C
ChezJfrey
0
Went out for 12 hours on Saturday and skunked.
On my 5th cast, caught a small 6 incher. My spoon was 1/3 its length and the hook could have killed it! Not even sure how the whole hook got swallowed. But, the hook had actually slipped into a gill slit without piercing anything, so a lucky fish!
About 7:15 p.m., felt a slight hangup and if you remember my #1 rule this year (and it's served me well to this point), if I'm not sure, set the hook. I did so and my rod hit an overhanging branch above my head...snap! Sounded like a firecracker and I watched my broken rod end slide down my line, trailed by one of its line guides slipping along down with it. Of course, it wasn't a fish, but a rock and I ended up losing my terminal and broken rod half. Oh well, day was nearly over anyway...
Then, woke up this morning and my left armpit was irritated; like it had been rubbing a rough seam in my shirt. Took a look and I've got a flippin' tick! Took some super-precise tweezers and got it OFF cleanly (don't tell my wife about her nice brow tweezers
). Now I've got to keep an eye out for Lyme disease symptoms in the coming days...great. Can't for the life of me, figure how it got there as I was wearing a long sleeve shirt AND a jacket over it. I usually suffer a bit in warm weather, but after an experience of my forearms getting brutalized by 'no seeums' last year, it's my usual getup these days.
Today...late afternoon, nothing going on, so I headed out for a couple hours. Got to the river at 6. Cast around...nothing. Then, a slightly different bit of water in my vicinity has always looked fishy, but all I've managed is a couple trout...never seen or witnessed a steelhead. I cast upstream into the nearby rocks and reel back...hangup...and in a dim moment, forgot my #1 rule. I just lifted my rod tip a bit to let the lure hopefully bounce up. My rod tip wiggles a slight bit. Hmmm, another trout? Wait, I see some big flashes practically at my feet in just two feet of water, 4 feet out from the bank I'm standing on...it's a steelhead. Um, hey idiot, you never set the hook. Of course we know how this story ends...I yank back, but for how long this scene has played out by now, that fish rid itself of the lure well before that. The spoon flips out of the water nearly straight up and lands on the ground behind me.
I fished another spot for about 5 minutes, then tried the hole again where I saw the fish swim back into, but no dice.
I'm enrolling myself in remedial steelheading tomorrow morning for that complete lapse...
The only redeeming thing about this was that at least I know that bit of water I've suspected for awhile, right near my recent haunts, does indeed hold fish.
On my 5th cast, caught a small 6 incher. My spoon was 1/3 its length and the hook could have killed it! Not even sure how the whole hook got swallowed. But, the hook had actually slipped into a gill slit without piercing anything, so a lucky fish!
About 7:15 p.m., felt a slight hangup and if you remember my #1 rule this year (and it's served me well to this point), if I'm not sure, set the hook. I did so and my rod hit an overhanging branch above my head...snap! Sounded like a firecracker and I watched my broken rod end slide down my line, trailed by one of its line guides slipping along down with it. Of course, it wasn't a fish, but a rock and I ended up losing my terminal and broken rod half. Oh well, day was nearly over anyway...
Then, woke up this morning and my left armpit was irritated; like it had been rubbing a rough seam in my shirt. Took a look and I've got a flippin' tick! Took some super-precise tweezers and got it OFF cleanly (don't tell my wife about her nice brow tweezers
). Now I've got to keep an eye out for Lyme disease symptoms in the coming days...great. Can't for the life of me, figure how it got there as I was wearing a long sleeve shirt AND a jacket over it. I usually suffer a bit in warm weather, but after an experience of my forearms getting brutalized by 'no seeums' last year, it's my usual getup these days.Today...late afternoon, nothing going on, so I headed out for a couple hours. Got to the river at 6. Cast around...nothing. Then, a slightly different bit of water in my vicinity has always looked fishy, but all I've managed is a couple trout...never seen or witnessed a steelhead. I cast upstream into the nearby rocks and reel back...hangup...and in a dim moment, forgot my #1 rule. I just lifted my rod tip a bit to let the lure hopefully bounce up. My rod tip wiggles a slight bit. Hmmm, another trout? Wait, I see some big flashes practically at my feet in just two feet of water, 4 feet out from the bank I'm standing on...it's a steelhead. Um, hey idiot, you never set the hook. Of course we know how this story ends...I yank back, but for how long this scene has played out by now, that fish rid itself of the lure well before that. The spoon flips out of the water nearly straight up and lands on the ground behind me.
I fished another spot for about 5 minutes, then tried the hole again where I saw the fish swim back into, but no dice.
I'm enrolling myself in remedial steelheading tomorrow morning for that complete lapse...
The only redeeming thing about this was that at least I know that bit of water I've suspected for awhile, right near my recent haunts, does indeed hold fish.
