4-11-11

How do you spell WIND?  One knows it’s windy when the guide can’t seem to find a place quiet enough to keep the grill flaming.  Eventually, however, Dick, his guest Jerry, and I found a more sheltered location where, if I shielded the grill with the grill bag, I was able to prepare the meal.  At the end of the day, our faces were red with windburn, not sunburn, since nary a ray knifed its way through the clouds.

42 degrees, 3300 ft./sec. river flow—perfect for steelhead lovemaking.  Some of the easy fish, though, undoubtedly became cooler quarry over the weekend given the number of barren redds in evidence, but if one were to happen upon fish on gravel, action could be fast and furious.  We covered a good amount of river today, and while we didn’t hit the glory spot, we witnessed a couple of boats strike it rich.  We worked the runs below gravel mostly and though the guys hooked up on steelhead, our overall success was less than what we would have hoped for.  Nonetheless, the fish were there as Jerry’s buck attests.  Call it justice for some of the gang buster days the guys have enjoyed in the past.

Thanks guys for an most enjoyable day under less than ideal casting and line management conditions.  Hope we can do it again soon.

Captain Tom Kuieck