Ever feel like a well equipped idiot? Well, that was me this evening. Found riverside park, and I think I found the Blair witch hole - satellite imagery available through the phone is pretty helpful, at least getting you to the hole.
So there I am. about 6pm. I've got salmon eggs (yes, store bought, can't cure eggs from fish you have yet to catch). I've got yarn of contrasting colors. I've got corkies. I've got spinners, wobblers, jigs, and plain old hooks. In my badass $500 patagonia waders, with all of my other kit. I am ready. Heck, I can even see fish breaking the surface of the hole - looked like they were going after the fly hatch.
So I rig up a bobber drift. 1 ounce of weight, salmon eggs set to drift about 30 inches below the bobber. I cast close to the edge of the pool, right where the water seams and swirls into the pool. I let the water take my eggs all the way around the pool before reeling in. five, maybe six more casts at about 10 feet from the shoreline. and then out a little further, and a little further, until I cam casting to the middle of the pool. I keep seeing a fish of indeterminate size breaking the surface, always on the other side of the pool from where my bobber is.
Maybe the don't want eggs. the water is pretty murky. Milky green. So I switch over to a sherbet combo of yarn (Orange, neon yellow and pink). No dice. Getting a little late, so I start heading back. Casting along the bank as I go, but of course, my bobber is set too deep. Starting to get frustrated. Switch over to a #3 Vibrax. snag on the first cast in an area right at the bend. Manage to get it out and nearly take my eye out with the backlash. Now it is starting to get really fun. End up flubbing my next cast and casting it onto the bank, into a bunch of bushes. line tangles around the bushes, spinner gets stuck under a rock. get it untangled, get is cast out into the current. It sinks and snags. I get it out and decide to boot scoot.
I get back over the trees to the little beach, right below the cement break waters. Load up my bobber combo and eggs. Cast just below the obstruction, about 20 feet from bank, and let it drift back towards me along the bank. 15 casts later I move my cast out a little further. 15 more I walk down the bank about 10 yards. and repeat. And decide to call it quits.
That pretty much sums up every single experience I have had thus far targeting steelhead.
Maybe next time.
