Close, But No Cigar

The Plan: Meet Glenn at McDonalds by the river at 0830 and have him follow me to the "secret" Steelhead fishing spot that everybody seems to know about.  

Glenn called me on my cell at 0800 and said he was stuck commute traffic in South Sacramento. Capital city traffic at it's best. We finally hooked up just before 0900. A short 10 minute drive and we were at the river. Wadered up, we trudged down to the river.

We fished a series of egg imitations, I swung some wet flies, and a egg sucking leech. Just about 30 minutes after we started, Ray hooked up what looked like a 24 inch Steelhead. Ray is someone we met and a new fishing friend.

This is Ray

Ray fought the Steelhead for something like 10 or 15 minutes and like so many times, had the line snap on him at the last minute.

Glenn worked the opposite side of the river while I fished the near side. Glenn socialed with another fisherman and he set Glenn up with good advice and show him how to see the fish and before long he was getting close. Since he couldn't get a good hook set, he stepped back and told the guy to go ahead and catch one. The guy said keep going, those are too easy to catch. Had I been over there, I probably would have kicked the guy in the shins. Too easy to catch my ass.

Glenn kept working that area and I wandered upstream to a place where there was a nice bend and a little deeper water. While I was swinging an orange egg imitation (orange was supposed to be the color of the day) I had a little company walk by. Trust me, this guy was catching more fish than anyone on the river even though they were small.   

Fishing company

On one of the 20 or so swings, I got one of those line slapping hits, but no hookup. When I stripped in the fly, it was apparent it was a bona fide hit because only half of the fly was left. Below is the before (on the left) and the after (on the right).

Before and after

I also got a second hit on a new egg (one on the left) in the same area, just not quite as violent.

A lot more action, a lot more fun, and more "learn as you go" training on Steelhead fishing. Most of all and the most important thing is that Glenn had a good time.

Not sure what's next, but I'll let you know.

Mark