Wouldn't Believe It If I Hadn't Seen It...

[Fishboy9995]

Steelheading with a buddy this morning, he hooks a hot fish that boils, jumps, and takes him into his backing around a big sweeper. As the backing / fly line knot whizzes throught e guides, , there was an audible "pop" - and the nail not failed - the fly line just pulled out of the nail not tube - it did not break. Never seen that before.

LESSON 1: better knots.

Anyway, down the river goes a beautiful fish with 90' of line and two flies. We break for beers and tears and a stogie, billygoat our ***** back up the hillside to the road, and head downstream with the Jeep to find some new water. Stop and chat with a couple of whiskey drinking old timers about 1/4 mile down and decide to follow the river trail from there. Fishing along, my buddy sees his line! He crosses the river tenuously, grabs the end, and realizes that he is downstream from whatever the line is hung up on, so he gives it a tug. Turns out the line is hung up on his native steelhead, and with two jumps the fight is back on, this time without a rod. We managed to play and tire the fish - who seemed to have recovered fully from the first encounter - in about 10 minutes ur runs, jumps, pulling in line, giving some back, etc. We ended up another 200 yards downstream from where we started, but I eventually tailed her for him - a gorgeous 12lb hen, fly firmly implanted in her tongue.

LESSON 2: never give up.

[Cohodependent]

Great story!! Back in 1986 while stationed at Ft. Lewis I was fishing on the Nisqually River on base for Chum. My line got tangled with some line off the bottom. While attempting to pull the loose line out of the river I discovered that there was a fish on the other end. I ended up pulling in a very nice Chum by hand. There had to be at least 60-70 yards of the stuff. Some one must have lost darn near every thing on his reel. I learned that fishing line will cut your hands up really quick if you are not careful when there is an angry fish on the other end.

[Wannabe]

Good stories ... reminds me of a time a number of years ago when fishing the Necanicum I caught this steelhead on yarn. I was standing out in the river and didn't want to tire it out to much by wading to the bank and getting my yarn back so I just grabbed the leader and popped it so the fish swam off with a little orange and green on one side of his jaw. After rigging and talking with my friend I cast out again and hooked another fish and after bringing it in I noticed it was the same fish but now he had pink and green yarn on the other side of his head. This fish was tired so just took both of my glo bugs back. Never have done this with a steelhead before.
<)))><

[Robert]

I have hand lined in two fish. Once while fishing at Cascade Locks some guy was fishing for shad and got spooled by a steelhead. I somehow grabbed the line and got it close to the wall and my dad netted it. It was snagged so it went back. It really hurt my hands. I helped a lady land a sturgeon by hand to. She was fishing with her brother who had to much coffee. Her reel did not have level wind, and the line got tangled in the handle. Luckily I had some gloves and pulled it in. It pulled soem and I would give it some line to run and then pull some more. I think It was 41.5 inches.

[Drachir]

Back in the ol'days when we fished Trask tidewater for Fall Nooks. We used to keep small clip on bobbers at easy reach. It never failed we'd get a fish hung up in the puckerbrush, and could not get it out. So we cut our line, and tied a small loop at the end, to which we attached the clip on bobber. After a while the bobber would pop up in the middle of the hole. We would go out and retrieve it, tie on a quick blood knot, and tighten up on the fish, and the fight was back on!! This only worked a couple of times, but sure was cool to have the fish carry the bobbber thru the puckerbrush and out into open water. It has made for some good stories, and saved a couple of slow days on the Trask!! :wink:

[ 02-17-2002, 10:06 PM: Message edited by: Drachir ]

[wiser]

Somewhat related story.
Several years ago I was angling with several friends when I hooked a nice fish. I was drift fishing a corkie and sand shrimp. The fish played out as normal until near the end of the battle. As the fish got closer, I noticed the leader seemed longer than normal. At first I just figured my slinky had ridden up the main line. Then I saw my corkie was located about 4 feet away from the fish. I landed the fish which was legally hooked. However, I discovered my hook had neatly penetrated the upper eye of a small barrel swivel that was attached to the leader,corkie and hook that was in the mouth of the steelhead.

[Pilar]

Hey fishboy, faith in mankind restored!

Great story, you have pictures of course?

Never give up.

[Sean]

I'll post tomorrow if I can get them scanned.

[Navigator]

I had a similar experience on the San Juan River in New Mexico. The San Juan worm is a popular fly pattern and many locals tie it with a strip of colored leather instead of chenile. Anyway, this is nymph fishing at its most subtleness. If you even think your indicator pauses, you set. I did this and hooked (I thought) a nice rainbow. When the fish came in, I saw my fly was hooked in a strip of leather. The leather was from a San Juan worm imbedded in the trouts mouth. I still carry that unraveled San Juan worm fly on my vest.