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.