T
troutmasta
0
As promised, here it is.....
6:30 A.M after a long night of booze and romance, head aching and eyes burning, I arose to the scream of the alarm and headed out. Picked up my buddy steve (one of the lurkers on the forum) and pointed the truck toward Sandy. As we arrived at the Cedar Creek Hatchery I saw at least 25 cars and thought, "well god damn, time for some combat fishing". Climbed inside my waders, still wet from sitting in a wad in my garage, grabed my new $45 aluminum Okuma steelhead rod reel combo, recently outfitted with 8 pound P-Line and tipped with a full corky yarn setup (including swivel and lead) I discoverd in the gravel parking lot of the hatchery and, lacking a better place to put it fastened to my main line. The hike down was the hike down, nothing spectacular. As we approached the river I encountered the first lucky angler of the day landing a nice hen. Spirits on the up and up we departed for the log which would serve as our land bridge across the 1st half of the river.
Sucessfully navigating the fallen giant, and avoiding the skunk (later the skunk would be killed
)that could be smelled living underneath it we carefully crossed the last half of the river and trotted OFF to the hole I had in mind. 20 min later I gaze into the fog to see three people fishing were I had now spent 45 min walking too. Discouraged Steve and I aproached and yeilding respectfully to the "early birds" we decided to throw in. Well sort of.
In no mood to setup a bobber and jig for the fast moving water we now found ourselves staring at, I glanced at the corky yarn setup already tied on. I knew my corkie days would come I just didn't think they would begin today. As I cast the line out I realized that 8pnd goes farther and easier then the 12 I had on prior. I thought "Gonna clear the river", so I gently cupped the reel slowing down my delivery. Immediatly after the corky hit the water it stopped on a rock. "Damn" I thought "snagged already", As I tried to give a big jerk to free my lead the rock came flying out of the water. As it cleared the surface of the river I realized it was no rock at all I was my first steelhead. "FISH ON STEVE!" I screamed as I glanced over to were he was. Confused ,due to the fact that he had not even un hooked his line from the rod, nor taken his back pack off for that matter he came peeling over. The fish, a hatchey hen, put up a fight like a man with no arms on a skate board. She just came right in with out a hitch. Checked the fin
ray:... no fin
..... rock:shock:...., knife
...., stringer:dance:! BAM first steelhead of my life, 1stcast of the day, and hadnt been at the hole for more than 1 and half minutes it was gonna be a good one. Ecstatic, I setup Steve-o with the corkie yarn I had been pursuaded to by at dicks a month earlier and had been sitting and aging in my tackle box. About 20 min later, now fishing below every one, and right above a set of partcular nasty rapids, I hooked another. This "rock" however was exactly that. A ROCK. or HAWG whatever you want to call it. This beast thundered out of the water peeling drag like a cop peels rubber, fast and furiously. "FISH ON STEVE!" was once agian my war cry as I watched my nemisis spool my reel. The chase began. Literally I cahsed it for ever. It ended 25 min later and 1/2 mile downstream with An absolute monster buck. A nate about 17 pounds. (3 of my 1st fish). To far from my camera I determined, we placed the pig back in the water and sent it off. I took Steve no less then 10 min to do the exact same thing in the exact same spot. His catch, a 14 pound hen native as well. Landed in the same spot, a billion miles downstream after another 25 min battle, we once again were inclined to release with no photo. The day carried on with multiple hook-ups but nothing to the shore. Many smiles were shared and the day was chisled into the memory bank. I converted a few i-fishers as we carried conversation with passers by. Around 1:00 we departed for Sandy Taco Time to cap the day with pure crunchy taco bliss. Beaverfan we missed you, get your phone fixed. I'm going back on wednes day and have plenty of room for eager anglers with a little gas money. It should be another day for the books.
-TM-
6:30 A.M after a long night of booze and romance, head aching and eyes burning, I arose to the scream of the alarm and headed out. Picked up my buddy steve (one of the lurkers on the forum) and pointed the truck toward Sandy. As we arrived at the Cedar Creek Hatchery I saw at least 25 cars and thought, "well god damn, time for some combat fishing". Climbed inside my waders, still wet from sitting in a wad in my garage, grabed my new $45 aluminum Okuma steelhead rod reel combo, recently outfitted with 8 pound P-Line and tipped with a full corky yarn setup (including swivel and lead) I discoverd in the gravel parking lot of the hatchery and, lacking a better place to put it fastened to my main line. The hike down was the hike down, nothing spectacular. As we approached the river I encountered the first lucky angler of the day landing a nice hen. Spirits on the up and up we departed for the log which would serve as our land bridge across the 1st half of the river.
Sucessfully navigating the fallen giant, and avoiding the skunk (later the skunk would be killed
)that could be smelled living underneath it we carefully crossed the last half of the river and trotted OFF to the hole I had in mind. 20 min later I gaze into the fog to see three people fishing were I had now spent 45 min walking too. Discouraged Steve and I aproached and yeilding respectfully to the "early birds" we decided to throw in. Well sort of.In no mood to setup a bobber and jig for the fast moving water we now found ourselves staring at, I glanced at the corky yarn setup already tied on. I knew my corkie days would come I just didn't think they would begin today. As I cast the line out I realized that 8pnd goes farther and easier then the 12 I had on prior. I thought "Gonna clear the river", so I gently cupped the reel slowing down my delivery. Immediatly after the corky hit the water it stopped on a rock. "Damn" I thought "snagged already", As I tried to give a big jerk to free my lead the rock came flying out of the water. As it cleared the surface of the river I realized it was no rock at all I was my first steelhead. "FISH ON STEVE!" I screamed as I glanced over to were he was. Confused ,due to the fact that he had not even un hooked his line from the rod, nor taken his back pack off for that matter he came peeling over. The fish, a hatchey hen, put up a fight like a man with no arms on a skate board. She just came right in with out a hitch. Checked the fin
ray:... no fin..... rock:shock:...., knife...., stringer:dance:! BAM first steelhead of my life, 1stcast of the day, and hadnt been at the hole for more than 1 and half minutes it was gonna be a good one. Ecstatic, I setup Steve-o with the corkie yarn I had been pursuaded to by at dicks a month earlier and had been sitting and aging in my tackle box. About 20 min later, now fishing below every one, and right above a set of partcular nasty rapids, I hooked another. This "rock" however was exactly that. A ROCK. or HAWG whatever you want to call it. This beast thundered out of the water peeling drag like a cop peels rubber, fast and furiously. "FISH ON STEVE!" was once agian my war cry as I watched my nemisis spool my reel. The chase began. Literally I cahsed it for ever. It ended 25 min later and 1/2 mile downstream with An absolute monster buck. A nate about 17 pounds. (3 of my 1st fish). To far from my camera I determined, we placed the pig back in the water and sent it off. I took Steve no less then 10 min to do the exact same thing in the exact same spot. His catch, a 14 pound hen native as well. Landed in the same spot, a billion miles downstream after another 25 min battle, we once again were inclined to release with no photo. The day carried on with multiple hook-ups but nothing to the shore. Many smiles were shared and the day was chisled into the memory bank. I converted a few i-fishers as we carried conversation with passers by. Around 1:00 we departed for Sandy Taco Time to cap the day with pure crunchy taco bliss. Beaverfan we missed you, get your phone fixed. I'm going back on wednes day and have plenty of room for eager anglers with a little gas money. It should be another day for the books.-TM-
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