Tales of fishing outings, all true!
*San Lorenzo River, 3/1/04 with Dougald Scott and Tim Loomis-
We headed down to the river in Felton around 6:45. There were 5 fishermen working our pool so we headed a little way down stream and fished the runs without any competition except each other. The river was in prime shape. High and just enough off color to give the fish cover. There were lots of fish and plenty of big ones. We fished Pink bubble gum night crawler imitation that Dougald tied and traditional steelhead patterns below a bobber(indicator). Dougald and I went fishless and Tim could constantly be heard yelling "fish on". One of his 4 or 5 hooked fish being an adult steelhead that broke him off. Later in the morning just before we left I spoke to one of the fellows that fished the pool. He said they hooked one fish and saw many, many fish but they just were not eating like they had been the past 3 weeks, which he likened to the "good old days." We stood for twenty minutes while eating a sandwich at the water's edge watching Tim fish and reflecting on the morning. And then we left. What a good morning it was. Harry Petrakis
*Day 2. Trinity River. January 25th to the 28th. The rest of the story-
Launching at Steel Bridge on the Trinity, Paul Schrader, Tim Loomis, Jim Livingston and I drifted in two boats leapfrogging our way down under gray skies that turned into full-blown snow. So much that the guide was experiencing difficulty rowing with the added weight of the snow. It turned out to be a beautifully serene day in a beautiful setting. On his third cast Jim hooked a fish and he had hooked three more before I hooked my first one. He was on fire hooking 7 fish for the day. At one run the guide anchored and we did the Fall River wiggle (shake line out of the rod tip as the current takes the indicator downstream). We hooked two fish with over 90 feet of fly line out plus two more from the same spot. Tim's boat hooked one nice fish, which Paul landed. Tim got the skunk but he won the most games of hearts so we couldn't rag on him as much as we wanted to. I learned this. Always fish new water with a guide if you can. Always use an indicator. Dead drift is not so important sometimes. Ticking the bottom with your fly is important almost all of the time especially in cold water. Put a lot of pressure on the fish and the odds of landing them go up substantially. Even a good natured guide gets ticked off if he has to retie your rig over a dozen times in a day and 20 times is really pushing it. Harry Petrakis