02-21-2009, 06:37 AM
we took off to salmon at 3:30 this morning arriving at are fishing hole near owl creek around 8:00am on arrival we noticed the temp. was already a lot warmer than last weekend and most of the capped water on the river is already starting to bust up the shelve ice is melting and the river is a slight dingy brown in color not so much that you cant fish but enough to give the water some color. we fished hard until about 10:00 am and i had had only one hit by then and my buddy had landed four suckers. around 10:00 a man and his young son showed up they stopped and talked to me for a bit he interduced himself his name was jody and he seemed as nice a guy as they come and then jody proceeded in oaring a boat to the other side to the tale end of the hole and almost immediately him and his son had a steelhead on and landed both of them. two nice males right around 5 lbs. well this gave me new found hope so i started fishing hard again i flipped my line up stream about 20 feet and about 10 feet away from the shelf ice as it drifted in front of me i felt a fish pick up my roe i set the hook into what felt like a rock!!!! [sly] she held deep at first trying to use her weight she did this for about 3 to 4 minutes then she ran spooling line off of my abu garcia cardinal 104 like it was nothing she headed up stream 50 yards then back down stream another 50 yards she tried to shake the hook i held my tention perfect on her. then she got really mad and went straight under the shelf ice i was standing on. she doubled my okuma steelhead rod in half like it was nothing. now mind you the shelf ice was already scary and getting soft i went out as far as i dared to go and stretched out my arms holding the rod so she couldnt cut me off on the ice. after she played under the ice for about 2 minutes she decided to give it one last good run back to the channel she started in she made it there and dug in deep she layed there for another 2 minutes then shot straight to the surface at the edge of the shelf ice and began to try and shake the hook but my buddy was waiting with the extenda net and nailed her for me with the first swipe of the net!!!! wow now that is a great feeling what layed before me was the biggest steelhead i have ever landed. she meassured up at 33 inches and right around 12 to 13 pounds. i have caught quite a few steelhead right around ten pounds but this little hen upped them by a few pounds. i was extatic it seriously made my day. then not even 5 minutes later my buddy got into a fish it didnt fight hard it layed on his line trying to hold he could tell it wasnt that big of a fish so he muscled it in and it was one of the prettiest males i have ever seen so much red and green it was unbeleivable. meanwhile while we were netting my buddy's the jody on the otherside had another nice planter on right around five pounds his boy netted it for him. another 10 minutes go by and we are all fishing and jody's son hooks into another planter around the five pound area jody landed it for his son also i should mention jody had also lost 2 fish in between his last two he landed. i started teasing jody that he had divers hooking fish up for him under the water he laughed and offered to oar back across and pick us up so we could get in on the hole i took him up on the offer and we headed to the other side. at about the third or fourth cast i hooked into a little planter hen that didnt do much but role around on the surface and let me drag her in. after the first fish i battled that day this little hen seemed more like your every day garden variety rainbow trout lol.
after that the wind picked up and the fishing slowed down. we stayed till about dusk only getting a couple more hits it was hard to tell with the wind. it was a great day and i know how you guys love pictures so here you go.
1. my big girl!
2. verns little torpedo look it has racing stripes
3. a little hen
4. jody's fish
</htm
[signature]
after that the wind picked up and the fishing slowed down. we stayed till about dusk only getting a couple more hits it was hard to tell with the wind. it was a great day and i know how you guys love pictures so here you go.
1. my big girl!
2. verns little torpedo look it has racing stripes
3. a little hen
4. jody's fish
</htm
[signature]