Raincatcher
The river is soooo low and clear! Basically today was a great day for a boat ride. Took my mom out...she hasn't fished for anything other than trout since I was a kid and has only caught one steelhead (which was an accidental occurance) so it was an educational trip lol. She'd never been in a drift boat (much less with me on the sticks), or used a jig/float. Basically I spent the day rowing the boat and trying to help her get into fish, and hardly got my line wet, but it was worth it. She had a solid takedown that I know was a steelhead, I saw the big flash, but she had too much slack in her line. 2nd takedown a little downriver, and it was fish on...for about 5 seconds. Jumped out of the water, and spit the jig, again, too much slack. Caught some nice cutties, and I swear to you I've never seen anyone so excited about trout. She had a blast, which made it an awesome day. Now I have to go tie up half a dozen jigs to replace the ones that were donated to the river for educational purposes.
Hit the north fork near the hatchery today. Hit 5, two to the bank. A new shot of metal showed on the heels of the rain we had. My brother who went with also tagged out and lost two others. I gotta go fire up the BBQ...fresh steel for dinner.
Took my daughter a couple of days ago and helped her catch her first steelie! $yrs old and layed the smack down on a 8 1/2 lb buck. They are no longer called steelhead but "big pink princess fish", which annoys me to no end. Needless to say the river has been kicking out a bunch of fish lately, mostly hatchery broodstock fish. Having to sift through for chromers. I've been averaging 5 -6 h/t (hookups/trip). I will be heading down sunday, if anyone wants to meet me there.
That is hilarious, big pink princess fish.. haha.
You must be fishing the hatchery.. I fished the entire area of Clemens Wednesday and I must have seen over 14-15 spawners. And that was it, not a single decent fish. Last weekend I caught one just above Campbell that was a broodstock and soon as a I bonked it, the thing started shooting eggs.. it was a pretty gross fish.
What are the ones up by the hatchery looking like?
Man, I must have just missed them... Maybe one last trip is worth it. lol
You and me Mike. I've drifted from Campbell several times in the last couple weeks with little to show. I think it's all up in the North Fork, so maybe I'll go back to the bank. Hate not drifting though, it's a beautiful river.
Ken
For sure.. I hate waking up at 2am to go fish the hatchery hole...
clemens is the lower meat hole! :lol: