Well, I took a day off from fishing to rest my legs, and back, and hips, and brain. I drove yesterday down to the last place I fished on the Trinity River about 5 years ago. The riffle above leads into a glide on the far edge. There is a small pool formed between me and the far glide.
The good news: I lasted almost an hour moving through this area twice; and I hooked a couple of smolts (4 inch first year fish waiting to be pushed out to the estuaries and ocean). A couple of guide boats moved through and they were having a little success upstream but it sounded like they were in a lull for awhile.
As I was at the bottom of the run a 20+ inch fish porpoised 15 feet in front of me. The head, then shoulders, back, and tail came out of the water just to let me know that it was around. I think it was a small jack salmon as it was dark. I tried to swing a fly to it but no luck. Also, when I was downstream from the fish it would porpoise about every 3 to 5 minutes. When I moved above the fish…….it went quiet.
However, it was fun being in the water, swinging flies, and seeing a large fish “playing” and active in the spot I was fishing. I knew I was tired after getting out of the water and smartly didn’t try to fish anywhere else.
I had fun. It will be more fun when I finally run into a pod of Steelhead. Regardless, I’ll be out on the river again, soon.