ausable_steelhead
05-19-2003, 06:50 PM
Fished the Au Sab on Sunday with my bro. I went 2-4, my bro was skunked(it was his turn, I blanked two weeks ago, so....:D ). I hooked up within' my first 5 drifts, right at first light, a colored 5-6lb male. Next cast, a tail-hooked hen(released). After that, it slowed to a crawl, it was the worst morning bite for us this year. Around 9-9:30, I was drifting a chart./steelhead orange yarn fly over a gravel bed into an adjacent riffle, when it got slammed on the swing, fish just absolutely crushed it, it was like a plug hit. The fish jumps, then takes off across the river, then down. I eventually work her back up, and she's on the surface right next to a log jam my bro's fishing off(he was wader-less), so he go's to get the net. At this point she's just slowly finning on the surface, so I try steering her away from the wood. I tighten my drag just a click, reel down on her, and BAM, she freaks, and the dreaded ping, and slack results, she was anice chrome hen around 9-10lbs. So now, I'm quite re-jected, but hey, it's steelheading, and you can't get more standing there moping, so I move down a bit, and re-rig, and resume casting. Well, about an hour and a half later, I'm drifting a deep gravel bed that spills into a riffled slot, kind of a narrow strip of holding water. I have on the fly that's been my killer lately, but in a slightly larger size. I cast, let if drift, and follow it down, when, my line stops, so I set the hook, and sure enough, a pounding rod. So this fish doesn't jump, takes a short run to the far bank, then comes up, and thrashes, then takes off downstream. I work back up a little ways, then she takes off down again, well this goes on 4-5 more times, when I finally start to get her shallow, well my brother comes walking up with the net. So I turn to say something to him, and I had tightened my drag again to gain on her, and as soon as I turned my head, she shoots out again, catches me me not paying attention and once again, snap. After that, I was quite ready to say f*ck it, but I fished for awhile longer. About a half hour after losing her, a girl hooks up(good lookin' too), she battles the fish and works it shallow, well, the fish's in front of me, so I net it for her, un-fortunanetly, it's foul-hooked. As the girl's un-hooking it, I see another line coming out of her mouth, so I look down, and there's my egg fly, nearly down her throat, I pull it out, and re-vive the fish for her, and she swims away, she was a big, chrome female, probably 11-12lbs, loose, but she was big, probably 31 inches long, and just packed with roe, she reminded me of a female king, she was shaped just like one. We ended the day below the dam, just to see what happens. My bro hooks one on his first cast, but loses it. But it was fun, another great day on this great river. It's probably my last steelhead adventure of this spring, but If they're still around in two weeks, I'll probably head up again. But the run's windinding down pretty fast, all males are dark, and alot of hen's are spawned out. The coffer had quite a few fish in it, but not as many as I've seen in past years. The dam was nearly empty, kinda surprising, and one of the reason's we bothered stopping there.