The fat lady made the drag sing
We decided to make a one day trip and fish the eve, instead of two, and according to all reports it was the better choice. We drove out most of the way and stayed in the back lot of a truck stop under the truck cap , quite comfortable in -20 degree bags and the high tech winter sleeping pads we have to sleep on snow.
Arriving at the river early we pulled into Altmar while it was still dark and in low single digits and I decided to maybe try the dense zone first, then go down river to get away from the crowds. We attempted the steps at the church pool, but Nancy couldn't find enough crusty snow to get down all the way without cleats and we abandoned the attempt. The steps themselves were a cascade of ice. The drift boat lot was fit for hockey and with no cars viewed anywhere we walked up the North side. Fishing was slow, with only two misses for the first few hours. The odd thing was not a soul there. Finally one fellow showed up on the other side and had some hook-ups fishing frog water. I finally found a small deep eddy 4' from shore near the tail and drifted my favorite fly for the year, a flesh bugger, through it staying back about a dozen feet from the water. She was home. A good fight, but it managed to stay in the pool, and after 4 or 5 runs, Nancy got it in the net. When I stood up, 2 baseball size rocks, as you can see in the pic, were attached to my gravel guards. It was pretty funny, actually. Now with the day made, we decided to head back to the truck. Earlier, I had tried backing up on some loose, large gravel in a couple of feet of water and went down. My old mountaineering parka kept the most of me dry, but water made its way all the way down and soaked one foot, and dampened the other. I was fine for a few hours, but that was enough.
We went back through the frozen woods, I changed my socks, we ate some food and ran the heater full blast for awhile.
At this point, it was noon and there were now 3 cars in the lot and not a single trailer. The ramp would have been near impossible without chains. Of course you could have dropped the boat off up on the flat and got a running launch.
The one fellow plying the Kiddie Pool with a Spey, left and we were left watching empty water through the windshield. I haven't got to fish near that bridge in a couple of years at least , and of course, everyone knows it holds fish. So in I went, and lo and behold, they were there. A Sz. 10 Psycho Prince ( A Prince Nymph with chartreuse biot tail and wings and rib wire, with a little ice dubbing for flash- one of the top steelhead nymphs on the west coast) was the fly of choice. It started to snow in swirling squalls that got into every vest pocket, down your neck, and watching the indicator made my eyes hurt. But they still remained active, so we stayed until about 3:30. At one point I had to get the camera out and snap a shot of my very dedicated net person. I told her just to watch from the truck, but she stayed out. I fouled a few fish, some were very dark, but all in all, I was content with a very good day in I guess you could say, brutal conditions. I tried swinging a bunny fly for awhile, but didn't have a sinking leader or tip, so no takes on that front. The few fellows I spoke with had fished Ellis Cove and Trestle and done well in the morning. I have no idea when I'll go again, but I hope to. 2013 ended with a blessing for us, I hope it did for everyone here, too.
post edited by fichy - 2014/01/01 09:02:48
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