What the hell...

The river was at about 700 CFS yesterday, it dropped into the 630s this morning.  Normally, I would never go out and fish unless the river was below 600 and dropping fast.  To make matters worse, there was a thunder storm this morning.  I had a couple of hours this afternoon and it was sunny and about 80 degrees.  I figured, what the hell, I'll give it a shot.  I parked near a tributary that was high and looked like chocolate milk.  Not a good sign.  I jumped into my waders and headed for the confluence where this small trib enters the river.  I hooked into a good sized fish on the first or second cast.  I broke the steelhead skunk!  I was thrilled.  I had to back down the excitement and focus on landing the fish.  It would be heart breaking to lose another steelhead.  I followed the fish down river, its pulling hard, ripping line off the reel.  I turned the fish into slower water where I got my first glance at it.  An orange tail??? Damn!  It was no steelhead I had been fighting for the last ten minutes, it was a carp.  I was disappointed that it wasn't a steelhead, but it was a fine fish.  This carp was pushing 36 inches and was as fat as a regulation NFL football!  I couldn't get my hand all the way around its tail.  It was not a bad catch even if I got sprayed by the steelhead skunk.

The diameter on this reel on this rod is 4.125"