What's Catching You Fish?

clarkman said:
Oddly enough, I'll often see people literally camp out at this spot all day.

I don't know how people can do that....I'm a mover who doesn't like to grow roots. Lol.
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Mostly I meant spending the day along the river…. but this can be fun, too 😎IMG_8088.jpeg
 
Buzzy said:
I hiked a bit over three miles Wednesday (after shoveling WET snow) and got SKUNKED. This morning I hiked in after my friend Rod (he's the early bird kind of angler) to one our favorite lakes. It's an easy hike in as it is all downhill. Rod was already on the water fishing by the time I got lakeside. It was 29F and raining. My hands were already cold and stiff. As I got my float tube ready and my fins on I saw Rod lift his rod and set on fish. He was a couple hundred yards down the lake from me but the bend in his rod was an indicator of the fishes size.

I had rebuilt my long leader the night before, I was rigged with my Seeger-Cator™ and a Seeger Perch Jig on one rod and a dragonfly nymph on my type-7. I kicked down the lake fishing the jig and didn't have any luck; I switched to the full sinker and didn't have any luck. I heard Rod chuckle and turned to see him fighting a trout so I kicked hard to see his fish:

View attachment 133726

Rod and I were a bit taken with this oddly shaped FAT trout.

I changed flies on the full sink and knotted on an egg suckin' leech as that's what Rod had caught the fatty with. It got no love. I heard Rod chuckle again and noticed he'd switched rods and was fishing a floating line. I asked him "Bloodworm?" (he's known to some of us as Mr. Bloodworm) and he said yes. I clipped off my Seeger Perch Jig and knotted on a Fred Lake Bloodworm, set the Seeger-Cator™ at 5' (on a 20' leader? DA!). Lobbed the think out and a few minutes later down the indicator went.

View attachment 133729

I changed up again to a red jig and caught two more fish before I was so cold I had to take a shore break.

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Here's what was catching fish

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I quit at noon. It was sprinkling, it was cold, my feet were numb, my hands were numb. We hiked out, back at our trucks we shared coffee from my thermos.
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You're tougher than I am Pat.
That cold weather and water in a float tube is out of my range.👍
Nice job on the catching.
 
clarkman said:
Too long! It's a little over 2 hrs each way. It seemed kinda silly to leave at 12:30 like I did yesterday....but I had caught my fill and wanted to catch a little NFL.
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Too long....Ha!...but I get it.

I often find inspiration somewhere on the forum and lately I'd been thinking I needed to come up with something to get excited about again....like maybe expanding my fishing boundaries.

Seeing whatever river you're fishing got me thinking of what might be a new adventure, a reasonable day distance for me....sort of kick my fishing Eeyore in the butt

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thanks for that (y)
 
M_D said:
Too long....Ha!...but I get it.

I often find inspiration somewhere on the forum and lately I'd been thinking I needed to come up with something to get excited about again....like maybe expanding my fishing boundaries.

Seeing whatever river you're fishing got me thinking of what might be a new adventure, a reasonable day distance for me....sort of kick my fishing Eeyore in the butt

View attachment 134566

thanks for that (y)
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It's unfortunately the reality of Winter fishing in the Portland Metro Area. Well, if you want to catch fish that is. If you don't need to catch fish, you could always go steelheading.

I for one, like the quiet reflection of a long drive (I have a very loud, very active 6 year old, so some extra peace and quiet is welcome).
 
mcswny said:
It's unfortunately the reality of Winter fishing in the Portland Metro Area. Well, if you want to catch fish that is. If you don't need to catch fish, you could always go steelheading.

I for one, like the quiet reflection of a long drive (I have a very loud, very active 6 year old, so some extra peace and quiet is welcome).
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I relate to this. I do often wish the drive home were shorter, though I’m not sure why, because it seems like 70-80% of the time I arrive home to some version of what feels like a 6 year old and 8 year old driven shitshow and I have to mentally switch back to that mode. It can be a little jarring at times, the contrast.
 
After Clarkman’s weekend report I decided an adventure was in order so I (wrongly) convinced myself I was over the crud 🤧, grabbed the dog and headed for the hills before the next bout of rain blows in.

Fished two areas

Got no love here…

IMG_8102.jpeg


but this little guy

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got this little guy

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here

IMG_8109.jpeg

yay!

Now it’s time for a dark beer and a hot shower before the pnuemonia sets in 🥶
 
Found a handful of long torpedos spread out in a crystal clear glide, refusing to budge for #20 BWO's on 6x, so went to 7x and broke off on three nice fish over the next hour, just too much tip on a 5 wt. Waiting on a new 4 wt to arrive, going to give my 3 wt Shadow 2 with DT line a go next week, think it might be just the ticket for gossamer leaders.
 
The muddlers I posted didn't do squat, I don't know if it was the flies, or just cold. I found the fish by going slow and deep with a nymph and jiggy craw combo.
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The little sz. 14 lt. hares ear has become a reliable cold weather patten. I've caught this one before.
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And I was glad to have the Battenkill II disk I just got from @Aleforme for this jiggy craw eater. It has a really smooth drag and a nice sound, great reel. This one thought it was a steelhead, just acting really annoyed and pulling hard until it saw me, then it made an angry b-line down and across to the other side of the stream. Got it back up and thought I could get it's head up, just to have it dive down deep in the middle and bulldog me before finally surrendering.
20241209_jiggycrawfsh.jpg
 
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Tom Butler said:
The muddlers I posted didn't do squat, I don't know if it was the flies, or just cold. I found the fish by going slow and deep with a nymph and jiggy craw combo.
View attachment 135303
The little sz. 14 lt. hares ear has become a reliable cold weather patten. I've caught this one before.
View attachment 135304
And I was glad to have the Battenkill II disk I just got from @Aleforme for this jiggy craw eater. It's has a really smooth drag and a nice sound, great reel. This one thought it was a steelhead, just acting really annoyed and pulling hard until it saw me, then it made an angry b-line down and across to the other side of the stream. Got it back up and thought I could get it's head up, just to have it dive down deep in the middle and bulldoging me before surrendering.
View attachment 135307
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2nd fish appears clipped? So maybe some cause for it to act like a steelhead, even if it seems to have never left the river.
 
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