The weather this past week has been much needed for the coastal rivers to bring the fish upstream. With the water levels reading about 6.2 ft on Friday evening and falling, Saturday would be on the high to good side for the Nestucca. I put the call into my fishing partner for the day and the plan was set, head out at 8am, put in at 10am and fish 1st bridge to Farmers Creek.
The plan was in motion and we set the truck up for the shuttle service and went to 1st bridge to put in, as we were twisting and turning up the river road we had counted 8 boats that were already on the water. At the launch there were 3 more just sitting there and another 2 behind us right after we put in. I had never fished with so many boats on the water at once, but we not there for what was on top of the water but rather below it, that is Fish, mainly steelhead.
The guy I was fishing with was on a gear setup, so I can’t tell you a whole lot about what he was using just that I know it was not bait, looked like corky’s. I was setup with my bug with legs then an egg pattern as the dropper fly. After getting pressured into leaving the first spot by an upcoming boat we slid into what I believed to be good water, it turned out to be good water for my first fish of the day, a 10 inch rainbow. After another hour of playing frogger with other boats we anchored up right above a rock field with a few seams running parallel to each other. My partner was busy changing his set up for the 5th time on the day, I believe he is under the impression if something doesn’t bite it must be the type of setup not that there just might not be fish. I fished the closest seam first, carefully making sure I was covering every inch of that water. Nothing, no hits, no snags, no anything. Moved on to the second and further out seam, same thing making sure I left no water untouched, WHAM! Second fish hits, this one took the egg pattern again. It struck with vigor, but I quickly realized it was no steelhead. Turned out to be a nice 14 inch rainbow which was kind enough to regurgitate its breakfast for us in the net. It looked like it had been feeding on all the bait fisherman’s leftovers and a few leeches. My partner still at this point has not had a fish, let alone a bite.
We push on weaving in and out of boats to hit the last few spots before the take out. A float down a nice narrow rapid lead to a wider section with a gorgeous looking tail out. I tell myself this has to be the spot; this is the last place I can remember that has decent looking water before the take out. Like the generous host I am I let my friend fish the spot first and simply watch. After seeing no action after ample time for him to get a bite I decide to go for it. Fist cast, no fish. Second cast, no fish. Third cast, no fish. What is going on? This is the spot it has to be, then after too many casts to county it happens. The fish I had been waiting for, it took that egg fly and ran. It made a good initial run downstream and then came barreling up towards the boat. I am trying to reel and keep up with it, when it happens. It all happened in slow motion, the fish rose to the surface showed it’s shiny 25 inch body then poof, spit the fly right at me and it was gone. The hit the run and the rise to the top are what we live for, the spitting of the fly that is just to keep us laughing at life. Once we got over what had just happened we made our final spot picking up one more rainbow to end the day with 3 rainbows landed and one resistant steelhead hooked.
The key to the day was hitting the seams with walking pace water and using any kind of egg pattern. There is still so much to learn about this river.
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