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My sons and their families were up to my house for Christmas. My youngest grand daughter, 8 year old Gabrielle McIntire wanted me to take her for a walk along the river.
My natural thing when going along the river is to grab my 7-wt. rod and fishing vest.
We stopped by one of my favorite bends in the river where I took a nice cast into the run. Immediately there was a hard jerk on the rod. I handed it to Gabrielle and told her to hang on.
She was excited and said it must be a big fish. I coached her on the "pump and reel method".
She caught on quickly.
After a while she told me that her belly was getting sore from the rod butt and her arms were getting tired as the fish was trying to pull her into the river.
I told her to hang on and showed no mercy.
Next the Steelhead broke water and did a full flip in the air followed by a little tail dancing.
The look on Gabrielle's face was unbelievable! "Grandpa It's huge!!"
I told her how to steer the fish to keep it from the logjams and to keep her rod tip out of the brush next to us.
The fish was big and needed to be tired out as she was using a 6# leader. I explained how to keep the pressure on while the fish was holding in the current; this would wear him down.
As the fish started to tire, I had her reel in as much line as possible by pumping and reeling, to get the fish close to shore (we were on the bank not wearing waders).
Once she had the fish close, I explained to her how to back up and beach the fish. I told her by keeping the fish's nose in the air; she can maneuver it where she wants. Once the Steelhead was in about one inch of water and started flopping, I told the to keep pressure on the rod as she backed up and the fish would flop himself right up onto the shore.This is a method she needs to learn if she is to fish with me, as I do not fish with a net. She did great and landed her first Steelhead, a nice 30" 8 #.
As I talked her through each technique of the fight and landing, it occurred to me how much of this comes natural with experience. One tends to forget this when they are fighting a fish. There is a lot involved to successfully land a nice fish on light line without a net.
This experience was my best Christmas gift ever!
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My natural thing when going along the river is to grab my 7-wt. rod and fishing vest.
We stopped by one of my favorite bends in the river where I took a nice cast into the run. Immediately there was a hard jerk on the rod. I handed it to Gabrielle and told her to hang on.
She was excited and said it must be a big fish. I coached her on the "pump and reel method".
She caught on quickly.
After a while she told me that her belly was getting sore from the rod butt and her arms were getting tired as the fish was trying to pull her into the river.
I told her to hang on and showed no mercy.
Next the Steelhead broke water and did a full flip in the air followed by a little tail dancing.
The look on Gabrielle's face was unbelievable! "Grandpa It's huge!!"
I told her how to steer the fish to keep it from the logjams and to keep her rod tip out of the brush next to us.
The fish was big and needed to be tired out as she was using a 6# leader. I explained how to keep the pressure on while the fish was holding in the current; this would wear him down.
As the fish started to tire, I had her reel in as much line as possible by pumping and reeling, to get the fish close to shore (we were on the bank not wearing waders).
Once she had the fish close, I explained to her how to back up and beach the fish. I told her by keeping the fish's nose in the air; she can maneuver it where she wants. Once the Steelhead was in about one inch of water and started flopping, I told the to keep pressure on the rod as she backed up and the fish would flop himself right up onto the shore.This is a method she needs to learn if she is to fish with me, as I do not fish with a net. She did great and landed her first Steelhead, a nice 30" 8 #.
As I talked her through each technique of the fight and landing, it occurred to me how much of this comes natural with experience. One tends to forget this when they are fighting a fish. There is a lot involved to successfully land a nice fish on light line without a net.
This experience was my best Christmas gift ever!
