Steelhead Catch Up Part 5

With this post I am officially caught up! We returned from our week down south on Saturday evening, so naturally Jeff and I decided to get back after steelhead on Sunday. We originally were going to do a full day float but the travel fatigue made me think maybe a half day wade session would be a better choice. Jeff and I got to the parking lot a little before noon and were fishing before 12:30. The crazy part is despite perfectly nasty steelhead weather and ideal water conditions there wasn't a soul around. Not a single wading angler, not a single guide boat....it was almost eery how quiet it was. The silence was broken about 5 minutes into the first run of the day when a nice buck blew up on my clown egg and proceeded to tail walk down half the run. The fish gave me a great ride but I was relieved when Jeff tailed the fish and the skunk was broken just a few minutes into the day. In the process of getting the hook out of the fish's mouth the trailer fly got buried, past the barb, in Jeff's finger. I had to clip off the fly, leaving it in his hand, for the picture.

Once the fish was released came the task of getting the fly out of Jeff's hand. This isn't the first time this has happened naturally, so we had a pretty solid game plan. First, take a few sips of bourbon. Second, soak hand in cold river water for a few minutes. And lastly, pull like hell until it pops out. Following this bulletproof plan Jeff was able to get the fly out fairly quickly. Consider the blood a sacrifice to the fish god's.
While I was tying on a fresh dropper Jeff got back into the middle of the run and within a minute or two he too had a fish on. At first the fish stayed pretty calm and just hugged the bottom but that didn't last long. It took us on a long run downstream and jumped a few times before ultimately getting straight downstream and pulling the hook. That was a fish that I felt all along we would land and then got the upper hand 10 seconds before I would have tailed it. We went back to our respective spots, me at the top and Jeff in the middle, and it didn't take me long to hook another one. This fish was more chrome than the first two fish and acted like it! Somehow it stayed out of the big root wad that is in the middle of this run despite running right at it and jumping in that vicinity several times. I played the fish downstream and after a few more acrobatics Jeff tailed it in the same spot as the first fish.

And a cool shot by Jeff on the release.

I was beyond excited that I had fished for about 45 minutes and already had two fish in hand! I fished a little more at the top and then broke my flies off on the bottom so I decided to watch Jeff finish out the pool. All the way at the bottom the run shallows and then drops back into a small bucket thats often overlooked. I got a good vantage point because I had a feeling about that spot, and sure enough as soon as Jeff's flies dropped over the shelf I saw a huge flash and the fight was on. This was a huge fish and it didn't give Jeff anytime to do anything. It jumped twice and then blasted way downstream at mach speed. It started alligator rolling on the surface and within 20 seconds it was all over. That was one of those fish were you are nothing more than a spectator, all you can do it hold tight and hope for the best. Jeff was pissed and rightfully so, but I couldn't help but smile. Everyone hates to loose fish, but when it comes right down to it that's why steelhead are perhaps the most loved freshwater fish. They are downright crazy and wild and when you get one on that's particularly hell bent there is nothing like it. When a steelhead decides to really show off they'll make your jaw drop and leave you mumbling to yourself, and thats what its all about.
As we continued to fish our way downstream I could not believe how many trout Jeff was hooking! This water always has strong numbers of both browns and rainbows but usually they are tough customers and only a few smaller fish are hooked each outing. Jeff was fishing a "grouse hex" of his own design and the fish were literally jumping out of the water to eat this thing. Here is a great resident rainbow from a small chute that ate the hex.

He also pulled two or three browns from that spot. Meanwhile I fished just below him in the same run where I landed that beautiful hen my last trip here. Its a tricky drift and its easy for your flies to get swept out of the feeding lane so it took me a handful of tries to get it just right. Sure enough though, when the drift was perfect and the bugs dropped into the bubble line just right my bobber dropped hard and a chrome fish cleared the water 15ft in front of me. This will go down as one of the wildest steelhead I've ever hooked. It ran me clean into my backing and down around two bends. I was literally sprinting after it and watched in awe as it cartwheeled and flipped multiple times more than 100ft away. Finally I caught up to it and slowed it down but never could get her under control. Everytime I would try and get her head up for Jeff to tail she would make another run downriver. After three or four of these attemps she finally pulled the hook free and was gone. Wow! I went back up to the spot where I hooked the fish and promptly caught a fat little brown on a pheasant tail nymph...surprisingly my only trout of the day. As we worked through several more good runs Jeff continued to crush trout, including this cool looking brown with really red spots.

Every little run we stopped at he seemed to hook one or two fish and none of them were dinks. With about one hour left to fish we hoofed it hard downstream to a favorite run that we knew would be holding several fish. I took the faster water up top and Jeff took the gut of the run. I couldn't find anything in the real broken water but moved down to a small V that forms where I have hit some nice trout in the past. First drift through and yet another bobber down. Once again a nice fish erupted from the water and my fourth battle of the day ensued. This is a long run with very little snags or trouble areas so I let the fish tire itself out and more or less just hung on. After a few minutes it was beat and Jeff tailed my third fish of the day!

Thanks for a great ride and the icing on what had already been a very sweet cake!

With only about 20 minutes of light left we hiked back towards the truck to one last run that Jeff wanted to fish. Jeff got in and fished and I sat on the back and helped myself to the nip bottle. Right at dark Jeff hooked the last fish of the day. We both thought it was a steelhead at first but it turned out to be a sizable brown. Jeff slid it up on the bank and I grabbed this shot of one damn fine looking brown.

What a glorious day. We fished in solitude and both had lots of action with both trout and steelhead. This is why I'll take fall over spring any day...these are the best days of the year!