Day 33: Fish For Me. Fish For You. Fish For Everyone. No Pics of My Fish Though.

I slept in, staying at the Fred Meyer parking lot, for free. I had a Roast Beef sandwich from Fred Meyer for brunch. I headed out to Centennial Park again, around 3:00. So, getting in the water to fish means waiting your turn until a “group” leaves a spot, or one of your buddies takes a break. Groups of 3 or 4 get in, and then just rotate through until they are done. If they are trying to limit out, they can be there for a long while, as the limit is 6 fish per person.

Well, I became “one of the group” with the two older brothers from Maine. I got into the water quickly as one of the brothers had his line broken. I lasted 15 minutes until back spasms made me leave. I did 4 minutes of stretching, and when I got back into the water I lasted 50 minutes. I got in for 15 – 30 minutes twice again later in the evening.

My plan, starting tomorrow, is to come later in the evening as more spaces come available. However, this was the weekend and perhaps all the evening local after work fishermen didn’t fish today. I’ll find out tomorrow.

My first hookup was a fish that immediately came out of the water and spit my hook. My second fish was foul hooked in the tail and headed downstream. Eighty feet of fly line and 75 yards of backing were gone in seconds. I burned two fingers getting the line to stop and to pop the fish off. The fish was 8 to 10 people below me when it got off. Most fish are handled with only 1 or 2 people possibly interacting with the fish.

My friend from Maine fished hard for 4 hours. I was amazed. I was in the perfect spot that produced the most fish the night before. After 50 minutes I had to give up, and a guy, one of 3, entered my spot. He hooked 13 fish and landed 8 in the next hour. Nobody else was getting more than 1 or 2 at most, but this guy killed it. I was amazed and his father told me that he was like that since a toddler. In fact, the family would send him out to the water first, and if he didn’t get anything, they would move.

And, these were the nicest guys ever. The were using fly rods with pure 25 pound monofilament on the reel. I noticed that they were easier to “cast” and drift without the floating fly line attached that I had. The family showed me their exact setup and I made them shake my hand to thank them when they left. I need to start taking photos, after asking of course, to record for posterity.

I ended up fishing next to a woman and her husband. There were getting tons of hookups, sometimes 3 in 3 casts. However, most of their hook ups were foul hooked. They were using sink tip lines, with two large bb shot at the end of the sink tip, followed by a leader / fly. I think I’m going to rig up like the family of 3 (Father and 2 Sons) who owned the river today.

Above is a larger view from the opening picture. The young man in Yellow is the one who hooked 13 fish in an hour after I gave him my spot. His father had about half a dozen, and the arm coming in from the left is the second brother, telling the master-fisherman-brother to go away LOL. The second brother also hooked about 6. I rushed in after them: for nothing hooked the rest of the night.

Sleeping in Fred Meyer tonight. Going to recycling and the local hardware store tomorrow to make a rig just as the Master Fisherman Brother used (All three had the same rigging). Tomorrow, I actually will try to get a picture of a fish caught by my line.

Tight Lines!