Now, that was fun!
(click to view)

I just got back from the river. My heart is still pounding, just about as hard as it was when I left. I was so excited! My skunk is off!
I glanced out my upstairs window and declared the truth. I knew it, like the very few things I know as truth. The river was perfect for jig fishing! I had to go! Not later, not this afternoon, but, right NOW!
And fish, I did, by golly.
Oh, how nice to live here! I miss this! I miss having that feeling, and being able to play it out. Literally! I played those fish out!
I landed two out of four... maybe five strikes. Once, my bobber just hesitated a bit, and sure enough, the tip of sandshrimp I had carefully laced on my hook, was gone when I reeled in. Eaten? I think so!
Second cast, same as the first- same route down the river, my bobber very slowly was taken into the depths, and even though it looked to be a snag, it buried like it was a snag, I knew it wasn't. This was something with life to it. I set the hook, and fish on! You know, come to think of it, you can usually (Usually, I said!) tell what kind of fight you are going to get, by the hookset.
This was slow and gradual, and also, was the fight. I mean, he had a bit of spunk. It was the fish in the video, above. It just didn't have that whirl of silver, cartwheeling thru the air. The fish didn't make my heart pound. It made me giggle, instead. The fish had a bit of color. Aren't steelhead the only fish in the world, when they have color, even more beautiful?
As I age, I want to be like a steelhead! A slight blush on my cheeks, and a pretty pink stripe down my side! (Well, maybe not.)
Perhaps it was tired. I don't think they do run backs on the Kilchis, unless they just started. On some rivers, (the Nehalem used to, for sure) they'd take the clipped fish Who'd made it to the hatchery, transport them upriver a bit, and release them, giving the anglers another chance to hook up with them.
As I think about that, I sure miss Jim Erickson. Those were the days when we'd go for those run backs, together. Ah, Jim. You are in my heart!
Anyhow, slow hookset, slow fight? I'm not sure, but when I think back, I think so? Think about it, and let me know.
Sometimes, that bobber just sinks in a flash and you know you are in for some fun! I had one of those, today. I lost it. I wasn't sure if it was a late, bright salmon, or a humongous steelhead. I kinda think (hope) it was the latter, but I just don't know. It didn't do that slow, deep head shake like chinook normally do. It flew through the air, and danced on the top water. While doing the hoochie coochie, my line broke, above my jig. Gone, went the beautiful whatever-it-was. It was bright and beautiful, but you know, I've seen chrome chinook this time of year, in the Kilchis. So... Until someone catches it again, and I can get my jig back, a mystery it is.
Bye, bye, pretty pink jig.
Bye, bye, pretty big fish!
But, it's all fun. Never once was I upset. All the fish go back, anyhow! Well, that is, unless I'd have caught a stray hatchery fish.
Bill and I had steelhead the other night for dinner, and the next day, a beautiful salmon sandwich. That was so good, and I'd love to duplicate it again, later this week! The chances of catching a hatchery steelhead on the Kilchis this time of year is still pretty good, but from here on in, they decrease, as we get into the wild season. "The Wild Season". Doesn't that sound fun? February... The Wild Season. Yeah!
I'm still feeling pretty wild. I think I'm going back out. Yep. I am.
The cardiologists say that I am to take Toprol SL, which is a medication, a 'beta blocker' that slows down my heart beat. That, when I go salmon fishing, (or any big fish- fishing) I should take an extra one, just in case. The point of this, is to slow my heart beat down.
It was explained to me like this. The docs say that an average person has just 'so many' heart beats in an average life span. But, that marfan people, and especially those that have had a dissected aorta, have fewer. So, the fewer times my heart beats, the longer I live. I take Toprol to make sure I spend mine, wisely.
I am on a budget of heartbeats!
If I am going to be doing things that cause extra beats (I won't go into what other activities these might be...) Id' better enjoy them and spend them with care!
Fishing for me, is worthy of my allowance!

January 30, 2012

The grass is always greener.
I get home, here in Tillamook, and Bill is all eager to get me out fishing. "Out". Meaning, the Wilson, the Trask, somewhere!
"Wait a minute! We LIVE on a river! We are here! This is "out!""
Maybe he still lives full time on the Kilchis, but I no longer do!
I do remember the day, though, that daily, I also had that killing craving to get to those greener pastures. Even, if just across the river!
Remember this piece? "The fish are over there, therefore I am not." (October 21st, 2000.)
But, right now, my fishing is so spotty that the Kilchis river is perfect for me! Divine! Exciting! This IS the other side of the river from Oregon City!
Besides, the color is awesome and it's not raining, and Willie can't wait to get out there, either! If I were to get in a boat and drift, Willie wouldn't have near so much fun! This is going to be a feel good for everyone!
I just feel fishy! Confident! I've been dreaming about how to fish the Kilchis, all night long. (For nights on end, actually!)
I have two beautiful jig rods. Which one? I could drift. I haven't drift fished for ages. I want to feel the changes in the river bed, the bump, bump, bump of my lead, teaching me about the new ways of the current. It's like seeing an old friend, and catching up on everything they've been doing.
Jig fishing is so easy, but it's not the fish I'm after so much, but the full experience. That does it. I'm drift fishing, today. I have a beautiful drift fishing outfit with a divine Calcutta, that I used to joke about wearing on a necklace to church. I bet it's dusty, though! Not church wear, this morning!
I've got to get OUT there and quit talking about it so much! I'm off! I'm out! I think it's warm enough just to fish in my jammies! Will report, later!
LATER... Well. That was quite the disappointment. There is no green grass, anywhere!
3.17 inches of rain, yesterday, and mostly last night, changed my dream of a steelhead river to an overflowing, lack of promise!
Argh. See video, below:

...Continued bottom of

February
January!
Jennie's Fishing Life, Complete!
I love my life, and it's a pleasure to fish it.