Well, after yet another week-long break from fishing, I was finally able to hit the river again early this morning. It was super cold (winter-like), obviously, and the river was running at all time lows (summer-like). I decided to forget about the cold factor, though, and start out at one of my favorite summer-run holes. I have actually stopped at this hole a couple times in the last few months, but I've concluded it's just not much good above 500 cfs. If there was a day to try it, then, today was the one.
I started out at the top, floating my pink and white jig (of course) up high over some nice boulders, then began working my way down. This hole, like most on the river, gets progressively shallower until, by the time you get to the tailout, its wadeable all the way across. I got to that point without touching anything. But, boy, if I had ever seen a good piece of holding water, this was it. The water was ultra-clear with just a
hint of green, and I could see the many boulders on the bottom out in front of me, breaking the current just perfectly.
I simply wasn't ready to admit there wasn't a fish somewhere in the run, so I began slowly working my way back up. The sun was just starting to hit the water, the wading was easy, and I had the river to myself--I was in no hurry at all. And, as luck would have it, about halfway up, right where I would have expected the fish to be, my float popped down. I gave a solid hookset, felt a strong headshake, and saw the chrome flash. Fish on!
I battled this 12 lb. hatchery hen for quite sometime. She was very strong, semi-aerobatic, and she also had a fascination with a jumble of roots and logs downriver.
I decided that some steelhead chowder sounded pretty good for dinner, so I decided to keep her. It turned out to be a wise choice: she had some beautiful meat, and a couple nice skeins of eggs. (That makes 6 jars of eggs for me in the last 4 trips... I'm going to have to learn how to use them I guess.)
After I tended to the fish, I went upriver a little ways and worked some water that's treated me pretty well in the last few trips. I didn't find anything, so I decided to head considerably further upriver.
When I got up there, I was met, to my dismay, with incredibly strong winds. Now I'm used to substantial wind in this area, but the wind today was something else. I would guess, without exaggeration, 70-90 mph gusts--almost certainly the strongest I've ever seen. The area I was planning on parking at was under an emergency closure! There was definitely no hope of fishing anywhere near there, but I still stayed around (clear of trees) for a little while just to watch the hills move. It really was impressive, and it certainly added an interesting dimension to the trip.
Even though it was only about 11:00 (hardly a full day, by my standards), I decided to call it good. I stopped and got a great sandwich on the way home, and that was that.
Excellent morning, no question.
Andrew
