I fished Friday after work and Saturday morning (yesterday). I caught a few really nice river smallies on these last outings. The first one bass came from way up river on Friday, where the fish are usually a lot smaller. The other two I caught on Saturday were from much lower down, about a mile from the lake. When I got to the river on Friday, the water was as low and clear as I have ever seen. I could clearly see the bottom in place where it is normally not visible. Friday’s big bass was one of several fish caught that day, but the large bass was the only noteworthy fish. I caught this bass on a small crayfish fly that was dead drifted through a run next to the bank that had under cut the bank just below a tree exposing its roots. This was a prime place for a bass to call home. I have fished this spot before without much success because of the overhanging tree. It is very difficult to cast the fly to the proper place without getting hung up in the trees. I think I’ve tried so many times and failed, that I gained enough experience to make the perfect cast this time around. On the second or third drift I hooked up and this fish fought a very sporting fight. The overhanging tree again became a problem as I was fighting the fish. With my rod high, the tip and line got caught up in the tree again giving the bass an unfair advantage. Eventually I untangled the rod tip, and used side pressure by positioning the rod parallel to the stream, keeping the tip low, to fight the fish and bring it to hand. I did get a picture with my cell phone camera which is posted below. The way the fish is lying in my hand its head and tail hang lower than its body making it look smaller in the picture than it really was. Regardless, you can tell by the picture that it was a chunky bass!
Saturday’s outing was an attempt to get into some early season steelhead. I drove North (down river) to the location closest to the mouth of the river where you can actually wade. I got there and there were a handful of other fisherman, no one had caught anything. I started out by drifting an egg pattern with a stone fly trailer. That was worthless. I next attempted to swing a streamer. I figured that I could catch bass or steelhead this way. Sure enough I was right. I didn’t catch the steelhead I was after. I did catch a broad shouldered bass shortly after I started swing the streamer fly. I moved down river continuing to pursue the elusive steelhead. I didn’t catch anything as I moved down. I waded back up a bit and eventually hooked into another nice bass. The bass lower down are always larger than their counterparts up river, so the fish I caught near the moth were of average size for where I was at. As they were average fish, I didn’t take a picture.
While I was fishing on Saturday, I talked to a guy who said he has seen steelhead chasing shad around in the area where we were fishing. I have also heard and read reports of the rare chromer being caught here or there. I do believe there are a couple of early arrivals that have made it into the river systems. I personally have not seen anyone catch a steelhead, nor have I caught one myself yet this season. We need rain and some cooler weather to bring in the first real run of steelhead. The next week or two should bring in the first run of fish. I have been tying up egg and stonefly patterns getting ready for the run!
