First Bite
06-06-2007, 10:36 PM
On my last trip to the river I was fishing a small drift where the water averaged about five feet deep. It was only ten feet across making holding water pretty limited. The tailout was shallow and every rock was easily visible. Before I made my first cast I looked intently throughout the whole drift to see if I could spot resting summer steelhead. I could barely make out at least one fish tucked in tight on the bottom at the top of the drift. The rest of the water was vacant of fish. I stood towards the end of the drift and cast into the faster water where I saw the summer steelhead. He was hugging the gravel and was not budging to my presentations. Several casts later I went to adjust my float when I spotted a mint bright steelhead in the shallow tailout. I could tell she was a fresh summer run by her light grey shape contrasting with the darker gravel where she was resting. Where did she come from? How long had she been laying there? I didn’t know if she had spotted me so I shortened up my float to run my jig about two feet deep. On my next cast I lobbed the jig & float about ten feet ahead of the resting steelhead. I watched as the jig floated by without even a glance from the steelhead. Just as I was about to reel in my line I watched as she slowly started working her way up river towards me. At this point I realized that the fish wasn’t spooked by my presence since she swam right by me and comfortably mingled around the water as if I wasn’t even there. Now I was intrigued by the behavior of the fish and really wanted to see if I could get her to take a jig. Several minutes went by and I still couldn’t get this fish to even look at my offerings. I had tried several of my typical summer favorites including a plain red jig, black & cerise and a straight black jig without even a bump. Tipping them with bait didn’t work either. I was running low on options and time when I saw my shrimp schlappen jig with the black barbell. I tipped the jig with a dab of uncooked prawn to finish it off. A few casts later I watched as my little cork twitched and ever so slightly slipped under the water. Setting the hook resulted in one very upset, rested slab of chrome. She completely tore me up jumping about a half dozen times in between acrobatic runs combined with underwater cartwheels. Finally I belly slid her onto the sandy beach and securely grabbed her by the huge spotted tail fin. She was a perfect gun metal blue with the double fin clip indicating a summer run. This is summer steelheading at its best. I tagged the fish and took a few minutes to clean her up.
About ten minutes later I was re-tying my jig when I spotted another fish in the gin clear water of the tailout. This time I watched as the fish slowly moved into the drift I was at disappearing into the fast moving water at the head of the hole. I again tipped my shrimp jig with a piece of uncooked prawn meat. I adjusted the cork to run the jig just off of the bottom and cast into the fast water at the head of the drift. The cork went a few feet and then casually slipped under. I came back on it only to see a slab of chrome flash and my line come flying back at me. I was upset at myself for missing a perfect take and thought for sure the fish was stung by the hook. With nothing to lose I again cast to the same spot as before. To my disbelief the fish took the bait again and this time I nailed the hookset. All heck broke loose as the fish went nuts tearing up the hole just like the first summer run. She did everything possible to free herself but the hook held tight. Several minutes later I landed the fish and was tagged out for the day.
Sometimes it's better to be lucky then anything else. Throw in good timing and lastly taking the time to try something different will make the difference between getting skunked or coming home smiling.
I used a 1 1/4" cork, Power Pro #20 mainline, small black swivel, 2-3 foot 10# maxima ultragreen leader, black nickel barbell shrimp jig with a dab of uncooked shrimp.
http://www.firstbitejigs.com/store/pictures/1newbarb2.jpg
http://www.firstbitejigs.com/store/pictures/2summers.jpg
About ten minutes later I was re-tying my jig when I spotted another fish in the gin clear water of the tailout. This time I watched as the fish slowly moved into the drift I was at disappearing into the fast moving water at the head of the hole. I again tipped my shrimp jig with a piece of uncooked prawn meat. I adjusted the cork to run the jig just off of the bottom and cast into the fast water at the head of the drift. The cork went a few feet and then casually slipped under. I came back on it only to see a slab of chrome flash and my line come flying back at me. I was upset at myself for missing a perfect take and thought for sure the fish was stung by the hook. With nothing to lose I again cast to the same spot as before. To my disbelief the fish took the bait again and this time I nailed the hookset. All heck broke loose as the fish went nuts tearing up the hole just like the first summer run. She did everything possible to free herself but the hook held tight. Several minutes later I landed the fish and was tagged out for the day.
Sometimes it's better to be lucky then anything else. Throw in good timing and lastly taking the time to try something different will make the difference between getting skunked or coming home smiling.
I used a 1 1/4" cork, Power Pro #20 mainline, small black swivel, 2-3 foot 10# maxima ultragreen leader, black nickel barbell shrimp jig with a dab of uncooked shrimp.
http://www.firstbitejigs.com/store/pictures/1newbarb2.jpg
http://www.firstbitejigs.com/store/pictures/2summers.jpg