Continued...
The rest of the day was just about as good, except that I lost two adult steelhead after very brief hookups. The second was blamed on a slightly bent hook on the bottom fly, but the first was strictly operator error. We had been through a run twice and each time, at about the same place, the strike indicator indicated, and I struck hard, only to have it be bottom. The third time through, same place, same indication, lazy hookset, three big head shakes, and a gone fish. Arghh!!!!! "Big fish, huh??" said Craig. "You should have kept believing." and down the river we went.
It turned out to be a good day, all in all. I got some casting and fishing practice with my new 10' 8" switch rod, it actually warmed up to above freezing, unlike Monday and Tuesday, and I caught several fish, including both adults and half pounders. To be honest, a couple of the half pounders were more like quarter pounders, no cheese. The adults were about half and half wild vs. hatchery.
Once the sun dropped below the hills, the temperature dropped like a lead weight, the bite turned very slow, the ice had to be flushed from the rod guides every cast, and my shoulder complained about three full days of slinging four to six weighted objects on thirty feet of fly line at the end of a ten foot pole over and over and over.
And so, as the dusk turned to dark, I reeled up my line, swished the ice out of the guides for the 200th time, and sat back in the boat. It was back down to 22.1 degrees [F], I was warm, and my 100th day of flyfishing in 2009 drew to a close. I was one happy camper.
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Favoured: 0
