week or the week before and it really got my blood boiling for some river action. I could almost taste it. It was the only thing that I could think of for a week or two. I just wanted to get a line wet and get out there!!

So Friday night, I called up Modest_Man and left him a message to see if he wanted to go do some last moment trout fishing before the season closes. He called back and said that he was game but possibly wanted to target some coho and maybe some steelhead too. I said I didn't care as long as I could go fishing for some trout (I didn't get my S&S tags this year).

So come Saturday morning, I was at his place by 7am and he, his dog, and I took off to the hills. The weather was perfect!! Cloudy, overcast, drizzly with spots of a nice shower, sometimes a down pour. I was a little worried about the river and if it was going to be chocolate.

We got to the river and no chocolate in sight!!! YEE-HAW :dance:

So we got down to the water and started fishing. Modest_Man started out with a dry and I started out with some nymphing.

While we fished, the rain poured nicely, and the bugs were flying around. Not too many of them but enough to catch my eye every once in a while. I got to test out my rain gear I got last year and I was so very happy that it worked like it was supposed to!! ray:

The day went on and we fished many a hole and run. The highlights for me would be:

-3 or 4 fish in total for me and I think the same for MM
-Beautiful scenery
-Crystal gin clear water
-Perfect flows
-INSANE Caddis hatch!! We would shake the trees and literally hundreds of large caddis (not october caddis but really dark and big caddis, no quite as big as october caddis) would come flying off the branches and leaves. Funny things is that they weren't on the water at all.
-Having MM's dog there was a blast!!!
-Best thing off all: Getting out on the water and fishing!!! It was much needed!!:clap:

All in all, a great day on the water. Tons of laughs, some pretty sweet catches and MM almost had a MONSTER of a trout. He will have to share that if he wants to.

Sorry, no pics. The camera stayed home for me. It was more about getting out there than about catching and showing the catches.

What a perfect way tot end the season. I don't think I could have ended it in a better way.

Take care y'all.

-Spydey

 

[bernduffy]

I totally hear you, Spydey: sometimes life is so stressful a day of fishing, good bad or indifferent, releases all that pent up steam. I couldn't function (well) without it.
Glad you got out.

 

[NWDiscer]

Congrats to you and your wife on the little girl!!!

it is great to get out on the water good bad or ugly, glad you got out to release!

 

[TimberTodd]

Glad you had the opportunity to get out. Congratulations on your new addition to your family.

 

[Modest_Man]

It was great to get out, you didn't tell me your girl was born on the 5th!

I managed to cracker a large trout later on in the day. We had just pulled up to a new spot right below the salmon/steelhead deadline and I had told Andrew that I had gotten some nice trout out of here before. The river here narrows way down into a small falls, about 2' high. First cast I put it right next to shore in a back eddy right on top of some foam that was swirling around. It was raining hard and I was using a large stimulator so I could see my fly. Almost immediately, a large snout broke the surface of the foam and slurped up my fly. Common trout sizes on the Molalla are about 6-8", though I have caught one 18" and a few 12". This fish was probably in the 16" range judging by what I saw of it.

I was totally unprepared for a behemoth to take my fly and just sort of watched it all unfold and just slowly raised up my rod instead of giving it a good hook set. Felt something solid and then it was gone. Andrew herd me yelling over the river. Gave me the hand shakes for five minutes like a steelhead take...covered the water for several minutes and didn't get it to hit again.

I also managed to run over a spent bullet casing at the last spot we wanted to fish that punctured my tire - it was not repairable and now I have to replace all four of my tires (all wheel drive Subaru...). Great! We managed to drive out on it and get to a gas station - as my spare was at 10psi (having never used it before).

 

[jrbecca]

Modest_Man: Sounds like a miserable ending to an otherwise great day on the water. Ouch! Four new tires?

I may have missed it, but where were you guys at?

Spydey: Congratulations on your new addition! Is this your first? How are the nights going? Little girls are great. Sneaky when they're older, but sweet beyond belief now. And probably the only girl you'll ever fall in love with at first sight.

 

[Spydeyrch]

It was great to get out, you didn't tell me your girl was born on the 5th!

Really? I could have sworn that I told you she was born on the 5th. If not, I apologize. Yup, Amanda Charlene was born at 4:40pm on October 5th.

Spydey: Congratulations on your new addition! Is this your first? How are the nights going? Little girls are great. Sneaky when they're older, but sweet beyond belief now. And probably the only girl you'll ever fall in love with at first sight.

Thank you! Nope, this is number 4. Now we have two boys and two girls!! Ages 6, 4, 18 months, and new-born. We are used to it so the nights aren't too bad right now. Plus she is a very calm little girl. Not like out other girl, the drama princess!! hahaha. :dance: The new one eats for a few hours straight (eats, burps, poops, burps, eats, etc) then she will sleep for about 4 - 6 hours straight. So she usually wakes up around 9pm, goes to sleep about midnight and then up again around 3 or 4 am, I am up at 5 for work, so things actually work out pretty well.

Yes, they are sneaky little things aren't they. But a bundle of joy!

-Spydey

 

[jrbecca]

Thank you! Nope, this is number 4. Now we have two boys and two girls!! Ages 6, 4, 18 months, and new-born. We are used to it so the nights aren't too bad right now. Plus she is a very calm little girl. Not like out other girl, the drama princess!! hahaha. :dance: The new one eats for a few hours straight (eats, burps, poops, burps, eats, etc) then she will sleep for about 4 - 6 hours straight. So she usually wakes up around 9pm, goes to sleep about midnight and then up again around 3 or 4 am, I am up at 5 for work, so things actually work out pretty well.

Yes, they are sneaky little things aren't they. But a bundle of joy!

-Spydey

Glad to know someone else is as crazy as I am in the decision to have a large family. OK, not exactly a decision here, but the husband and I think we've figured out how this happens now. Sounds like you have a keeper there, especially if she is already sleeping through most of the night. Great name, too.

You still haven't mentioned where in the hills you were.

 

[Spydeyrch]

Glad to know someone else is as crazy as I am in the decision to have a large family. OK, not exactly a decision here, but the husband and I think we've figured out how this happens now. Sounds like you have a keeper there, especially if she is already sleeping through most of the night. Great name, too.

You still haven't mentioned where in the hills you were.

Yup, we have always known that we want a big family. I came from a family of 5 kids, I was the oldest. And my wife initially said she wanted to have 6 kids. I was like 3 - 5 is fine with me. So we are at 4 and I think we are going to stay at 4.

She is very much a keeper! :clap:

You are right. I didn't mention where I was at ..... on purpose ...... hehehehe :lol: Modest_Man did though. I usually don't mention where I go out of respect for those that have shown me said places. They found it and took me there. I don't want to openly blurt out where it was. I don't mind taking others to those places as long as they follow the same code of respect and conduct as I have regarding said location. It helps keep our fisheries fish-able and special. :dance:

-Spydey

 

[GungasUncle]

Know the feeling man - I got out on Sunday for a last minute end of season trout trip on a favorite small stream. I got about 8 or 9 fish total for the day - mostly 6 inchers, my last fish of the day was the largest at a whopping 10 inches. Gin clear water despite the rain, got some hits on a grass hopper, but couldn't get solid hookups. Caught all my fish on caddis nymphs and #14 woolly buggers. Was great to get out one last trout trip before Winter Steel starts up. It recharged the mental batteries and got me in a proper mind for steelhead fishing now.