Monday, October 19, 2009

STEEL!!! October 19, 2009


At last there is something worth posting on the fishing blog! Native steel was landed on the Wenatchee this morning. Rob and I got in a couple hours of pre-work fishing. The river had colored up and come up about a foot since I was last out with Hannah in the backpack.

Rob and I tried the Turkey Shoot run out of Cashmere. Nice water, but no tugs. When we got to our spot at Monitor we started fishing the tailout of a run. There were old kings rolling on the surface. We fished for a while and Rob had a solid hit that took his bottom fly, an egg pattern. I moved up a little and mooched Rob's water (after he had moved upstream a bit).

I was fishing a black Kauffman's Stone with a size 8 prince trailer. When I laid a nice drift through the area where Rob had his hit I saw the Thingamabobber dive under. I lifted up and could feel solid resistance. I knew it was a king or a steelie. It didn't really run much for about 20 seconds, so it left me guessing. Then it put on a nice run with an acrobatic leap into the air. No doubt at this point.

The fish took me all the way across the river into the backing and into some heavy water. I was worried that the pull of the water on the fly line would cause the tippet to break, so I kept my rod high to try and keep as much line off the water as possible. After taking me down a couple rapids, I coaxed the beast to shore.

Enjoy the pics below.

Just landed and hook out.
Legal fish picture for a wild fish.


At least there is some water dripping off the fish!


OK, maybe there's not a whole lot of water dripping now, but I covered the adipose fin with my thumb. Maybe this was a hatchery brat???

1 comment:

Rick Merrill said...

Nice fish! Maybe Thanksgiving will still be fishable for those of us that have to work for a living.