In the first hour Eric hooked a nice steelhead but the hook pulled when it came up for jump. It was a shame because it looked like a nice fish, similar to the size of the one he landed on Monday. That’s the breaks in this game.
Around 10:30 I was in the middle of the run and the current was moving at a nice pace. I don’t about some of you, but on some days I get a feeling that something is about to happen. Sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn’t, but you realize that you need to concentrate and really pay attention to everything around you.
Made a decent cast that wasn’t anything near pretty, but the fly landed where I wanted it to and the line had some slack in it so the fly sank a tad quicker. Made just enough of mend to keep the fly swinging smoothly and left it to swing in towards the bank. As the line was straightening out below me I was in the process of taking a step downstream to keep working the tailout and I felt a thump in the line. I set the hook out of pure reaction, felt some nice head shakes and a nice buck steelhead shoots towards the center of the river and makes a sweet jump that I would have given an Olympic 10. After that jump he stayed down in the current and I could feel him rolling around, trying to shake the streamer from his lips. It didn’t work and I led him over to Eric who was poised and ready with the net. I told him to get ready and led the fish to him and as it came to the surface, Eric made his move without hesitation. Steely in the bag!! This one taped out 25” long with a 14” girth. Pretty dark fish too so we assumed it had been in the river for a while.
My dad got king in down below us and Joe had a few steelies on but couldn’t stay tied to them so that was it for the morning. The afternoon was to be nice so we left a ½ hr early to so we could get lunch and come back to the river when the water temp was rising.
Eric and I started in the same spot from the morning session and my Dad joined us well. It was nice, my Dad was just below me and I could see Eric just below us and the sun was peeking out between the clouds.
I started at the top of the run again and stayed there until my Dad had to retie his tippet then I began working my way downstream past him. He knows I like to swing flies and it was a good time for his cigar break so he didn’t mind me going through his spot.
After I got below my Dad and he had enough room to fish, almost the same thing that happened this morning happened again in the same spot. Same cast with the same purple conehead, let the fly swing, straighten out below, start to make a step downstream and WHAM!! This one thumped it pretty good and thrashed around on the surface unlike the one from the morning. He fought nice and came up for some head shakes and when he was tired, Eric was right there on cue with the net. 25” long x 14 ½” girth.
It looked like the same fish but it was lighter in shade and didn’t have any other hook marks in his jaw. WOOHOO!! A two steelhead day swinging a conehead streamer without any other weight on the line. I was more than elated to say the least.
It was around 2:00 and it was somebody else’s turn for a hookup. I took some gear off and hung it on a tree behind us and took a seat on a log while I watched Eric and Dad do their thing.
Sure enough, about 45 min. later, I’m watching my Dad fish and towards the end of his drift he gets hammered. He clamped his fingers on the line and no line was being taken so Eric and I shouted to him to let go of the line. He did, but his drag was set very light and when he let go the rod blank came back and smacked the brim of his cap and almost knocked it off. The line got caught on the reel handle at the same time and I thought he was going to lose it, but he got everything together and began working the steelhead back into range.
Eric was there with the net again and it was another steelhead in the bag. A father and son tag team in the afternoon. It was great!! I taped Dad’s steelhead at 26” long x 14 ½” girth. Nice hot hen that gave him a great fight. He laughed about his hat almost falling off and the line getting caught the reel afterwards.
As we stood there and talked a big shadow flew over us and we all looked up to see a turkey go flying by, then about 6 more went overhead and landed in some nearby trees where we could see them perfectly. Eric started talking turkey and couple started talking back until they realized what was going on. Then Dad started purring at them and the one bird all by her lonesome did a complete 180 on the branch and started looking at him while moving her head around. It was funny to them up in trees like that. After about 20 mins the mother came flying down to the ground. Then another, and a couple more after that until they were all on the ground.
I was more than content and didn’t care if hooked anything else or not so I went down to where Joe was to see how he was doing and shoot the shit. He had a couple on and when I got there he hooked on and we landed it but it was hooked underneath the chin.
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