The following weekend we spent Saturday chasing grouse and then got out for an afternoon session for steelhead. After getting a handful of fish the week before I decided to go back to the switch rod, sink tips, and streamers looking for my first fish on the swing for the year. I had swung flies for several days dating back into early October but had yet to hook one and was really starting to loose confidence. We had received a good dose of rain and the river looked perfect....up a little bit with a light stain. Jeff and I hiked up to a couple favorite runs and it didn't take long before my sculpin pattern got smashed. The fish proceeded to go totally nuts and tear up and down the run cartwheeling like a mad man. Jeff scrambled down and got in position and I eased the fish into shallow water. Just when it seemed the battle was over the fish made one last alligator roll and the hook popped out....I was furious! God knows how many hours I had spent swinging streamers without any love and when I finally connect the hook pulls free. Luckily my anger only had a chance to burn for a few minutes. At the tail of the run I made a cast tight to some wood and as the fly swung out in to the current it stopped hard. I assumed I had snagged an underwater limb but that was quickly erased from my mind when the "snag" started headshaking. This fish again fought hard and jumped several times but we were able to land this one. Fish on the swung fly are extremely hard earned.....but there really is nothing else like it.
After the fish swam off my hands were shaking and a little nip of bourbon was just what I needed to celebrate and calm the nerves.
Not to be outdone Jeff resumed fishing the run upstream and within a few minutes he too had a cartwheeling fish on. This one was quite a bit smaller but very chrome and hotter than hell. As I went to tail the fish it the trailer fly got jammed into my finger and the fish proceeded to pull so hard it broke off the fly attached to 8lb tippet in my hand. Somehow the front hook stayed buried in the fishes mouth and we were able to land it and get a few pics. The hook didnt quite make it to the barb so I was able to get it out without too much trouble and only a little blood.
This fish had a clipped dorsal fin plus that long torpedo shape, making us believe it was another skamania fish that entered the river sometime this summer. They are much less common than the fall run fish but there are still a handful around and they will remain in the river until they spawn sometime in February. Below is a very funny clip Jeff shot with his GoPro camera. It shows both fish giving us fits while trying to land them/take pictures. Steelhead truly are a wild creature.
Running Silver from colehatch on Vimeo.
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