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Wednesday afternoon my husband JC, and I finally had
an opportunity to go fishing. The best time on Wednesday
was from about 10:00 am to noon, just before and at the
high tide. However, just because we 'work for ourselves'
it doesn't mean we can shuck off responsibility just because
there are fish to be caught. We had FAOL business to do,
and we didn't get out to the water until 2:00 pm. The car
had been loaded up in advance, so it was just a matter of
taking off for the creek.
A day or two before JC had laid out all the gear we needed,
tied up a few Castwell's Chum flies and even tied up a couple
long leaders. We had discussed which rods to take, and
decided on a brand new 8 wt. custom rod he had received,
and a rod (a Redington) which Marc Bale (Sage) had asked me to
try. That rod was one he had taken up the Dean River for
steelhead.
I was going to fish the new custom rod, and JC was set to
fish the Redington. We would probably switch off at some
point so we both knew what the rods could do. One of the
reasons he was going to fish the Redington was that it is
an 8wt., but 10 foot. A 10 foot rod is harder to stop
than a shorter, even 9 foot, rod and since I've only fished
one 10 foot rod some time ago, I was more comfortable with
the idea of fishing the 9 footer too.
There are times when I just function out of habit, and
to be honest once we were on the creek I just started
casting in the direction of whatever fish we could spot.
I don't believe I gave any particular thought to the rod,
just that the leader seemed a bit long and didn't function
quite as it should. But other than that, I was able to
make nice long casts without much effort at all.
We don't always fish side-by-side, and in this case we
weren't. But eventually we met up again and I mentioned
the leader problem. He asked me to hand him the rod and
he would fix the leader as he had already adjusted his.
I did. Up until that point I really wasn't conscious of
which rod I had, just that it cast very smoothly, was very
well balanced and not much work at all.
As I was telling JC all this, he just smiled and said,
"You know you've been fishing the Redington, don't you?"
Well, I didn't.
I must say I was - and am - rather pleased with myself.
Here's an old bat throwing an 8 wt., 10 foot rod like
there was nothing to it. And to be honest, it really
was easy. Not necessarily a term I'd usually use to
describe a rod, but it fits.
This is not a product review - but in case you are
looking for a dandy 8 wt, 10 foot rod, it is the
Redington CPS, 4 piece, retail price $279.00. And yes,
it is outfitted for saltwater use. It indeed was a
happy mistake.
I did get to fish the custom rod for a while, and gladly
switched back to the Redington. No offense to the custom
rod, I just got along better with the Redington.
There were not a lot of fish, but enough to catch some. I
saw three fish caught while we were there, one by a fly
fisher who had waded a long way out into the esturary, one
by Don Brooks from Lacy who was up here fishing with his
friend Rance, and the one I caught. Rance did have one on,
but it came unbuttoned before he could land it. There were
only 14 anglers there on Wednesday afternoon, and the greatest
share were fly fishers. It was really nice to see that many
fly fishers, and every one of them did a very nice job of
casting. Lovely to see.
Here's a little record JC took of mine. It was a nice male,
about 12 pounds, quickly landed and gently released to make
more chum salmon.
I had a phone discussion with a couple of friends, and we
may not have a big run this year. We call it the year of
the Orca. In 1997 at the height of the Chum salmon run,
a pod of Orca whales, (also called Killer Whales) followed
the salmon into the bay, and almost came up to shore at the
creek. As I recall there were about 20 whales in the pod,
and they ate horrendous numbers of the salmon. As a result,
there were far less salmon to spawn, in turn less salmon
returning four years later. This years run is the result
of the fish that successfully spawned from the very small
group which were available four years ago.
We may have the best of what there is now. Being a
fisherman, and an eternal optimist I hope our logic is
totally wrong.
Regardless, we should have fish next week, and we plan on
getting out to the creek again toward the beginning of the
week. We'll check the tide charts, but by then the high
tide should be mid-to late afternoon. The best of both
worlds.
I will post a Fishing Report on the Bulletin Board to let
anyone in the region know what's happening. ~ DLB
If you would like to comment on this or any other article please feel free to
post your views on the FAOL Bulletin Board!
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