|
2Bonthewater -> salmon river tuesday (10/22/2009 11:27:00 PM)
|
Welp, saddled up and left at midnight.......330 am, pulled over at rest area outside of Syracuse.......I was awakened by my truck making some freaky clicking noise and the lights flickering on and off.........Felt like I was in a Twilight Zone episode......I had to ask all visitors if they had jumper cables because my battery was dead.......get that taken care of.....thanks to the two dudes on their way to work who took the time to help.....
got my license and to the river..........UFZ, one car.......NICE......get to the river....make a few casts......can't find my split shots.....back to the truck.....2 more vehicles.........get splits and change rod.....I thought about crossing the river.....but decided against it....on my way back to the shoreline, I slipped and took a dip.....chilly water, back to the truck to change.....the vibe was not so good........I get to my truck and some dude, GUESSING a guide.......is like, you are lucky you are alive......he said the F-Word about 50 times within' 10 minutes.....he asked how far downriver I floated....I said, 12 inches........I told him I didn't get wet because of the flow, I got wet because I slipped on rock and that I was tired......I have some excellant water rescue training and then some......I know my limits.....I was tired and I certainly knew not to cross the river.......although have done so in the past......he said he wouldn't even cross the river at 335 ?? really ??? over and done with I think......anyway, back to the river and fish on.....lost....fish on....A big bugger.......think it was a huge piece of steel....fought the fish in heavy water for about 15-20 minutes, I started putting some nice pressure on the fish and the hook came straight......I saw one guy catch a steelie and few tiny browns....I caught one small brown....I was casting, then all of a sudden FLY LINE, Backing....and the GUIDE -- no rod just a big honker net-- and his client came tromping down river........no FISH ON...no COMING DOWN.......no excuse me........all I got was: WE ARE GOING TO LAND THIS FISH.......not sure if they did, but they were about 8 football fields away from where they hooked the fish when I lost sight of them.....and racing along the shoreline was WAY MORE dangerous than anything I did that morning........
I decided to head to LFZ..........was going to fish below the bridge, but drift boats and people everywhere-- I did find some real estate, but no sooner get settled in and casting, two fellas came out of the parking lot and set up 8 feet to my left--drift gone-- I was fine with that...I had trouble dealing with the smoke drifting into my face--out of there......LFZ.....get some nice water...and nothing doing.......move up higher........hooked a few kings.....lots of male king salmon swimming around--chasing each other......not really interested in anything I had on.......moved back down river and checked out the side channel....loaded with kings--there were a few guys in there earlier snagging away like bandits.......nice guys I guess, considering every other word was the F-Word and they were blatantly snagging the fish.....but, nobody was there......I took out the underwater video camera.....hope some of the footage came out OK.......we'll see..........I threw a bunch of flies at them....one or two takes.........then I put on a ESL white tail, olive body, olive / black hackle.........OMG....it was like somebody hit the FEED ON switch......could not keep them off the fly........I was laughing like crazy.....it was cool......although it was the side channel, watching these fish move 2 feet left or right to suck in the fly was awesome......I landed only a couple with this fly..........tied on a regular streamer hook--it kept bending straight !!!......I switched to my CRUSH streamer pattern -- emerald shiner -- tied on a TOGEN black nickel size 2 hook and I was able to land a fish or two.........finished up fishing my way down to the bridge with no takers....
my shoulder was killing me, so I gassed up and headed home......long trip, but the last 2 hours made it worth the trip.......love the smell up there.....
So,730 to noon UFZ---guys across the river landed a few small browns and one steelhead, I landed one small brown
LFZ-- hordes of anglers.........not sure if I saw one fish landed.....a few fish on......one guy was using a golf ball indicator and just letting his line sit about 15 feet below him.........he hooked up a few times.......didn't land a thing......thinking most of the fish were foul hooked....
It was a slow day.....but oh so much fun........and if I get 30 seconds of good underwater footage-- I will be very happy---just watching them suck in the fly, then shaking their heads was super cool.....it was like 7 casts in a row I had a fish on..........ridiculous
[image]http://i653.photobucket.com/albums/uu252/2Bonthewater/deadsalmoncool--wp.jpg[/image]
[image]http://i653.photobucket.com/albums/uu252/2Bonthewater/kingsalmoncrushstreamer2--wp.jpg[/image]
[image]http://i653.photobucket.com/albums/uu252/2Bonthewater/Kingsalmon--wp.jpg[/image]
|
|
|
|