solopaddler Posted March 17, 2009 Report Posted March 17, 2009 A long time ago an old timer told me "when in doubt fish low". Now he wasn't referring to stance, but meant, fish as close to the lake as possible. Those words have stuck with me over the years and it's proven to be sage advice. On most rivers regardless of the season there's usually always going to be catchable numbers of fish in the rivers estuary. Whether it's fresh run fish that are staging or darker dropback fish, there's almost always something.... The added bonus of larger (albeit slower) water and more room for the fish to play makes it an easy choice, especially on most of the smaller watersheds (I despise small skinny water). With that in mind my good friend Fergie, his 10 year old son Liam and myself headed for one of my favourite estuaries last Friday. The conditions couldn't have been better, the water was just starting to clear after a huge blowout and the daytime temps looked warm. We had good reason to expect numbers of both freshies and spent fish and we weren't dissapointed. The last time we dragged Liam along with us he was really into it, this time not so much. Over the course of the 2 days he fished a total of 5 minutes. The rest of the time he spent crawling around in the bush by himself building survivorman forts and spying on people LOL! Ferg outfitted him with a 2-way radio so they were in constant contact (pretty good idea I thought), and by all accounts he had a blast. Kids, go figure eh? Anyhow on to the fish. We both caught enormous numbers of fish, the vast majority being bright chrome jacks. Not huge, but a pile of fun on the long light rods. Just to make things interesting we were surprised every now and again by larger spunkier versions. No need to finesse these fish, we caught them on anything and everything. Most were tricked using thumbnail sized bags of fresh roe, but many more were caught on a variety of jigs, flies and small pink and white worms. The roe worked best early on when the water was still cold. As the days warmed up and the fish became more aggressive the artificials really shined. When using jigs and flies in such slow froggy water, twitching and occasionally popping the float every so often resulted in more strikes......and they were absolutely savage. Breathtaking really . Enough chatter, on to the pic's. As mentioned the mornings were quite cold. There were still vestiges of winter to be found in various cool, dark recesses.... I thought this pic was priceless. I caught a fish early on and dragged it to shore to unhook it. After releasing the fish I turned around and this was the sight. I had just put my net down maybe 20 seconds earlier Without getting into a detailed description for each pic I'll let them speak for themselves. Suffice it to say these are a fraction of the numbers we caught....it was surreal. Great trip! Cheers, Mike
highdrifter Posted March 17, 2009 Report Posted March 17, 2009 Working hard eh?! Your missus said to call you at work, said you might be busy on the hour... HAHAAH!! Awesome report buddy. Beauties!! I'm begging Tanya for the car on Wednesday... I'm really really trying.. I'll try harder later. cheers HD
kickingfrog Posted March 17, 2009 Report Posted March 17, 2009 So is the net frozen and standing up on its own?
Joeytier Posted March 17, 2009 Report Posted March 17, 2009 I'm totally envious! I've yet to have a day steelheading anywhere close to as good as that. Thanks for sharing.
solopaddler Posted March 17, 2009 Author Report Posted March 17, 2009 So is the net frozen and standing up on its own? Yep
Joeytier Posted March 17, 2009 Report Posted March 17, 2009 Looks like a nice brown in there too, or am I seeing things?
BrownTown Posted March 17, 2009 Report Posted March 17, 2009 Excellent report. Is that a new AngSpec in some of those pictures... Havent seen one like that before. Cheers, Andrew
MJL Posted March 17, 2009 Report Posted March 17, 2009 Epic Report Mike! Excellent report.Is that a new AngSpec in some of those pictures... Havent seen one like that before. Cheers, Andrew For 3 easy payments of $449.99 it can be yours.LOL It's the 20th anniversary edition.
msp Posted March 17, 2009 Report Posted March 17, 2009 Looks like you guys had a great day. Nice lookin "troutlets". Gotta love that frog water, slow drifts can be boring and not for the impatiant, but very rewarding for those who can tough it out. Thanks for the report.
ccmtcanada Posted March 17, 2009 Report Posted March 17, 2009 Wow! Again, you caught more fish on this outing than I will all spring long!!! LOL. Great stuff Mike...no pin for me as of yet...maybe for the fall season!
jdmls Posted March 17, 2009 Report Posted March 17, 2009 Nice chomers Bud .... Mike you are a driving machine my friend !!! Bill you wanna sell the diesel ? I need to get out there more often !!!! Keep it up
solopaddler Posted March 17, 2009 Author Report Posted March 17, 2009 Looks like a nice brown in there too, or am I seeing things? Nope you're not seeing things, there was one pic of a brown. Caught a bunch actually, most were a little more silvery and all of them were feeding like crazy on minnows. (White jigs were deadly)
Leecher Posted March 17, 2009 Report Posted March 17, 2009 Totally awesome Mike Great report and pics... especially the first one Can't beat a day like that Congratulations to all and thanks for sharing your journey with us Leechman
ironstone74 Posted March 17, 2009 Report Posted March 17, 2009 Nice post Mike You've got skills! Paul
BillM Posted March 17, 2009 Report Posted March 17, 2009 Nice chomers Bud .... Mike you are a driving machine my friend !!! Bill you wanna sell the diesel ? I need to get out there more often !!!! Keep it up Road trip!!!! lol Mike, awesome report bud! I am jealous of the brownies! Looks like you and Ferg had a great day out on the water.. That net pic is classic!
trapshooter Posted March 17, 2009 Report Posted March 17, 2009 I'll never get tired of your reports Mike. Thanks for taking the time to share your adventure.
canadian_copper Posted March 17, 2009 Report Posted March 17, 2009 AWSOME OUTING BRO!!! DIDNT EXPECT ANYTHING LESS LOL
snag Posted March 17, 2009 Report Posted March 17, 2009 Man, I have run out of positive adjectives for your posts. Please post something sub-standard
jwl Posted March 17, 2009 Report Posted March 17, 2009 right on guys,that's why when people on these here interweb sites all look around at the posts and then try and hound you for all your fishing holes on thier 1st post...I come back with things like......read back in the forum, you will soon find that the guys who are going out there,having a blast and catching a load of fish, put in thier time, do thier homework, and get out there and catch them
kemper Posted March 17, 2009 Report Posted March 17, 2009 Every time you post another report Mike I gain a little more hate. Kidding, but on the serious side we gotta get out sometime!
silvio Posted March 17, 2009 Report Posted March 17, 2009 Wow Mike pure jealousy... Bill, Dave's right want to sell that diesel lol.
Bly Posted March 17, 2009 Report Posted March 17, 2009 Nice work Mike, as always.....beauty fish and pictures!!!!!
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