Went out today to do some fishing. Met up with a buddy at the river, he was hoping to catch his first bull trout so he was starting off with a spinning reel. I was determined to only fish flies I had tied myself so I stuck with the fly rod. Picked out the flies and made my way to stream side.
Few minutes in and caught my first whitefish. Then another. I look up and see my buddy fighting his own fish. Turns out to be his first ever bully.
I have to admit, I was green with envy. Took me mere minutes to take out some streamers and try my luck ... ... ... of which there was zero.
We soon decided to move on and try another spot.
Some searching of deadend roads and private property signs trying to get to a place we seen on the map. On the way out to the main road we found another promising spot to try.
I decided to try my spinning gear this time and get my first Bull Trout too. Within a few casts I had one on the line, got the photos taken and released it back into the river.
With that accomplished I went back to the car for my fly rod and thought I would try the same spot again. I waded around to my good side and start casting.
I looked away for a second and turn back to my indicator no where in sight so I set the hook, dead stop. Thought I was caught on a rock, but then there was a little wiggle, then she took off.
Figured out pretty quick it was a decent fish so I made my way closer to my net the fish taking line the whole time from the nice smooth drag. Trust me at that moment I was so happy to have this new reel and I hadn't even seen the fish yet.
Eventually I got her close enough to see what I was dealing with and I thought I should try and give a shout to my fishing partner to see if he would be up for netting duties, but there was no way I was shouting over the sound of the water so I figured I would just do my best and see what happens.
I was actually doing pretty good I must say when I heard a splash and looked down to see my reel had fallen off into the water. I scrambled to grab it and re-attach it before something horrible happened, but since this is a happy story I was able to get it attached and tightened before she decided to takeoff in the opposite direction.
The next step was getting this fish into the net. Luckily I had recently started a thread on here looking for netting tips ... honestly in the moment I couldn't really remember anything, so I just "calmly" worked her in close enough to attempt something. A few screams of the drag later I had my chance. I turned her upstream with tension working her in closer and was planning on releasing some of the tension and having the current do the work, but that's not how it went down. I ended up having to put the net in at quite an angle and I was not really prepared for the drag of the current, it ended up moving the net to an angle instead of being perpendicular to the fish and I only got the tail in the net. For and instant I wanted to drop the rod and scoop for all my worth hoping to get under her, but cooler heads prevailed and I told my self I would have another chance.
Sure enough a couple minutes later I had just that. I waded out to be almost directly down stream and tried the same trick with the tension except this time when she turned down stream I was able to put my net directly in front of the fish and she went in head first.
Hallel-freaken-ujah
I worked my way down to bend so I can get the attention of the "photographer" and get her back on her way.
We took the hook out and got a couple pics all while in the water. She decided to hang out recovering for a bit and just as we were starting to get a little worried about her maybe getting picked off by a predator if she didn't return to deeper water she took off downstream.
I must say that was the best I have ever felt fishing.
I tied the fly myself
Netted the fish alone
Got photos to prove it all happened
And released her back into the river.
Great Day Fishing
Here's to ya. Great read.
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