American Steelies / Salomon

[Frank Roepke]

I went out with a couple of friends this afternoon / evening on the American below Hazel Ave, we all had fish on. I had 5 fish on the fly, 1 half powder landed, and 1 salmon. I got impatient with the Salmon after 15 mins, and then I ripped the fly out of its mouth (It was getting dark). I started with a gold body minnow style nymph size 14 with a size 16 gold sparkle wet fly as a dropper, dead drift nymphing with indicator, (Don’t know the name, Andy picked it out…..Excellent call!!) The Salmon took a size 18 green wet fly (the dropper). Mike hooked a huge Steely that got major air then broke all his gear, then finished up with a strong Salmon that took him down river 150+ yards. Kenny had a nice Salmon that had him for 10+ mins after taking his gear.
I was watching a fellow angler with his 5wt switch rod, I will be ready to get one next week, can’t wait!!!!!!! By the way, this guy had a sweet camo hat full of flies on it….STRONG!
http://s769.photobucket.com/albums/xx333/froepke65/American%20River/?action=view&current=AR6.jpg&newest=1
Frank

[jcanger]

Not only are our American and Central Valley salmon runs teetering on the brink, DFG regs prohibit the take or possession of salmon - which is a pretty broad standard.

[Jgoding]

Nice job Frank,

Also, from what I've heard, guys have been in the basin catching salmon for awhile now and DFG won't do crap about it.... CnR of course but it's still pretty obvious what they're fishing for.

[wjorg]

"hunt, pursue, capture, or kill or the ATTEMPT to hunt, pursue, capture or kill is prohibited."

Technically, once you know its a salmon, if you reel back once when its hooked, you are prone to a ticket. Too bad the wardens are out doing deer checkpoints, so they cant get actual salmon poachers anyway. Go to the feather. Locals there spear the fish. We've seen it.

DFG is worthless, saw over 15 people fishing the southfork eel river last night for juveniles(only "trout") as I drove back from my buddies bday celebration. The only warden I saw followed/stalked me on the freeway like a cop b/c of my boat. Bleeping worthless....

[Frank Roepke]

Thanks for the feedback on the Salmon. What do you do if you have a fish on and don't relize it's a salmon till you get it in?

Frank

[Jgoding]

Technically Frank,

You point your rod at the fish and break it off....

[ken]

Frank,

I have to tell you that last Friday night was the most fun I've had flyfishing in long long time and I didn't even hook a steelhead. It was just a blast and I'm looking forward to the next go around. I haven't flyfished much at all the last few years but I love your enthusiasm for the sport and I'm pretty fired up about flyfishing right now so thanks for that. Spending quite a bit of money on getting geared up so curses to you for that point.

So when you actually hook a salmon Frank you'll feel the difference right away and it can't be explained other than that. The last fish you hooked was a steelhead straight up and not a salmon. You don't hook salmon on a size 18 nymph with a dry line and no weight fishing over a caddis hatch at dusk. Plus the way it was fighting and the way the rod was bending it was a steelhead all the way. It was a big one though like the one Mike hooked swinging the soft hackle first time fly fishing in six years. You know everything we did was legit. Targeting steelhead, licensed, steelhead cards, barbless hooks everything. You're guilt free because you only hooked six steelhead. We let two salmon rip downstream before breaking them off which I guess is not legit enough for some people, but it's not like we were out there targeting salmon straight up raping and pillaging the resource. In my mind is was more like driving 70 on the freeway. Technically illegal but well within the zone of what is commonly permitted. Anyway we went out executed the plan and hooked seven steelhead which is not bad for a bunch hackers. Even though I didn't hook up it was good enough for me to see you guys get into some good action and it was just a great evening on the home river.

As for the rest of you guys thanks for the input. I accept your points and I'll be sure to break off all salmon post haste. With Frank's enthusiastic storytelling pulling on a salmon for ten minutes is more like one or two minutes ( I wanted to get my fly line back on the reel before reefing down and ripping the hook out) but if you feel that you need it here's caltips number 1 888 DFG-CALTIP. I'll take a ticket if DFG feels it's warranted and by the way DFG is hiring wardens if you think you can do a better job:

http://www.dfg.ca.gov/enforcement/docs/wardencadetbulletin.pdf

Enjoy fishing.

[obfg]

The difference in fight between a salmon and a steelhead is the difference between a fat kid trying to stand on his head and Mary Lou Retton.

[harryls]

Well said, I can't think of a better analogy! Maybe performance and body type characteristics of an NFL offensive guard compared with a free safety.
Definitely a noticeable difference.
Harry

[Frank Roepke]

Thanks for the kind words Ken. :D As better men than I have said, "Progress, not perfection" can't wait till Saturday!

Frank

[Dustin Revel]

yup... harrasssing salmon on the brink is fun as hell... but why stop there? i've heard wonderful things about the right combination of hookers and cocaine!

[obfg]

yup... harrasssing salmon on the brink is fun as hell... but why stop there? i've heard wonderful things about the right combination of hookers and cocaine!

lovely....