Paul Huffman
12-17-2007, 04:06 PM
Last Thursday I went back to the Orthopedic surgeon. He took out the staples in my forearm and put on skin closures and a coveret bandage and told me to try to exercise my fingers and elbow to regain flexibility, but not pick up anything heavy. It sounded to me that he was telling me get out of household chores and to try some two hand casting.
Saturday, White Salmon where I was staying was still stuck under the dreary cloud deck that has stuck around Eastern Washington for the last week. We even got a couple inches of snow. I checked the satellite photos and forecasts and thought, "Hey, it looks like clearing out east." I decided that I better not shovel snow or move furniture. Doctors orders. Instead, I drove out to the John Day where I had a great day under sunny skies and a balmy 42 F. Just me and my chocolate lab all day. I caught one and lost one, so at least I broke my two year two hander jinx. But that lost fish still puzzles me.
I was on my way back to the truck to drive home and decided to make a few casts on the same run where I had landed a small buck earlier. I was fishing a short tip on a skagit head with a heavy lead eyed hareball. This set up seemed to make a good drift but tended to bottom out a lot on the hang down. As I was working down this reach, I completed a swing, let it hang for a moment, then stripped in to the head, and started to stumble downstream for the next cast. It was tough wading with slabby boulders with grass hiding the places to step. When I finally edged downstream far enough, I rolled the line downstream to clear it from the bottom before I started my sweep, but like so many times before, the lead eyed fly was stuck on the bottom. I tried to throw some rolls over it, and when that didn't work, I stripped in the slack and tugged on it from above and the sides. When that didn't work I took a couple steps down and one out to try a different angle on it and to get some more slack to throw over it. I threw some more rolls over it, tightened down and shook it, then gave it slack and threw some more rolls, but it was stuck good. But when I tightened down on it, the snag up didn't seem to be straight below me anymore. Now it seemed to be about 20-30 degrees out in the river. I worried that maybe now I also had a loop of line stuck on a branch or pipe. I decided I was going to have to try to walk down farther, maybe even try pulling from downstream. I stumbled a few more steps downstream and towards the shore, then stripped in the line to try to figure out what I was tangled on. I was almost in to the head and I could almost reach downstream to where I thought the fly was. It looked to me that the line was no longer hooked out in the current and I had a direct pull to where the fly was dead downstream, behind a boulder in the frog water where it was stuck before. I thought I could try a tug almost directly up. As soon as I tugged, that fly took off like a shot, snapping the leader at the tippet knot quicker than I could react.
Did I have this fish on the whole time, from the end of my drift and didn't feel it as I stripped in? Or did it pick the fly up as the line slacked up as I stumbled downstream? Was this a fish of a lifetime, so big I couldn't even budge it with the 10 pound tippet? So big it could hold back and drift out in the current without being bothered by me, not even attempting a perceptible head shake? Or is it harder to feel head shakes with a longer rod? Was the fish made to lethargic by the cold water temperatures to put up much of a fight? The small buck I caught early in the day had allowed himself to be reeled right in.
Did the fish finally panic when it saw me? And why the hell can't I always get them hooked that well?
Saturday, White Salmon where I was staying was still stuck under the dreary cloud deck that has stuck around Eastern Washington for the last week. We even got a couple inches of snow. I checked the satellite photos and forecasts and thought, "Hey, it looks like clearing out east." I decided that I better not shovel snow or move furniture. Doctors orders. Instead, I drove out to the John Day where I had a great day under sunny skies and a balmy 42 F. Just me and my chocolate lab all day. I caught one and lost one, so at least I broke my two year two hander jinx. But that lost fish still puzzles me.
I was on my way back to the truck to drive home and decided to make a few casts on the same run where I had landed a small buck earlier. I was fishing a short tip on a skagit head with a heavy lead eyed hareball. This set up seemed to make a good drift but tended to bottom out a lot on the hang down. As I was working down this reach, I completed a swing, let it hang for a moment, then stripped in to the head, and started to stumble downstream for the next cast. It was tough wading with slabby boulders with grass hiding the places to step. When I finally edged downstream far enough, I rolled the line downstream to clear it from the bottom before I started my sweep, but like so many times before, the lead eyed fly was stuck on the bottom. I tried to throw some rolls over it, and when that didn't work, I stripped in the slack and tugged on it from above and the sides. When that didn't work I took a couple steps down and one out to try a different angle on it and to get some more slack to throw over it. I threw some more rolls over it, tightened down and shook it, then gave it slack and threw some more rolls, but it was stuck good. But when I tightened down on it, the snag up didn't seem to be straight below me anymore. Now it seemed to be about 20-30 degrees out in the river. I worried that maybe now I also had a loop of line stuck on a branch or pipe. I decided I was going to have to try to walk down farther, maybe even try pulling from downstream. I stumbled a few more steps downstream and towards the shore, then stripped in the line to try to figure out what I was tangled on. I was almost in to the head and I could almost reach downstream to where I thought the fly was. It looked to me that the line was no longer hooked out in the current and I had a direct pull to where the fly was dead downstream, behind a boulder in the frog water where it was stuck before. I thought I could try a tug almost directly up. As soon as I tugged, that fly took off like a shot, snapping the leader at the tippet knot quicker than I could react.
Did I have this fish on the whole time, from the end of my drift and didn't feel it as I stripped in? Or did it pick the fly up as the line slacked up as I stumbled downstream? Was this a fish of a lifetime, so big I couldn't even budge it with the 10 pound tippet? So big it could hold back and drift out in the current without being bothered by me, not even attempting a perceptible head shake? Or is it harder to feel head shakes with a longer rod? Was the fish made to lethargic by the cold water temperatures to put up much of a fight? The small buck I caught early in the day had allowed himself to be reeled right in.
Did the fish finally panic when it saw me? And why the hell can't I always get them hooked that well?