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TR: Rainbow's End (long)



 
 
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  #1  
Old October 9th, 2003, 05:57 AM
Todd Enders
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Default TR: Rainbow's End (long)


With the forecast calling for a cooling trend shortly,
along with wind and possibly cold rains, I decided that this
week's probing trip to Velva Sportsman's Dam would have to
be by Thursday, at the latest.

Found out yesterday that I'd have to cover for another
person this afternoon and tomorrow, plus the boss had
scheduled an in-service for Friday afternoon. :-( Certainly
interferes with one's priorities... That left this morning
as the only possible slot for this week's expedition, so
I requested the morning off, and got my equipment ready.

Since I'd not seen any great numbers of rising fish
last time out, and given the success I had with a heavy
scud on bass, I took the floating line off the 7 wt. reel,
and replaced it with a type II full-sink line so I could
dredge deep with streamers, leeches, buggers, etc. If it
was calm, and fish were rising, I could always break out
the 4 wt. and make do, or if the wind was up, I could
respool the floating line on the 7 wt.

The first cool front was supposed to arrive around
noon or so, and I had hope that the pre-front conditions
would have fish active. Bugged out about 7:30AM, stopped
to grab a soda along the way, and arrived at the dam a bit
after 8:00AM.

Had an absolutely bluebird morning, plenty of sun, very
light breeze out of the SSW, and the air was warming.
Checking the water revealed some midges coming off, but even
in the flat calm spots there were no fish to be seen.
Decided to start off with a small streamer, strung up, and
headed down to the bank.

Did the run and gun thing down the bank, starting from
my favourite spot on the NW corner and working south. The
results were negative -- not even a nip. Worked the streamer
a bit from the end of where they removed the cattails, as
there was a shallow point there, that dropped off steeply.
This seemed to be an area that it might be fruitful to pound
hard. Caught weeds, and that was it. Switched to the bead
bodied scud that had worked so well on bass last week, but
that didn't do anything for the fish either. Was closing in
on an hour of fishing. Decided to push on south, toward the
inlet, and work what I could.

Just south of the small bay on the west end, the bottom
drops sharply into deep water. Further on, it's a good bit
shallower, plus has submerged wood. Figured I'd pound the
dropoff, and then work the wood for bass if I didn't have
any other luck. Things were not going according to plan. :-/
No fish were contacted in either case.

Did note a *lot* of bug life in this stretch, up shallow.
Black midge larvae were all over the bottom in copious
quantity. I would estimate densities at 100/sq. ft. I was
amazed at the productivity. :-) Many other swimming bugs were
seen as well (backswimmers and little whirly-gig bugs). The
terrestrial side didn't lack for bugs either, as I was being
pestered by both yellow jackets and bees in this stretch.
Given that it'd got down to about 40F in the area, I was not
expecting them to be quite so active, and certainly didn't
expect them to pester me like they did.

Once I got up to the wood, that marked the end of
the deep water. Everything from that point to the inlet
is probably a foot or two maximum depth. Very weedy,
especially along the shoreline. Not a place I'd like to
fish with sinking line, but a reconoiter was in order to
where the inlet comes in, to see if I could locate any
browns along the flats.

Scrambled up and out of the bankside area, which
necessitated a rest stop when I cleared the rim. It's
a good 50' up from the water, at a 45+ degree angle,
through tall, rather slippery grass and low brush, rose
bushes, hawthorns, etc. Woof. :-)

I walked along the rim to the inlet area. There's a
small creek that runs in, plus some springs. *Lots* of
cattails and marshy ground. I could hear the flowing water,
but couldn't see it due to the high weeds everywhere, even
from above. A few minutes of observation from above
revealed no obvious fish activity.

Made the half mile or so walk back to the car to
figure out plan "B". Walked along the rim of the
steep southern part of the lake, back to the area of
the small bay. Stopped to take in the view. Geese were
winging overhead, and a comorant was taking off from
the water up by the dam. Had spooked several ducks and
a crane from the water when I first arrived. Sun was
shining, the water like glass. A good day to be alive,
fish or no. :-)

Then, at the NE corner of the water, I saw a *large*
fish leap clear of the water by more than a body length.
It wasn't no bass! Looked to be a salmonid, but since
it was in a still shaded area, a good hundred yards off,
I couldn't tell what sort of salmonid it was. All I could
see was that it was big -- 20" plus. Also saw some
sporadic rises along the NW end. Hmmm...

