I got up at 5:30 this morning to go fishing. There was a little bit of rain on Friday and Saturday, just enough for a small bump in the flow. I decided to go to the lower section of the river since there was not enough water for a good push of fresh chrome to make it too far up river. I began fishing at 6:45 as the sun began to come up and it was cold and windy. There was one other angler there when I arrived on the water. I began fishing the head of a run, working the bucket below the riffle. I fished down the run with no contact with any fish yet. As I got to the middle of the run, the deepest spot I hooked up. It was at the end of a drift, and I surprised to have a fish on. The fish jumped and a minute later it was gone, it had broken off. It broke at knot. It must have been poorly tied. Not the way I wanted to start the morning. I re-rigged and began working the same general are were I had just hooked up. Before long, I had another fish on. I landed this fish. It was a small steelhead, nothing noteworthy, but it put me on the boards and got the skunk out of my bag. I fumbled the camera and the fish flopped away before I could get a pic. I continued to fish and hooked up again in no time. I landed this fish too. It was in bad shape. It looked like the fish had its throat ripped out. I took a pic of its good side and quickly released the fish.
I fished down through the run, crossed the river and went up the other side of the run. I had no luck. I crossed the river again above the run and began fishing down the run again after I gave it a rest. Nothing in the bucket this time either. I got to the same spot where I had all my other hook ups and fished the far seem. I had a solid hook up and had a fish on. It leaped out of the water and ran down river. I fought the fish for a while eventually landing it for the obligatory photo. It was a decent buck; things were getting better.
I went back to the honey hole and quickly hooked up again, this time with a large fish. As soon as the fish was hooked it shot out of the water like a rocket, it ran up river, ran down river, went bank to bank and then took off down river for the lake. I ran after the fish and worked it to the bank. Sadly, I foul hooked this fish. It fought hard and I really had to work to land that fish. It took skill to land that fish with out breaking off. I was proud to land that fish foul hooked or not. I got a nice pic of the fish.
I had a little more time to fish before I had to take off for an appointment. I fished the bucket hard since I had pressured the gut of the run all morning. I hooked up with a “jack” that was chrome and hot. It leaped into the air and somersaulted a few times before I worked it to shore for a pic.
After releasing the chromer, I went back to work on the bucket. I hooked up with a nice big and angry buck. It jumped and ran up river into the shallows. It snagged the other fly on a rock and broke me off, doah! I left for an appointment and had lunch with my girl. After lunch, I headed back to the river. I went up river from where I was this morning. I fished a nice sexy run and hooked up right away, and lost the fish. It was a bright fresh fish. I worked this run through and had another hook up, but landed no fish. I fished down river and on my way back, I fished this run again. I hooked into a nice buck that jumped and ran. A short time into this fight, the fish wrapped me around something under the surface; the fish broke off and left me snagged. When I pulled my line out, it moved the float down the leader leaving the leader all curled and actually broke the float. This fish trashed my rig. I re-rigged and fished the rest of the way up this run. I hooked into a nice fish on the second or third cast after I re-rigged. I had this fish on and eventually landed a nice drop back hen. This was the sixth fish of the day and I had to head out. It was a great of day fishing despite the cold temps and the wind.
While on the river this afternoon I saw a buzzard. It was picking at a dead fish. I have never seen one before so I took this pic. I also saw a pack of deer this morning, and many rare wild anglers...
These guys lined up and all fished in the same spot all morning, what a bunch of goofballs. None of them caught anything all morning. If you are fishing in a spot and not catching anything, how does it make sense to continue to fish the same spot over and over again when it's not producing?
