GungasUncle
My long, long drought is over - I finally landed a steelhead after nearly a decade since my last one. I was fishing over on the north coast today - swinging flies for sea run cutts (which was also pretty hot today) - when I came to a stretch of water where the river made a nearly 90 degree bend between pools. At the apex of the bend, there was a big, almost still pool carved out from the bedrock.
While fishing the run just above the pool (got a few nice SRC's from that run) I glanced over and saw something BIG rising. I figured big SRC - so I worked downstream and started casting to the frog water. First fish I hooked up with and landed WAS a small cuttie. That wasn't he fish making the big rise form, I was sure, so I cast again. I should mention, I was tossing a #12 black woolly bugger on a 5X tippet with my Echo 4 wt switch rod. (I did mention I was trout fishing, right?)
I started stripping the fly back in short strips - just a few strips in - BAM. The fish hit hard, yanking the loop of line out of my hands. I figured I was into a big sea run cuttie - until I got the fish close in and he jumped. Was definitely not a cutt! This made my pulse rate jump even higher, since I was anxious to finally land a steelie (not to mention, that this is the longest I'd had such a fish connected to my line in a long time too).
Then I made a mistake - I let the fish get into the fast water between pools. I thought for sure my little 5lb tippet was going to snap. That Echo really does a number of protecting light tippets though, and the fairly light drag on the Cortland Vista was great. I followed the fish through the fast water and got him into the calmer water of the next pool and after a couple more leaps and head shakes, I got the fish coming my way and managed to get it into my tiny little wooden trout sized landing net (he spilled out of it pretty well.). Then the hook popped out. (Barbless hook). I took a minute to stare at the fish and double check it WAS a steelie - not a cutthroat. Orange throat slashes? Nope? Cutthroat like spots? Nope. Definitly a big rainbow.
The fish was pretty bright too - hadn't been in fresh water long enough to get really dark like the older summer run fish do.
The thing that surprised me the most though - was the fish had an adipose fin. I didn't think the river in question had a native summer run - so this fish was either a really early winter fish, or the wild off spring of hatchery parents that made it in the wild. Or maybe it was a fish that got by the fin-cutters and was a plain old hatchery fish. Don't know - it had a fin, so it went back.
I hope this is a good omen, signalling that the spell is broken and I'm going to start catching more salmon/steel this year. It was doubly kickass that I got this fish on a fly - and not on a gob of roe.
In other sort of uplifting news, I saw the carks of five dead salmon and one dead steelhead today too - there's definitely been fish in the rivers, so I'm hoping that too, is a sign, and this year we'll get more fish back than we have been. I want to get a fall nook or two for the table, and as many hatchery winter steel as I can. One can dream, right?
While fishing the run just above the pool (got a few nice SRC's from that run) I glanced over and saw something BIG rising. I figured big SRC - so I worked downstream and started casting to the frog water. First fish I hooked up with and landed WAS a small cuttie. That wasn't he fish making the big rise form, I was sure, so I cast again. I should mention, I was tossing a #12 black woolly bugger on a 5X tippet with my Echo 4 wt switch rod. (I did mention I was trout fishing, right?)
I started stripping the fly back in short strips - just a few strips in - BAM. The fish hit hard, yanking the loop of line out of my hands. I figured I was into a big sea run cuttie - until I got the fish close in and he jumped. Was definitely not a cutt! This made my pulse rate jump even higher, since I was anxious to finally land a steelie (not to mention, that this is the longest I'd had such a fish connected to my line in a long time too).
Then I made a mistake - I let the fish get into the fast water between pools. I thought for sure my little 5lb tippet was going to snap. That Echo really does a number of protecting light tippets though, and the fairly light drag on the Cortland Vista was great. I followed the fish through the fast water and got him into the calmer water of the next pool and after a couple more leaps and head shakes, I got the fish coming my way and managed to get it into my tiny little wooden trout sized landing net (he spilled out of it pretty well.). Then the hook popped out. (Barbless hook). I took a minute to stare at the fish and double check it WAS a steelie - not a cutthroat. Orange throat slashes? Nope? Cutthroat like spots? Nope. Definitly a big rainbow.
The fish was pretty bright too - hadn't been in fresh water long enough to get really dark like the older summer run fish do. The thing that surprised me the most though - was the fish had an adipose fin. I didn't think the river in question had a native summer run - so this fish was either a really early winter fish, or the wild off spring of hatchery parents that made it in the wild. Or maybe it was a fish that got by the fin-cutters and was a plain old hatchery fish. Don't know - it had a fin, so it went back.
I hope this is a good omen, signalling that the spell is broken and I'm going to start catching more salmon/steel this year. It was doubly kickass that I got this fish on a fly - and not on a gob of roe.
In other sort of uplifting news, I saw the carks of five dead salmon and one dead steelhead today too - there's definitely been fish in the rivers, so I'm hoping that too, is a sign, and this year we'll get more fish back than we have been. I want to get a fall nook or two for the table, and as many hatchery winter steel as I can. One can dream, right?