Once I got back to the car, I looked at the fly box,
and the old axiom came ringing in -- "when in doubt, try
a wooly bugger.". Well, I was *certainly* in doubt, so I
pulled an olive and grizzly bugger out and tied it on.
Looked at the water, and 20 yards away, I saw that big
fish leap clear of the water again. It looked like a
rainbow! :-) Checked the time, and it was 10:00AM. I
needed to get out of there by about 11:45, so I decided
I'd fish more or less systematically with the bugger down
the NW side to the end of the cleared area. If I didn't
catch anything, or at least get a nip, I'd pack it in.
Walked back down to the water at the NW corner and
started casting.

Several casts from that spot were stripped in, and
naught but weeds to show. Thought I'd try one more cast
before I moved down the bank.

Made a nice cast, and slowly stripped the bugger
back. About halfway into the retrieve, the bugger got
slammed. :-) Felt the pull of a good fish, and the
fight was on. Had to give line, and almost had to put
the fish on the reel. I get the fish worked back in
to within 30', and I see its side flash as it rolls.
Damn, it looks like a trout! :-)

I keep working the fish toward the surface, and when
it gets near the top of the water, it takes off again.
Not only that, but it makes a cartwheeling jump. As the
fish clears the water, I see that it's a *nice* rainbow!
This is *too* cool! :-)

Finally bring the leaper to hand, and it's a 16"
football of a rainbow. :-) Fat and still pretty sassy.
I had 3X tippet on, so there wasn't much danger of busting
it off, and it appeared to be well hooked, so I played it
in pretty quickly.

The night before, I *thought* I'd put the digital
camera in the car, and since I was close, and this was
easily the biggest rainbow I've caught at the dam, I
went to dig the camera out and take a picture. Didn't
want to leave the fish out too long. Flipped the seat
up and reached back for where I thought I'd put the
camera. What the f... *Damn it*, *damn it*, *damn it*!!!
The camera wasn't in the car. :-(

God, I *hate* it when that happens! :-( So, I took
the fish back to the water and gave it a good look over
while I revived it. The fish had a nasty scar behind the
head. Looked like a heron or something had tried to get
it once upon a time. Given the size, it was obvious that
it'd made it through a winter or two. A true survivour!
Very pretty too, with nice reddish-purple patches on the
gill plates. While not a true monster, the fact that it
was something of a grizzled veteran of the piscatorial
world made it a trophy nonetheless. :-)

The fish revived nicely and swam off, burrying itself
straight into the weeds. Well, it looks like dragging the
bottom was the right idea. :-)

Picked up where I'd left off, a couple yards down the
bank. After about 10 casts, I had another fish on, but
played it too hard and it LDR'd itself. I did get it in
close enough to see it flash a side at me, and it looked
like another decent (but smaller) rainbow. Looks like some
of the trout made it through the draining and renovation
as well. :-) Wondered how many...

Worked down the bank, and went fishless for a good
20 minutes, but then hooked up again. This time, it was
a 6" bass, that spat the hook as it was being skated to
hand for release. 3-4 more casts from that spot had me
hooked up again, and it felt like another trout. This
one wanted to run deep, but the argument was settled in
short order, and a fat 14" rainbow came to hand.

Wow, the fish gods were more than smiling on me! :-)
I don't know how it could have got much better. :-)

Worked down to the end of my predetermined run, and
worked along that point again. Hooked plenty of weeds,
and wondered if my luck had run out. Got tagged by
another fish, but it was off almost as fast as it was
on. Hmmm... Maybe I'll work this spot a while longer.

Kept casting, with no more success. Had seen another
14" rainbow come down the bank, about 6' from shore, and
suck emergers before settling back on the bottom. Dragged
the bugger past it a couple times, but it was disinterested.
Was getting ready to go back to the car, but I *had* to
make a couple more casts. :-) That's when I see movement
in the water out of the corner of my eye. I stopped
stripping and slowly turned my head toware the movement.
Oh, my *GOD*! Moving toward me at a fair clip is a
*monster* trout. I watch for several breathless
moments as the fish comes within a rod length of where
I was standing, turned the corner and started to head
out into deep water along that little point. The fish
was *easily* 28", and looked like a freakin' submarine!
As it got close, I saw the big spots on the sides -- a
brown! :-)

