My most memorable fish? My big fish!
I had been fishing all day in late feb. with my dad, we had pounded through classic steelhead runs all day, water was up but clear and it had been cold. We were coming to our last run of the day and i opted to take the back seat to the old man. Just above the final run was a large pocket right at our feet, infront of a bundle of rebar and concrete. (remains of an old bridge) My dad over estimated its depth and broke off his 6" pink worm first cast. So i got to get first water! hehehe. Well i had 6lb leader, a #4 hook and a size 12 flame orange spin'n glow/white wings. I shortened up to about 2ft deep from my float to my weight. First cast through the pocket didn't feel right, i was drifting to fast, so lengthened my depth another couple inches, my next cast i held back to get my spin'n glow going, just as i was getting to the bottom of the slot my float silently slid under, there was no arm wrenching pull, no taps, no lightning fast run, all it did was go under nice and easy. I set the hook and the behemoth didn't move, she just sat there, so i set again, and then i felt her head shakes, back and forth. I pressured here up the slot and she wanting nothing of it, she instantly broke for the current parrallel to the pocket and heading down stream in a hurry, with my trailing behind in a full sprint. She was blazing down river in the top 8 inches of water partially exposed in water that was 5ft deep. I caught up to her at the bottom of the run and began a tug of war, back and forth, trading line all the time. She slowly came in still green as grass. Just as i spotted her i saw it, dad's cerise pink worm hanging from her mouth. She had picked up the worm after he broke off, and then decided to eat the tiny spin'n glow. Just as my father grabbed the tail and landed her in the shallows the leader parted at the hook. I quickly walked over, picked her up and posed for the hero shot, as soon as i placed her back in the water, with one snap of her tail she smoothly glided off like a snake into the depths.
