Arriving at river X, I took a look around studying all of the lower stretches for signs of fish. Nothing. It looked bleak. Slowly wading my way upstream, I stopped at a couple of deeper runs and let my line drift through a dozen times but nothing seemed to be around. I continued upstream and met another fisherman coming down.
“Should have been here yesterday.” He said. “Fish were all over the place! Today I haven’t seen a single one!”
Hmmm…I thought to myself. I continued upstream to a deep pool, put an indicator on and let my single egg imitation swirl around in some of the side eddies. I wasn’t long before I hooked and landed a nice hen steelhead.
After slipping her out of rubber net, she decided to pause right in front of me for a few moments and pose for another, more natural picture.
After checking my line to make sure everything was straightened out and ready to fish, I proceeded to hook two more and landed a nice buck.
I was anxious to make my way up to the next hole so I only made a few more drifts and headed upstream. I entered the hole and got myself in position. First drift and hooked a fish right away. It was in the fast water and went a little nuts, popping the hook off with ease.
Drew was on his way and arrived about then. The sun was up and the water was warming slightly, and then the fish just starting snapping up everything we dropped in. As I was tying up, Drew landed four in a row. Several different times we had doubles on, hooking well over 30 fish. We managed to land 13 that afternoon. Some of them were absolute pigs.
Drew holds up his first of six steelhead for the day.
Releasing another hog buck steely, Drew was nearing euphoria.
And then this happened.
It was time for some celebratory cigars.
Or maybe they were good luck cigars.
