Click on photo for full size image.
The weather has turned. Temps are barely breaking 40 during the day, and nights are frosty. It was rainy in the valley today and snowy in the mountains. Maybe that has made a difference.
I went to the river, waded in and started working the bridge run.
I have a 3 foot sink tip that I loop onto my floating line, but I had taken it off on the last trip. Today I brought a 6 foot length thinking I might need to really dredge the depths. Before putting that on I decided to stay with the floating line and see what that would do first, then work my way down the water column.
I've been fishing some flashy marabou/crystal chenille flies, but I have rarely, if ever, hooked a steelhead on those. So I went back to the natural look and tied on a stonefly nymph with just a touch of flash.
It's funny how a day can seem just like so many other fishless days, when the water seems barren and each cast fruitless. And then, with a sudden thud, everything changes.
That thud came halfway down the run, and there was no mistaking what it was. He hit the fly on the swing and seemed securely hooked, but I hit him a couple times to make sure.
He went deep and held in the current while I waded through water over my waist to get to the bank where I'd have a chance to beach him. Funny how you bust through water when you have a fish on that you'd think twice about braving any other time.
He gave me some fight at the end, but I got him up in the shallows and lifted him out onto the bank. He made a pretty picture. Or two or three.
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