Okay....what a day!! Woke up and the sun was shining and man was it warm!! Of course you guys know what was on my mind!! Revenge for a fish skunking from the other day!! Got to the river at 10am....was greeted by a nice 6-7 pounder right away...had him on but he slipped off!! I hang out and watch the redd, for another 20 minutes.
3 nice fish show up...one smaller female takes a swipe, but misses the mepps
[HASHTAG]#2[/HASHTAG] copper spinner. A nice big male is acting quite aggressive, so i pull the cast in and switch it up and put a perfect cast in front of him 4 feet off to the side, and let the current swing it 1 foot in front of his face...he charges like a maddened bulldog and its fish on!! A quick 2 minute battle follows and I gently swing him up into a shallow beach area, and there it is, my fish fish of the season and a beauty 28" fish weighing just under 9 pounds!!
I hang out for 20 minutes, but nothing show...spooked the others, so I go to another hole 100 yards away and let this spot cool down. I am greated with a fish doing her business in a shallow run...I think..hey looks like a nice 4 pounder. The spot is very tough to get a cast in, and it take me around 10 times to get a really good one to swing in front of her...she side drifts at it...hmmmm this fish is ready to rock!! I toss another cast in and this one lands perfect and sure enough she charges at it. 4 pounder my ass!! I quick battle happens and she slips off!! Darn!!
I head back to the spot where i landed the male, but nothing is around. So i go back up to a crazy spot, my buddy said just 3 days ago that it would be impossible to land a fish in this spot....yeah there is often fish in this spot...but catching them is super difficult, and after another pair of trees fell down, its getting more and more difficult to get down to the river to land them!! Remember these are large fish and only 6 pound test line is used!!
So here I am....I look across the river on the far side and there she is...some 40 yards away, I spot a very respectable fish. I make my plan..i need to cast in between some tree branches and let the current carry the spinner right in front of her... I throw my cast out and it comes up a bit short around 6 feet in front of her. Even still she makes a move toward the spinner, and i pull it out away from her to get a better positioning. I throw another cast but this time its right on the money around 1 foot and a half in front of her!! The red circle is where the fish was when she grabbed my spinner.
The red arrow....okay...so huge fish on light line means you need to bet at the water to land it!! But this is a problem in this spot(and why my buddy says it impossible to catch one here). When i hooked the fish I am up on a bank approximately 12 feet from the waters surface. There is only on way around this...so while fishing a large fish you need to hold the rod with one hand and traverse down a nearly vertical incline and land on that log, while holding the rod in one hand and some stick on the other side so you get a semi controlled descent and not fall on the 3 feet deep freezing cold water...hahahahaha
Here is a better pic of the incline you need to do to pull off this insane move!! Its about 5 feet from where you slide down the cliff face and land onto the log. The red star is the stick you need to grab one handed to help assist your slide to land on the log(black arrow). From the red star to the black arrow its about a 5 foot drop. Then i stepped across to the shallow water(green arrow) and fought the fish....I then had to hand over fist the rod around the branch just on this side of the red circle, and she was landed in the red circle.(current is too strong on this side of the branch) Wow, what a rush!!
And fish number two is packed in some snow!! A beautiful nearly spawned out female...perfect!! Nice and fresh, and she got to kick out the majority of her eggs before i caught her!!
Both fish were the same length at 28"....nice pair of nearly 9 pound fish(according to length measurement charts)
Hope you guys dig my fishing adventure!!
