Wayne Kohan
Life of the Party
So steelhead season opened up today on my stretch of the big dammed river, so I headed up to “the last free flowing stretch” of this mighty river. I do realize it’s a Sunday, and I’m retired so generally allergic to fishing on the weekends, but I’m busy the next few days (tennis, golf, grandkids, lake fishing with Rich all planned for the next few days. I got up to this area a couple weeks ago as coho season was/is open so was able to brush away the cobwebs from my spey casting at that time. I did get a couple tugs then but landed nothing. I rigged up in the parking lot and headed down to the river, knowing the flows were too low for my honey hole to produce. When I got to the river, I looked upriver to see both my spots empty, though I saw about 40 boats on the river. It’s about 1/2 mile up to my favorite spot, and as I got to my first, but less desirable spot, a boat pulled into my honey hole and started fishing. Usually the boats will stay out a ways but this boat was right in practically where I would stand. He made at least 3 passes through there as I fished my other spot, and he did as well as i was doing, nada. I saw him pull out and head downriver. I did my customary 5 more casts, then pulled my line in and headed upriver. While walking up, that same boat came back upriver and blew through the hole at high speed and then headed further upstream. So the hole was mine when I got there. I stepped in and started casting (flailing) away. Somewhere before my tenth cast, my line tightened but no real pull. Hmm. I think I’ll try a couple more casts without stepping. I blew a couple casts and the first cast I got back out there appropriately I got a perfect pull and hookup and landed a nice 26 inch male steelhead. He had a missing adipose fin but his ventral fin was intact so back he went. I briefly thought about leaving as I accomplished what I set out to do but I thought I would continue on for a bit. 5 casts later I hooked up again, brought him to my feet before pulling the hook out as I was trying to grab him. At that point, I felt like I had harassed enough fish and started the walk back to the truck, happy that everything was right with the world…. Well in the steelhead fishing world anyway. Hopefully they will keep our season open past November 10th this year.
I freaking love catching steelhead on the swing!
I freaking love catching steelhead on the swing!