I fished Sat. and Sun till about noon both days. It was 32 on sat 27 on sun. The water was off color and moving slow. There are fish in the system but not huge numbers. Sat I hooked a nice fish. I got one look at him and he was close to 30 inches. Very strong fish, any way I got him on my reel and everyhing was going great untill my reel froze up and he made a hard run and busted off. I was not happy. I saw some very large salmon 20- 40lbs. It was my first time fishing in the midst of spent fish. They were like zombies out there. I soon left to get my reel checked out. Got a new one at the Chico fly shop. I gave it another shot on sunday. I got a hit so hard that it ripped my finger from my line and almost pulled my rod out of my hand(no kidding) He also took my fly on the hit. My 3x was no match. I fought another fish later that also busted me off. I only saw one fish landed. The fly of choice was the alvin pattern #14-#16. Tight lines
Steelhead hit so hard (especially on the swing) that I'm not surprised that you almost lost your grip on your rod. Those fish can be brutal on the gear as you found out.
I fished Sunday morning in the wildlife area below Thermalito for zero. No frozen reel for me- just fingers. What water there was looked good and I had the river (island) to myself which was nice. A couple of DGF guys floated by doing an angler survey. No fish were reported to them for the 1/2 dozen guys encountered from the outflow to my spot. Guess I should have started above the 70 bridge. Question- were you swinging your flies? Thanks.
I was swinging flys when I got that monster grab, Although I hooked my fish when I was nymphing. Good job MX were you using Alvins too? Vaughn I also ran into the DFG floating by.
A quick thought . . . what is your guys' opinion on beads?? Personally, I swear by them when fishing an egg bite. However, some people call them "unethical". I do not see the technical difference between a fly made to represent an egg, or a bead made to represent an egg. Basically, it's the same in the long run to me. What do you guys think?
I think the difference is if the bead is pegged a few inches above the hook, I feel that's a little unethical. If it's a bead on a hook then no problem. Is a pegged bead even legal to fish in CA?
I don't fish them simply because I find it more satisfying to fool a trout with a "fly". But I don't consider them unethical, pegged or not. I did read something once that said a pegged bead is actually better because the trout will never swallow it and will always be hooked on the outside of the mouth, Maybe some truth to that. Since I have had trout swallow a globug I'm sure they would swallow a bead too.
I have caught thousands of fish on beads and have not had a fish swallow the hook yet.I have foul hooked fish with a bead set up ,but then I have done the same with flies. Because they are hard plastic a fish will take the bead and feel its fake and spit it out.you Just have to be fast on the set.What Iam not a big fan of are the jelly eggs that people put scent oil all over .those get swallowed ....
I agree. Using beads, microspawns, glo-eggs, yarn, chenille, feathers, etc...In my opinion, these egg patterns are almost all the same. Even better if you are using just a fly rod, fly line, and no scent.
