Friday, March 25, 2011

Jared Got Caught Playing With The Flip

I downloaded a bunch of videos the other day and found one on there I didn't recognize. Jared found the flip video camera and was playing with it and this is what we found. Thankfully it didn't break the camera! If you get motion sick you may not want to watch this too much!

Corey Lands a 30.5 inch Buck


Corey's wrestling season stretched into March. So he hasn't been fishing with just me yet. The Thursday before spring break was a day for me to see my wife and help get her ready to leave for southern Utah the next day. Corey and I were supposed to fish, but we canceled because of weather and because Kim needing my help. But, we got reports that the fishing was good, so, we planned a morning fish on Friday, before they left.

The water was high and fishing was decent. It had rained a bunch the day before. I hooked 5 on eggs, drifting them deep in the fast runs, but we only landed two of them in the heavy current. The boys didn't fair too well. I hooked a keeper hen almost immediately, but Corey was down river, fishing a good spot that happened to be open when we got there. I offered it to Tyler, but he declined, tailing it for me. Tyler finally hooked a fish up river on his fly rod, just before we left, but lost it.

Corey didn't pick up any fish down below , so he came up to fish with us. Just after he got there I hooked this fish. It was strong and the current made it almost impossible to move. Corey really had his work cut out for him. He couldn't reel, he had to just hold on. Finally he moved the fish out of the hard current into a seam and was able to crank it up to me. I tailed it, lifted it out of the water and it tried escaping. I had to hug it to my body to not lose it. We got it to bank and tagged it quick. Corey was REALLY excited.

I'm not sure if it was harder to keep Jesse or Lyndie out of the pictures. You can see Lyndie is excited about the fish. The first photo just shows her arm, but the second one she is the center of the photograph. She finally just walked in for a shot. We don't mind though. A girl this cute deserves to be on film!






Cole's Day

Cole with his 27 inch, fly caught, Wallowa River steelhead.

Cole was my next steelhead fishing partner. We got up REALLY early, I carried twice as much wood as when Abbie and I went, and we sat in the dark waiting for daylight. Fishing pressure had increased in the area we wanted to fish, and so we made sure we had our spot.

Cole got a fly rod for his birthday last year. I was a little hesitant to get him his own because of the detail required to cast, mend, tie leaders, fly choices, etc., etc., etc., so I made him a deal. If he would learn to tie the knots needed for building a leader, I'd buy him a fly fishing set up. I kind of figured this might deter him, since he was only 7; BOY WAS I WRONG. I had to get him line that day and he started practicing. I showed him a few times and within a week he had them down. He has also tied flies with me, and by himself. So, I figured he had the bug bad enough he might do okay. I really knew he was ready when he spent all of his free time in the back yard casting his brothers fly rods--I'm talking hours of practice, not minutes, and for weeks!

When he finally got his rod he cast it, instead of his brothers' and mine. Again, for hours. We finally got him out with it and he loves it. So, when we were sitting on the bank of the river, waiting for daylight I asked him what he wanted to fish with, his spinning rod, or fly rod. I'm sure you can guess the answer. I fixed him up his rod, and told him where I wanted him to fish. But, before sending him off I tried a quick cast to show him how I wanted him to mend line. I picked up a 13 inch mountain whitefish almost immediately. Cole landed it and then he went down, asked permission from some men that were fishing next to where I wanted him to fish, if he could step in. They weren't catching anything, so they said sure. In 3 casts I looked up to see Cole's rod bent over double. It isn't a steelhead rod, a nice trout rod, but it doesn't have a heavy enough spine to really tackle a fish like the one he was hooked into; a 27" buck. I couldn't tell if the guys were mad, envious, or dumbstruck that an 8 year old kid was out fishing them! I guess they weren't too mad, though, because they offered their net to help land it.

I unfortunately forgot the camera, both still and the video flip, so all I can do is tell you he was beyond excited and VERY proud of his fly rod caught steelhead. (The stonefly pattern worked like it was supposed to) I think part of his excitement was that he had landed a steelhead on his fly rod before Tyler and Corey. Tyler had hooked a few, but he hadn't landed one yet!

Fishing for us was pretty slow that day. I hooked 3, Cole landed one of them, Seth landed the other, and I made a long distance release on one more. Down river some guys hammered the fish, but our spot just didn't produce like it did when Abbie and I were there the week before.