OK, Salman, quit your complaining, here's a fishing report, with a picture even. I took a little exploratory trip over to the coast today and fished a really small stream there with excellent results.
The weather was gorgeous...so nice I took off my wind breaker, ie raincoat, at about 10am. The water was clear and low, wind coming from the right direction, and there were fish in. I fished the lower stream. No cars parked along the road, no footprints on the banks except at tourist spots, and no other fishermen the entire time I was there. It was glorious.
My Dad passed away fishing the Garcia so I take the opportunity to talk to him whenever I'm near there. I just know he is watching me when I'm over there and it is comforting to me to pass some time with him. Had a lot of news for him this trip so it was good not to have others around thinking I was crazy talking to the sky.... In any case I finally said, "OK, Dad, time to catch one for you. There were several fish rolling in the hole by me so I got to work.
Soon thereafter a good pull woke me up from my idle mianderings and the fight was on. This was no Trinity River slug. He jumped right at the beginning and the rest of the fight was a normal fresh male steelhead just in from the ocean. He was about 30-32 inches and I would guess between 8 and 10 lbs...looking at the picture I have to revise and think closer to 8. He fought like a 12+ pounder though. At one point he had taken out about 50 yards of line and was running hard for the ocean. I put the breaks on and walked my way to him. Finally got him into shallow water where I could take the picture below and get him back on his way. The funniest thing was Oldtrout called me right in the middle of the fight and I had to call him back...probably ruined the rest of his day, his having to work and me fishing...retirement is hard but someone has to do it Don...sorry!!!! Also called Ed K soon after I landed the fish and let him know the fish were there. His cold stopped him from coming up to join me tomorrow but that's probably a good thing as I twisted my ankle pretty good on the way back to the car and I don't think I'll be going back this week. After the next rain though it's party time
Back to fishing I almost immediately hooked up with what appeared to be a spent fish. It threw the hook on a jump and that was that. I had another pull I missed...daydreaming again. Then a hot female about 8 lbs just smashed the fly. She jumped all over the place and generally ran her ass ragged. Oh, how I love these coastal fish...even the spent fish a hard fighters. I got her into shallow water and didn't take a picture as I wanted to make sure she got on with the reproduction business. Just slipped the hook out and sent her on her way. One other fish was hooked upstream on the way back to the car and that one I didn't see. Bore into the brush on the other side and that was it. I put the pedal to the metal but couldn't even start to turn that fish away from the brush...really strong and probably a bit bigger fish.
I was satisfied with the day. Small stream with good sized fish. Not as big as some of the bigger streams but plenty enough for me. After the next rain I'll be there. The Russian is coming into shape and I may fish it next week. If it's good I'll post...it's a lot closer drive! There have been some huge fish coming into the hatchery up here, several over 20 lbs. An interesting note. I went up to see some old friends and we got to talking about the fishing and lack of pressure. I guess the game wardens have been doing a good job over on the coast because the locals who normally keep some native fish are afraid to keep any.
Oh, here's the fish...it sure is pretty!!!!
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