11-11-2011, 04:45 AM
i've always had fun on steelhead dump day in the past, and always defended it when it would get negative press on websites- but I can't after today. I can definitely vouch for the fish being plenty big and fiesty though.
Fishing when the truck pulled up, I had a reasonable amount of room for a drift from a short flyline, like I expected- but as soon as the truck pulled up three middle agd, professional looking guys, that I would have assumed to be normal human beings if I saw them on the street, converged on my 20 yard stretch of river. I hooked a really nice fish right off the bat, and it immediatly went on a screaming run- meanwhile, other fish were porpoising around me and my fish. These guys started casting over my rod, my line my fish, etc. and immediately tangled with me. I eventually got the tangles out, and backed into the shallow water- after quite a tussle with the fish- it was crazy strong- and just as I reached down to tail it, of course it did one more flip and spit the hook. Looked to be 8-ish lbs. I fished continually until dark and almost everyone had left, and finally hooked another, bigger fish. It ran into my backing and snapped my 12 lb tippet in, like, 5 seconds. That was pretty awesome.
There should be plenty of fish left- I saw relatively few landed.
Tie your knots well, gentlemen.
[signature]
Fishing when the truck pulled up, I had a reasonable amount of room for a drift from a short flyline, like I expected- but as soon as the truck pulled up three middle agd, professional looking guys, that I would have assumed to be normal human beings if I saw them on the street, converged on my 20 yard stretch of river. I hooked a really nice fish right off the bat, and it immediatly went on a screaming run- meanwhile, other fish were porpoising around me and my fish. These guys started casting over my rod, my line my fish, etc. and immediately tangled with me. I eventually got the tangles out, and backed into the shallow water- after quite a tussle with the fish- it was crazy strong- and just as I reached down to tail it, of course it did one more flip and spit the hook. Looked to be 8-ish lbs. I fished continually until dark and almost everyone had left, and finally hooked another, bigger fish. It ran into my backing and snapped my 12 lb tippet in, like, 5 seconds. That was pretty awesome.
There should be plenty of fish left- I saw relatively few landed.
Tie your knots well, gentlemen.
[signature]