Well....First, Thank you Tred Barta....I watch his show and he always says, "90% of it, is just getting out there." Today, we were closed for Presidents Day but still took our UPS shipment. It was pouring all morning and by the time I got all the boxes put away it was noon...The border was lined up 2 hours coming back and I had a million other reason not to go....I thought about heading down to Bellingham to the fly shop etc. but I finally kicked myself in the a$$ and got changed and headed out..
Decided there was no way I was going to fight the border and have never used my pin on the Nooksack, so headed up there instead...
Water clarity was really poor on the drive up so I decided to see what it was like down by the hatchery...Feeder creek was quite clear up top and I could see some ghosts in the water..Cool I thought...Too close to the hatchery for my liking so I hiked down river a bit...Saw this tree and pool and thought..."Man, that's got to have something in there"...I started with Roe bags and fished it pretty good, Nothing....Decided to take my friend Gary's advice and switched over to peach wool and an orange Jensen egg....Second cast and float down and fish on...I was totally blown away...seems like forever since I've played a fish again and this little guy was scrappy as hell..got him in and thought about bonking him, but just couldn't...little guy had seal marks on his other side and was too close to home to bonk him now...took a couple quick pics..which was tough with the cigar smoke rising in my eyes..
and he was still pissed off about being caught...before any of you holier then thoughs say anything...look at my pin, it's underwater and the fish was brought up quick with water covering him and then two quick shots...I unbuttoned him and went to hold him to revive him like a trout and he wanted none of that and shot out of my hand and was gone....
The weather was brutal, just pouring the whole time and cold...but man, I felt like I was on a beach back in San Diego...I was warm, happy and very thankful to Mr. steelie for a great fight, 4 or 5 times across the pool and then in as fast as I could without breaking him off....He's no beauty queen and looks like he fought a hard fight to get there so no way was I going to end that for him...
Nowhere near as big as the one I lost yesterday but every bit as satisfying...The cigar tasted that much better and the rain and wind were forgotten....I fished another hour, moving down to the main river which was about a hundred yards down...saw some beautiful water if clearer, but visibility was pretty poor. Lost my rigging on something, never saw or felt much, just a heavy tug and gone....and that was it for my day, soaking wet, I returned to my truck and headed home to my daughters birthday dinner and cake...
I told her, I let it go for her...(she hates I kill fish)...and that got me a huge hug to boot...
Hole he came out of...
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Topic: Presidents Day STEELHEAD!!!! (Read 3574 times)