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It really is, it was a silly thing for me to do, but what
the heck, I figured I could do it, so I did it. Some time
ago I put a bit of this on the bulletin board, but here is
the 'rest of the story.' There is a small creek which runs
into the salt water (Seattle, WA area) near us and in late
fall it gets a heck of a run of native chum (15 to 20 lb)
salmon. Lots of them, enough so there is a surplus and they
can be fished with fly and spin, limit is two fish a day.
It's not legal to fish in the stream (they are there to spawn
of course), but you can stand in the estuary (just at the mouth,
but not in it) where they must pass to get upstream. Sometimes
it is combat fishing, but can be fun as the chum are great
fighters and with a tail like 'Red October' they can
'de-flyline' a guy in a heartbeat. My kind of fun for sure.
Well, I got spoiled (bored actually). I had the game down pat
and it was not uncommon to have 20 to 40 fish days when things
went right. So I took out my 'Broom-Fly-Rod.' Now, this thing
was never intended to be fished. It's a tool used to help
teach the double-haul. It will not load, and with it,
"if ya ain't double-haulin,' ya ain't castin." It has a
nine dollar reel and a twelve weight floating (weight-forward
of course) line. In truth, it is a hoot to cast though and
gets a lot of attention at some gatherings we attend.
So, with a fly and stout leader (OX I think) attached, we
tread the short path to the streams mouth and joined the
picket line of fly-flingers and spinning-slingers. Not all
of these guys have their act together (meaning, not all of
them have 20 to 40 fish days yet, a fact I had not taken
into consideration) Within a few minutes of 'broom-casting'
a bit off attention had fallen my way, not all of it the most
complimentary either, some were suggestions of what I could
do with the device rather than fish with it. These were
summarily ignored and I proceeded to get down to business.
My wife had been previously instructed on the use of the
little point-and-shoot camera.
Again, forgetting that many there had been flailing about
all day with no success at all, I was soon into a nice salmon.
The reel is a single action, (no drag, no rim, no nothing)
in fact it sticks a bit because it is somewhat bent. Anyhow,
the fight was on so to speak. It's shallow at the estuary
and often the play occurs in a foot to eighteen inches of
water. Small rocks and a few oyster shells on the bottom
and some mud. Good conditions to play a fish.
As often happens, a fish will opt for the open (deeper)
water when hooked and while de-spooling your winch will
spray your glasses with water in the process, these baby's
move. My reel sounded like a thrashing machine and I did
fear it may self-destruct, but it did not. It held on and
so did I. Now, playing a fish on a long rod is one thing,
but, a broom-rod adds another dimension altogether. It my
have been just as easy to play the fish on the reel only
for all the good the broom did.
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