Went out late as usual. Met with an old timer friend who had a hatchery yesterday and then we headed out to the Train Bridge area as we wanted to check out the area after the flood, a mistake. Spent too much time exploring in slow unproductive water (it might have been great in the morning). Walked by the tail out of a usually deadly run with no one there. Usually if it is early morning, we would be silly not to fish there. But this is mid day and from the high bank on the Yarrow side, the water looks so shallow & gin clear that we could count the rocks and boulders at river bottom of the tail out. So we went up to deeper water, a mistake again. After 2 fruitless hours we were on the way out and passed by the tail out again. This time, there was a lone fisherman casting from the other side, he was wading quite deep to cast to our side. From his low angle, he obviously could not see the clear & shallow bottom and his float swung by the shallow tail out in an arc. To our amazement, a sudden flash of chrome among the rocks and WHAM, a steelie battle was on. It took a while as it looked like the fish was hooked on the pectoral fin. It was released accordingly by the nice gentleman. It sure opens my eyes about how shallow & clear a steelie can sit in bright day light, and totally invisible to us, even with sun glasses and on a high bank with the sun behind us. Next time, I will not make the mistake again on that deadly tail out. A grey ghost could be sitting among the rocks.
Well the day was so spent in one fruitless water. At 4:00 we decided to try closer to the Crossing as our old legs were tired. I specifically chose to work the head of the run, with strong riffle current and a drop off. This is where fish like to sit below the current, and waiting for the dark to ascend the shallow. To get the maximum attention of the fish among turbulent riffles, I took off my roe bag and put on the blade, a big size 6 blade. It proved to be too large and the strong current pushed it big body too fast. It also could not drop down the drop off where steelies may lie. After 20 minutes of fruitless searching for a fish, I switched to a size 3 blade, and change my pencil lead to a longer one. Using a top down drift, the blade slowed down, and dropped down readily to the drop off by the heavier lead. Then it happened, WHAM, a steelie attacked the blade and the battle was on. She is a regular size fish, around 8-9 lb doe, and a hatchery. Finally, steelie sushi comes later then usual but I am as grateful as can be, and count myself really lucky to bring a fish home. Tight lines!
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Topic: VEDDER March 5 (Read 5442 times)