4-22-04 - It's really starting to look and feel like spring...heck the 37F air temp felt like 50F!

Bringin' in a nice steelie!

So I'm not sure if this one is a drop-back or fresh...the color says fresh but the hollow belly suggests a drop-back. In either case likely a Ganaraska (it's the season for them). She had the adipose clip and perhaps the left ventral was clipped; really hard to tell.

4-22-04 - Sleepin' through alarms...

Waters Fished: Root River
Fish Caught: 1/1
Outing Date: 4-22-04
Weather: Sunny early
Air Temp: in the 30's
Water Temp: 54F (replaced the thermometer)
Water Level: 250 CFS
Water Color: muddy, less than 6" visibility
Fish Species: Steelhead
Pattern Fished: Eggs / small yarn flies
Pattern Color: Pink Egg & Dull Surprise(nymph)
Fishing Quality: hard to judge

The Root was due to be on the rise following a fair ammount of rain; I was supposed to meet up with Ken at 5:30 or so at the Weir, but as usual I slept through 2 alarms for about an hour, ended up leaving my house around 6:00 AM instead. Got to Lincoln at 6:50 and started getting ready; only two other guys on the river. Turns out Ken had been there at like 5:00 and left!

I spent just a bit of time in the first riffle downstream of the wier, saw one "fish" jump - could've been steel or sucker. But knowing that this is NOT FAT's ideal location, I bumped down to a spot we should call FAT HOLE (i.e. the second riffle-bend into a hole downstream of the wier, upstream of the footbridge). Another angler stopped me along the way; he had been out the day before but didn't get anything.

Well, got to FATHOLE and started drifting; ended up requiring 4#10's and 1 #6 clamshot to get down to the appropriate depth. Water was very murky, 6", so I had been fishing with a large, salmon-sized fuchia egg as the dropper and had on a #10 "Dull Surprise" nymph, just in case. I fished from shore, having skipped the waders to save time. On the opposite side another angler was working a chartreuse bugger or ESL...looked like he was dangling it straight downstream, perhaps he had sighted a buck or something.

Well about 7:45 it happend, as I was retrieving my line it stopped and then pulled...FISH ON. It fought more like a brown, many head shakes, but on the first half-hearted jump/rool/thrash I could see it was STEEL!

Got it in and tailed it, couple quick picks and released for you guys to go catch..nice chrome and yet looks like post-spawn hen, probably 6 lbs. What a way to "break in" my Kilwell, which I just got back from Justin on Tuesday (finally sent it back after breaking it last fall on the Brule with REDHAT and B)!

So I left early (about 8:10 AM) after landing a sucker, thought maybe I'd head to the Pike (but I didn't)...water temps on the Root were a balmy 54F!

There are still fish in the River!

  MP