T
Tinker
I gave up on the two local rivers. Nothing but small trout and baby salmon. Aquarium fish, mostly. Maybe one big cutthroat and it got away from me... So I travelled South a bit and tried a different river. Pretty little place.
Found a nice hole against the other bank alongside a small, newly downed tree. The tree will wash down when the river rises next Winter, but it made a perfect, temporary fishing hole. Water was between 8 and 12 feet in the hole, long and narrow, with slack water around the tree, riffle above it, and a small falls downstream. The waterfalll was maybe a foot high, but it wasn't rapids, the water fell over it, so I'm calling it a waterfall.
There was a good spot where I could fish from the bank, so I gathered up my stuff and sat on the cobblestones for a while thinking about what I should try, first. Lil' Cleo! Of course! Same one that I braved unexpected horrors to rescue from a tree on the Sixes.
First cast: long. In the weeds on the opposite bank. "Here we go again, dammit" but I was able to shake it free and it popped up in the air and landed nearly exactly where I'd hoped to cast. Snag! I'm getting frustrated and wondering if the drive could possibly be worth it when the snag started to float downstream towards me. I'm thinking I"m not out of the rough yet and had pulled the branch into the current, but - having stood on the bank of the Sixes and watched a fish take my lure whie I scratched my ear (if my ear were further down and more towards the back) - I set the hook.
The air exploded with fish!
Okay, just one fish, but it was five feet in the air and I was on one end of six pound Maxima and it was on the other end and we were in a stare-down contest. I was running upstream and dowstream, not sure how to stay upright on my feet and not obliterate my medial menicus. It was going for the rocks, then for the downed tree, then back in the air to cuss at me some more. Epic battle! It was just like "The Old Man and the Sea" except there wasn't a boat. Or an albatross. Or a hot sun (it was foggy). And it lasted about 6 minutes instead of days. But otherwise, it was exactly the same. Epic!
It measured 16 and slightly less than 1/4 inches. Technically a steelhead, I reckon. More of a really nice rainbow, but the regs are the regs and it was, technically, a steelhead, even if it had never seen the sea. A wild native, too.
I'd caught a just-legal rainbow trout the week before and couldn't remember how to take pictures with my cell phone, so I studied and practiced at home and was ready this time, but I'd left the cell phone in the car and I guess I debated going back after it to take photos for at least 3 seconds, and then I let the fish go.
No photo, no fish. Rats.
Found a nice hole against the other bank alongside a small, newly downed tree. The tree will wash down when the river rises next Winter, but it made a perfect, temporary fishing hole. Water was between 8 and 12 feet in the hole, long and narrow, with slack water around the tree, riffle above it, and a small falls downstream. The waterfalll was maybe a foot high, but it wasn't rapids, the water fell over it, so I'm calling it a waterfall.
There was a good spot where I could fish from the bank, so I gathered up my stuff and sat on the cobblestones for a while thinking about what I should try, first. Lil' Cleo! Of course! Same one that I braved unexpected horrors to rescue from a tree on the Sixes.
First cast: long. In the weeds on the opposite bank. "Here we go again, dammit" but I was able to shake it free and it popped up in the air and landed nearly exactly where I'd hoped to cast. Snag! I'm getting frustrated and wondering if the drive could possibly be worth it when the snag started to float downstream towards me. I'm thinking I"m not out of the rough yet and had pulled the branch into the current, but - having stood on the bank of the Sixes and watched a fish take my lure whie I scratched my ear (if my ear were further down and more towards the back) - I set the hook.
The air exploded with fish!
Okay, just one fish, but it was five feet in the air and I was on one end of six pound Maxima and it was on the other end and we were in a stare-down contest. I was running upstream and dowstream, not sure how to stay upright on my feet and not obliterate my medial menicus. It was going for the rocks, then for the downed tree, then back in the air to cuss at me some more. Epic battle! It was just like "The Old Man and the Sea" except there wasn't a boat. Or an albatross. Or a hot sun (it was foggy). And it lasted about 6 minutes instead of days. But otherwise, it was exactly the same. Epic!
It measured 16 and slightly less than 1/4 inches. Technically a steelhead, I reckon. More of a really nice rainbow, but the regs are the regs and it was, technically, a steelhead, even if it had never seen the sea. A wild native, too.
I'd caught a just-legal rainbow trout the week before and couldn't remember how to take pictures with my cell phone, so I studied and practiced at home and was ready this time, but I'd left the cell phone in the car and I guess I debated going back after it to take photos for at least 3 seconds, and then I let the fish go.
No photo, no fish. Rats.
