As "the local stream" is closing for the season next Monday, I figured I'd better take advantage of the holiday and hit the water.
As of late, the river has, of course, been very low and clear (and the sun has been relentless), but I've still had some fair luck over the past few weeks and heard some encouraging reports, so I was pretty hopeful about finding another native or two.
I got to the river before the sun hit the water, but it wasn't long before I was squinting through the glare to make out my float. I fished like that up through all of the "good" water within reasonable walking/wading distance of my car without finding anything--a little disappointing, as I was fishing through perhaps my #1 spot.
Still, I had only been out for a couple hours, and I knew there were fish to be had. I decided to head upriver another few miles and fish some water that I found over the summer. I came down to the river and scoped out the run (I'd never fished it with flows this low, even in the summer). This hole is composed of some rolling, bouldery pocket-type stuff up near the head of the run, some nice seams/breaks through the middle, and a glassy, gravely tail-out. It was, expectedly, much more shallow than the last time I saw it, but there was some depth on the far side and some nice shade, so, with that, I set the float a bit deeper and casted out.
About halfway through the tail-out, the float slowly slid under, much like it would have if hung up in the gravel (I figured I had aimed a little too deep). I lifted my rod to free it up and, ZZZZZING.
This was a hot fish--he was all over the water; I love these natives. After posing for a quick underwater (pretty poor quality, really) headshot, he rocketed back off into the current.
A "colored" 12 lb. buck:
After the release, I continued working up through the same hole. Almost the entire drift looked fishy, but I got to the top without touching anything else. I walked back down to the tail-out, ready to go up the trail and move onto another area. But, against my usual water-covering strategy, I decided that the tail-out was worth a few more casts. It had put out one; why not two?
Good choice. Almost as soon as the float hit the water, a little above where I had hooked the first fish, a second big buck pounded the float down. He didn't make the blazing runs that the first one did, but he still fought like a true native.
I got a slightly better pic on this one, though angle isn't quite ideal
It occurred to me at this point that I had some other stuff to do today (non-fishing), so I decided to not press my luck and call it a day. (Of course I did end up hitting a couple of my favorite summer-run holes on the way home. They produced nothing today, but I was still glad to revisit them.)
It's been a good year on the Green for me, and I feel like I've improved my steelheading considerably. I've certainly enjoyed the learning. I imagine you'll be hearing less from me until next June, though.
Andrew
