With all the great reports at the lower river, I decide to hit the lower early to have a good chance for a hatch. Made the best effort to get up early but by the time me & my partner hit 'the all popular run' every one knows, it was past 7:30am, and we could hardly get into the crowded run. Must be over 20 guys there. It was slow there, but one hatch was landed just when I got there. Then nothing happened for over an hour for the entire run, both sides. We started to move into a run below. It was a mistake as I was told later that the popular run heated up later with around 10 fish hooked in the tail out.
As I walked down river, my phone rang, so I untied my waist belt & bag with fish knife attached, as the phone was in my pant pocket far down on my breathable wader. That proves another mistake, because I forgot about the whole thing after answering the phone. If another FWR member picked it up, please PM me. Thanks.
I moved into a run where it was reported 3 fish were hooked earlier. Well not for me, so I looked further downstream and noticed a guy playing a fish in another lower run. I decided to head down to check out. It was a beauty 12 lb hatch. The nice thing is, the guy is done, and the whole run on my side is by myself. I worked through the riffle with blade but no take, then I reworked the run with shimp imitation baited with shrimp meat. Then at the tail out, wham, a steelie inhaled the shrimp imitation and I was into a short battle with a small fish. It came in after a short fight, and is a small 8lb hatch doe. Way to go, fresh fish for dinner. Here is the pix:
After this, the opposite side of the run really heated up, and two good sized steels were landed. I could see Chris across with his tubes trying to see if they were wild, but they were both hatch and bonked. Afterwards, another hatch was bonked by a flyfisher.
In the afternoon, as I was waiting patiently for my partner to get his fish, guess who shows up on our side of the river with a bag full of trash & garbage & a ML hat - who else but the legendary Chris. He is such a great & unselfish guy doing such an unselfish service for the river & the fish. I salute the guy. I called out to him and introduced myself. He was delighted to meet another FWR fisher and we had a nice chat along the river bank. It was my honour to meet the legend face to face finally. He said he tubed a wild fish of his own earlier in the same run before I came down. We both agreed that this season so far has turned out to be one of the best in memory.
The weather was great. Couldn't ask for a better day. The river is not too high, a bit coloured in the morning but clearing up during the day with 4-5 ft visibility. Go get them guys. The fish are there in large number. With all the fishermen I talked to and tallying up the # fish seen hooked by them in different locations, it is around 25 fish today. Tight line.
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Topic: Vedder Feb 8 - lots of fish & meeting the legend (Read 10166 times)