Steelhead blitzkrieg

Left Saturday morning for a few hours of fishing on Saturday evening and a full day on Sunday.  Total miles required: 708.

Sometimes you just have to go.

With flows in the low 100's and a bluebird day in the works, the odds weren't good, but sometimes you just have to place your bet and roll with it....and besides not betting at all makes you a gauranteed loser.

McSteel opened up the first night swinging up a jack and a nice chrome fish in the mid 20's.  I never got a touch.  We set-up camp in the dark, heated up the chili and pulled a few cold ones down before turning in.

With the alarm set for 5:15, I was jumpy and rolled out of bed at 4:00.  Coffee on the cook stove and a few logs on the fire, a full day of steelheading ahead...pure joy.

Waking up in a warm wall tent with dry waders has gone from a luxury to a necessity...nylon tents have no place here.

We hit the river trail by headlamp and despite the low flows, we found some nice water with enough flow to keep the line tight and swinging.  At noon I hooked up on a beautiful mid 20's chromer after stripping my intruder back through some soft water at the end of the swing.  All of those beautiful swinging arcs and this fish thought it was a brown trout.  I wrestled it up to the surface twice before it twisted and popped.  Damn it.  Good looking fish too. We scored some free eats at the local bar (Packer halftime viddles on the house) and power napped for 45 minutes, broke camp and hit the river hard until dark with only one more fish hooked and lost by McSteel.

The catching is the gamble...being there is a sure bet.

Fall

"Never more..."

Swingus Interruptus

stokin'

Bright Jack

Fly box re-shuffle

IC - Idiot Central

Fresh Brew 4:15 am

Rainbow trout or Steelhead...time will tell.

Ribbon of Life

 

Pikin'

The boat and a good buddy, a lake rumored to hold Northern Pike and a few hours in the morning. 

McSteel, pullin' the haul for pike...

Firsts

My 8 year old daughter cast a fine loop out near the weeds, gave the popper a twitch and was fast into her first "solo" fly caught fish.  A big moment (at least for me!)  Atta girl!!

Family Vacations

When you go on a family vacation and the central activity is catching panfish off the dock...that's cool.

Getting out.

I stopped in to see C.A. at the shop and we made loose plans to sneak out on Thursday night for a little fly flinging on a local lake.  Thursday afternoon he confirmed and Thursday night we launched.
Fishing was slow, though despite plenty of vegetation I have to admit that the water clarity wasn't half bad.  I can only assume that the summer heat boiled off the usual impurities.  Standing on the deck of the Jon casting clousers in 8 feet of water at the edge of the weeds on a fine, calm, mostly bug free evening in August...you can bemoan the loss of summer or just settle into the seasonal groove.  I think we chose the latter.  He was kind enough to pack a couple microbrews and some BLT's with fixin's from his CSA (he even put celery salt on the tomatoes...helluva guy).  Another swell evening to be alive with fly rod in hand.

Jon Johnson needs a new name

After big mouthing for the past 8 years about how I really don't need more than a 6 horse because the Big W is too spooky to run at speeds much over 6 mph,  I started thinking about the Nipigon River and the Carp flats of Door County and how these waterways would be nice to exit quickly if, say, a guy had to.  I perused Craigslist for weeks and finally broke down and bought a new Yamaha 15 Horse 4 Stroke engine.  The dealer gave me fair price, a 5 year warranty and gave me on trade in what I paid for the Johnson 8 years ago.  In other words, I got a good deal.  So the Johnson is in the rear view mirror.  The Yamaha is quiet and goes like a bat outta hell (relatively speaking).  It actually has enough weight and torque that it started to stress the transom on Ol' Jon.  I was smart enough to add a transom saver when I bought it (probably saving me from having to call my insurance agent upon my return from towing it home from the dealer).  I took the girls out for a ride as part of the break in schedule and noticed a popped weld on the transom.  I quickly turned the boat back to the launch and made the some repairs/upgrades to the transom.  So far so good.

I'm not sure if I need to rename her Jon Yamaha or what.

Atlantic Relief

A work trip to Maine.  Clean, clear Atlantic water and evening dropping tides on one of my favorite beaches.  I was able to schedule work (3 days in a row) around fishing for stripers and...blues.   I have caught some very, very small blues on Martha's Vineyard a few years back, but this trip I finally discovered why these fish are revered by some and despised by others.  Let's just say that I lost a few flies to these toothy bastards.  I also caught one that was probably in the 4-6 pound class but failed to get a pic after I was trying to dance around the teeth and it finally cut my line and swam off with another fly.  Sand eel patterns were the fly of the trip and now, after the run in with the blues, I need to tie more.  My last of the three nights fishing the beach, after I caught a couple small stripers, I got hit and broken off by something that left a surface disturbance similar to a Manatee...not being in Florida I can only assume that it was something else...
I guess I'll have to go back and see if I can figure out what it was.