Thursday was another fish day with Shifty. He wanted to fish the river, he had watched a video about using a spinner and the guy caught quite a few in a stretch he hadn't fished before. We got on the river around 10:30 and it was still a freezing 19 degrees. Inside the canyon walls where the sun hadn't yet reached the wind was mild but very brisk. He donned his hip-waders, I put on my muck boots. I wasn't getting very deep into the river today.
I went down to the river right away and Shifty went across the bridge in search of the holes. What we didn't realize is that the water level had dropped about two feet since that video was filmed. The normal pockets and eddies were very shallow today.
I was tossing my jerk-bait and Shifty started off with the spinner. I found a few nice drifts to run through but nothing was hitting. Shifty had migrated upstream and within a couple cast was into a nice big brown trout. I, on the other hand, fished all morning with no success with my jerk-bait or spinners. We moved locations and a couple times and Shifty landed another brown with the spinner. Me yep nothing.
We fished under Bridal Veil Falls for a minute and watched ice climbers attack the newly formed ice on the falls and the steps. It was cool to see them work there equipment. The water, however, was very quick through this section and hard to keep the baits in the striking zone.
Shifty was looking for deep pools and there just weren't any due to the drop in water level. We fished the stretched that I had fished the week before and that is when I noticed the significant drop. After I pointed that out Shifty was out and moving upriver. We went to an area he frequents quite often but noticed the low levels as well. I told him about an area my cousin fished frequently with nice deep pools and slow-moving water.
We parked in the pullout and readied ourselves for the early afternoon. I had my spinner and Shifty had gone to his Rapala. He called quite excited that he had two monsters flash strike on the Rapala and told me to put on mine. I did just that. After a couple casts, sure enough, I got a strike. I missed the first one and went right back in. Nothing he felt the bite of the hook and wasn't playing.
I moved upriver just a few yards and cast again and this time landed my first fish of the day. A decent brown trout, I was on the board. A few more casts and moving upstream again and I was into another brown trout.
I had caught up with Shifty but he was LDRing a few of the big boys. I knew I had to get a couple more. I made a long cast across the river and my one and only jerk-bait of this type and color went over a rock. I had successfully freed the lure a few times that day and feeling okay about retrieving it on this cast, but no good it lodged nice and tight into the rock. I called Shifty saying I needed to go across the river to retrieve the lure, I wasn't losing it! He was just upstream and I got the keys and went to a bridge crossing, chest waders wouldn't have been tall enough to cross where were. I made the mistake of going downstream instead of upstream. Upstream would have been a lot shorter walk, I mean a lot. Anyhow I made it to the rock and tiptoed out to it and retrieved it. By the time I returned Shifty was on the road and waiting. It was late afternoon and he needed to get home.
We ended the day with a couple brown trout each and a great day on the river. Oh, we can't forget the yummy hot chocolate either!!
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