I got up at 5:30 this morning to go fishing. Much to my dismay, there was no coffee in the house! 5:30 with no coffee is tough… I felt stupid all morning. I wiped the sleep out of my eyes and packed up my stuff. I arrived at the river about 10 minutes before dawn. I was the first angler there today and was rewarded appropriately. I caught a buck right off the bat. Now that the skunk had been wiped out I was feeling good, even without the coffee. I got right back at it and hooked up with a big feisty fish. It ran down river, then charged me, and then jumped while moving up river. It was a very thick buck! I fought the fish up and back down river. I worked the fish in fighting through several hard runs and cartwheels. This fish took me all the way into the next run down stream from where I hooked up before I landed him. He took my small black stone fly pattern. I got a couple of good pics of the fish, yet they do not do justice to the girth of this fish. He was about 30”-32” long, but had excellent girth. This fish was truly like a regulation NFL football. It had huge shoulders. Next, I hooked a fresh chrome jack; this time on an egg pattern. This fish was hot and fresh and fought like a much larger fish. I love it when these small fish are full of fight. It fills me with respect for the steelhead and makes me appreciate this fabulous fishery I have at my doorstep. The next hook up was another fresh jack. This fish was hooked right by the far bank in a fast run. It jumped into the bank and broke me off over a rock. It’s hard to describe what occurred, but it was a remarkable feet of acrobatics. I was sorry to lose the fish, yet I was amazed at how it got away. The last steelhead I caught was tiny by steelhead standards, it was the size of a rainbow, and I would say it was about 12". It too was full of fight. I tried to bring it in and grab it since it was so small and it flipped out jumping and flopping all over the place. I also caught two sucker fish, one was a trophy sucker about the size of a steelhead. It was a good morning on the river. I left around 11:00 to go to brunch; I needed that first cup of coffee!
Skunk killer
My stone fly was killin'em today
Football anyone?
