)After that, spinning rod came out and I went through every artificial I had until all that was left was crawlers. I put on a little bit of weight, casted out in the middle of the rapids, bounced it off the bottom so it would end up resting right on the confluence. As I started to reel up to recast, ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzZZZZZZZ something HUGE grabbed it not even 2 seconds into my retrieve. FISH ON! He traveled a distance of about 50 yards within seconds, traveling upstream fast, and then turning right about and going downstream just as fast as he went up. I could tell it was a huge fish, and right after I said that to myself, he launched out of the water quite far down, in the middle of the rapids. HUGE Brown or Salmon, it was too far to tell.
5 minutes into the fight, he ran towards me, into the calmer water on the side of the island....all of a sudden the tugs stop, and I feel dead weight. Did he give up...? What's he doing? I held my pole and concentrated, I knew what I was feeling...a SNAG....
Son of a ****! 5 seconds after the dead weight, I went from feeling a snag to feeling nothing at all...line broke. Right after the break, the monster surfaced, obviously to laugh at me..I felt awful, would have most likely been my biggest Brown or Salmon (whatever it was..) if I had landed it. Picked up the pieces of myself and re-tied....20 minutes later I was hooked up again in the same spot, this time a little Brown, only about 12"
Gave up after that, my legs were sore from wading in the current.
That night I decided to break out the Salmon eggs Randy gave me a few weeks back. Tied up a few bags and went back down in the morning. This time it was the Winooski side, and I started at the point. First spawn bag, first cast..5 seconds into the drift, WAM! FISH ON! Healthy unmarked Steelhead, not tagged yet. Looked to be about 22-23". Only problem is I had a "quick release" He got off right in front of the rock as I went to net him. Oh well, good enough for me, I got to see him.
Couple hours after, I was going through my usual strategy, and ended up hooking up again drifing a Berkley Steelhead Powerbait worm. Smaller one, but managed to net this one.
Another unmarked and untagged Steelhead.
Headed towards the beach after I landed that one, figured the area was a bit spooked. My girlfriend joined me for a little while, and brought some monster sized spawn bags Randy tied up for me to try for Lakers. I put one on, casted as far as I could out into the rapids to make sure it stayed out for a while, even let some line out. Waited until the bag settled on the confluence and sat my rod down. About 5 minutes had gone by, my girlfriend and I were talking and I wasn't even paying attention to my rod, and she yells "YOUR ROD!!" I look over and its bent right over, about to fly right into the water...I grab it quickly and go to set the hook, swing and a miss, ARGH!!! Had to of been something big, the spawn bag was the size of a golfball! Reeled it in, bag was crushed to smithereens! Called it a day after that...
Went down again this morning, tried the point first with not even a nibble. Went to the beach, tried one of the monster spawn bags I had first. Flung it out as far as I could, let it settle in the confluence and then held my rod...
5 minutes later, ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ! FISH ON! Stripped line off for 10 seconds straight, had to tighten my drag on him! Kept pressure on him, saw him jump a few times, BIG Steelhead. I could see his bright pink side from 100 feet away. Just my luck through, after getting him about 1/2 way in, he ran towards the calm water.............then I felt it again, dead weight...
Before I could even think "not again" I felt tugging again, followed by a slack line...NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!..NOT AGAIN! I yelled and felt like chucking my rod in the water
Reeled my line in, broke me off on something sharp, line was frayed for all 20" above the break. Fish looked to be a solid 26+" fish, man they're so smart.......Stayed down and tried recreating that setup, but only found snag after snag(beach is known for that, which is why I usually avoid it, and then eventually ran out of spawn bags. Saw this turtle before I left though, so it wasn't a complete disappointment.
My girlfriend says its called a painted turtle?
Might have Fri off, I'll have to go down and see what I can hook into after I tie up some more spawn bags. Was hoping to land a female Salmon for eggs for Steelhead fishing as things are heating up, but I'm afraid I'm running out of time...oh well, thanks for reading!
