Joe Mateas
02-22-2012, 06:52 PM
I was able to get away for half the day this morning so I decided to hit the American for a bit. I was in Sac. to drop off a rod this morning anyway so I figured I would take advantage of the local rescources. I got on the water about 8:30 and started swinging the riffles at Sunrise with no luck or fish sightings for about 1 1/2-2hrs so I decided to switch to nymphs. Still nothing for while so I figured I'd head back to the car and go to Sailor, but on the way back I spotted a pod of 3-5 fish in a spot we checked out last weekend. On my second drift I got hit by the largest in the group, he took me on a few good runs only to jump off a few minutes later. I watched the water and saw him go back to the group and start feeding again. I tied on a different nymph and on my first drift through the pod he hit again taking me under a snag and breaking off. Tied a new rig up and drifted through the run again and after a few I hooked up again only to pe pulled straight to the snag and broke off again. After a new rig and a few more casts I get another hit and I'm hooked up good this time. It lasted about 10min max and a nice fat 25" hatchery(would have been great to get a wild but I'm not going to complain) fish came to the net. I was stoked, my first good size Steelie on the fly, I went with Lance Gray last weekend on the Valley Steelhead Tour, learned a bunch and it payed off. It was a great fight on the 6wt....... Hooked up 4 times, landed 1, and ended the morning with a stop at Kiene's for a few things, life is good!
http://i317.photobucket.com/albums/mm378/ih8calaws/joes001-13.jpg
http://i317.photobucket.com/albums/mm378/ih8calaws/joes001-13.jpg