January thaw...

After about two weeks of snow and below freezing temps we have had about a week in the mid to high 30s.  The warmer temps have melted a lot of the snow and ice, opening up some water on the river.  I have had a bit of cabin feaver so I welcomed the chance to get out and fish.  I had about an hour to fish after work before it got dark.  When I got to the river there was only one other car in the lot and nobody in sight.  I decided to start fishing at the first fishable spot and work my way up river.  I fished through a few holes working the slow water at the edge of the faster current (a good spot in the winter).  Then while fishing a tailout behind a big ice jam I hooked a steelhead on a pink estaz egg.  It was a decent sized fish, a little larger than average.  It was missing one of its pectoral fins, but didn't seem to miss it.  The fish faught a hard fight and swam away normally upon release, after a nice photo (below).  After reeasing the fish I worked my way up stream, crossing over an ice jam thick enough to walk on, and fishing around the bend.  I came accross another angler who was moaning and groaning that it's impossible to catch steelhead when you can't see them.  Chump!  I walke out with the chump as it was starting to get dark.   

Ice bergs…

With temps forecasted below freezing for the next week; yesterday was probably the last day to fish for some time, maybe until the spring thaw. I had heard from the guys at the fly shop that there were some fresh fish down low. When I went out yesterday, I went to a lower section of river that usually fishes well into the winter. When I got there it was all locked up with ice (see the pic below). There was a narrow channel where the fastest current was moving too fast for ice to form, it wasn’t fishable. From there I headed up river until I found some open water. Open is a relative term; no ice, but too many other angers was the problem there. So I moved up river again. The water was open for the most part, the slower pools were locked up, but there was open water above and below the open areas. The slush had burned of by the time I got out at 12:00, but there were huge chucks of ice floating in the river. Some of these ice bergs were large enough to almost knock me over when it hit my legs. When the ice would hit e it would rotate in the current so the flat side would face into the current creating a sail like effect. The power of the current was concentrated behind the ice and focused on my legs. This made fishing really tough. The ice was either interfering with my drift or it was hitting me. I even hooked into one large piece of floating ice and had to chase it down stream until I could steer it to the bank where I could get unhooked. While on the river yesterday, I only saw one fish caught (on bait) and only heard of one other being caught (I think the guys was lying). Sadly, I got hit by the skunk- no fish for me. My only catch was an ice berg.