Holiday Play Day

Had the chance to get out and play one more time this year, and of course, had to take it.

The weather showed us a little bit of everything this weekend. Friday was bitter cold with gusting winds in our face and snow flying. It was also fishless. I had one, short-lived fight late in the day (last time I take long-shanked J-hooks with oversized barbs steelheading). It was truly one of those days though when just being on the river was all I needed. For some reason, white-outs are just beautiful when you're standing knee-deep in water a half a degree above freezing.

Brian fighting the cold snow blowing in his face.
Once we got off the water, nature started in with the typical northeast wintry mix. By the time we got out of bed Saturday morning, it was full-on pouring outside. We decided to make our maiden voyage to the DSR, seeing as we'd had no luck the day before, and it should be holding some fresh fish. Unfortunately, we had trouble finding any good-looking water that was holding anything more than fishermen. Note to self; next time you try pay-to-play, bring along someone who knows the stretch better.

After wasting the entire morning doing more walking than fishing, I made the call to stop back at the motel on the way to Friday's fishless hole. I could tell Brian was skeptical, and it didn't help that it meant giving up on the rest of the $30 worth of fishing we had just paid for, but it didn't take too long to change his mind.

We had changed out of our soaked clothes and the rain had mostly stopped, so we were feeling pretty warm, but of course, fishing started out slow again. I did manage a big take right away, but he took my leech and tippet with him on the hit. I'm guessing it was a steelhead, but will never know. Soon enough though, we landed 4 quality browns in under an hour span. Unfortunately, we were never near enough together for any fin-n-grin shots...


My first fish of the weekend...
...but we got to feel sweet redemption following a day and a half of freezing cold fishing and no catching.
Sunday morning started off well enough. The water had come up a full 10" and the flow had ballooned to 180% of what it was the day before. The high and rather stained water had me thinking it might be a washout, but early on Brian landed and released a real nice brown before I had time to get down to him with the camera. He also managed to land a monstrous chub, and miss a couple of takes. I myself couldn't interest anything in my offerings until about 10:30 when I landed this guy:

...and last fish of the weekend.

We gave it our best shot for the rest of the morning, but just before noon, the wind really started whipping up, and hot (relatively speaking, of course) gusts would occasionally warn me of impending doom. Rather than risk a soggy trip home (not to mention potential lightning strikes or falling trees), we called it a day, and a successful weekend. We didn't exactly slay them, but we caught fish and enjoyed ourselves.
I just want to know, why can't we seem to find the metal right now?

Comments

Anonymous said…
Catch more steelhead! Damn, how about A steelhead. Any chance you might want to try a guided trip?
1/5/09, 10:14 AM
FoulHooked said…
"Any chance you might want to try a guided trip?"

On the SR? Hell no. Unless you consider yourself a guide.
1/5/09, 10:18 AM
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