I'd not spooked it, and it was now going straight
away from my position. I was going to try and drop the
bugger in front of the fish and strip it past him to
see if I'd get a reaction. Watched the fish slowly move
away as I stripped the previous cast in as fast as I
dared. Had the line coiled in my hand. Picked up and
made dead aim as I started to work line out. @##$%@#$%@!!!
No, the fish didn't spook. The line decided to bird's
nest in my hand. *No* way was I going to drop a fly
in the water on *that* big a fish with a guide-plugging
mess in my hand. Hell, I didn't even think I had enough
free line to reach the target. I re-routed the line
in the air to drop it where I wouldn't spook the fish,
and watched it fade into the depths. :-(

It *was* mighty nice of Mr. Monster Brown to show
himself to me, though! :-) I know he's still there.
This one is the biggest one I've seen at the dam, and
he was scary big (this from a guy that has routinely
seen 20-24" browns in the same water. Indeed, my
20.5" brown came from very near this spot.). So, yeah,
I've seen big browns. This sumbitch was *more* than big. :-)

We'll meet again, my friend... :-) I picked the
bird's nest apart, and checked the time. Getting close
to 11:30. Time to work my way back to the car.

Fished my way back to where I started, but didn't
get anything to take. Checked time again. Ay, ay, ay!
I'm already late to leave. Oh hell, I'm going to make
*one* more cast...

Made the cast, let the line sink, and started a slow
strip. About 5 strips, and *wham*, I've got a fish on! :-)
Feels good, too! :-) I see the silver flash of a rainbow
on the line, and although it looks like maybe a 14" or
thereabout fish, it's got a *lot* of fight, and I don't
have a lot of free line to play with. Stripped him in
a ways, but he wanted to run, and I didn't want to pull
the hook. Got *real* close to putting him on the reel,
but then he turned and started diagonally toward shallow
water, and I was able to gain line back on him again.

Played him in, and landed him nicely, with the bugger
stuck firmly in the corner of his mouth. Gauged him
against the rod handle, and he was an honest 14" fish.
Slid him back in the water after I got the fly out, and
he was soon off. This one too shot immediately to the
nearest weeds, and with effort burried himself therein.
Interesting... :-)

Looked at the clock, and it was noon. I've got a
half hour drive ahead of me to make it home for a quick
lunch and be back to work by 1:00PM. Stowed my gear,
took one last look at the water, the fall colours, and
the general fineness of the day and wondered how I could
have done any better. Hooked five nice rainbows, and
landed three, including the 16" football. The tiddler
bass provided comic relief, and that monster brown gave
thrills and suspense, even though I never got a cast
off at him. *Why* did I have to go back to work? :-)

Todd (remove hook to reply)
  #2  
Old October 9th, 2003, 01:34 PM
Roger Ohlund
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Posts: n/a
Default Rainbow's End (long)


"Todd Enders" wrote in message
...

snip
The tiddler
bass provided comic relief, and that monster brown gave
thrills and suspense, even though I never got a cast
off at him. *Why* did I have to go back to work? :-)


Long, yes! But very entertaining !

Thanks Todd.

/Roger


  #3  
Old October 9th, 2003, 02:12 PM
Bill Mason
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Posts: n/a
Default Rainbow's End (long)


"Todd Enders" wrote in message
...

snip

Looked at the clock, and it was noon. I've got a
half hour drive ahead of me to make it home for a quick
lunch and be back to work by 1:00PM...
...*Why* did I have to go back to work? :-)



Reading this TR, I was pretty sure that you were not going to make it in to
work. I almost had a new hero! Nice report though.

Cheers,
Bill


  #4  
Old October 9th, 2003, 06:51 PM
Todd Enders
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Posts: n/a
Default Rainbow's End (long)

In Bill Mason wrote:

Reading this TR, I was pretty sure that you were not going to make
it in to work. I almost had a new hero! Nice report though.

Sorry to disappoint, Bill. :-) If there were any money
in being a trout/fishing bum, I'd have made a career of it
long ago. :-) Trust me, if there were *any* way I could have
got out of going back to work that afternoon, I'd have stayed,
but short of ending up in hospital, I was expected to be there
to cover for the other person. Of course, I *could* have
stayed anyway, and assured my elevation to trout bum status,
until they repossessed the car, foreclosed on the mortgage,
and all that rot... :-) But then, I'd be hard-pressed to
afford new rods, reels, flylines, etc, plus I'd be forced
to walk/hitchhike to fishing spots. No fun in that! :-)

Todd (remove hook to reply)
 




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