Feather River 10-21-12

[DAVID95670]

Sunrise to Sunset it was a great day on the Feather River swinging for Steelhead. There were a lot of people out there and the fish were willing participants. Egg bite it definitely on, we were swinging but I netted an amazing fall 26" for a guy indo nymphing with an egg pattern. This was the only Steelhead I was able to get to hand.

[Jed Peters]

Getting one on the swing is awesome on the feather (or any river).

Nice work!

[Jake O]

Better watch where you wade on the feather---there's two older gentlemen out there who have absolutely no class. Was fishing at the top of a riffle a week or so ago and two guys came up out of know where from the bushes below me. They looked pissed and surprised to see me there. I try and say hi, thinking they are just going to move on, as there was a ton of water to fish. Didnt get a hi back, just one d-bag down low hole me by about fifty yards and then the other one goes up above me a way--even though they totally just cut me off in both directions i choose to be the better man and not say anything---then they decided to do the unthinkable. I start catching fish and the guy above be walks down and proceeds to wade out just below me, to the point where i can hit him with the end of my drift. Now im pissed. I murmur a couple things under my breath and decide, you know what, screw it, im just going to go to the next spot. As i walked by them i told them "they could have the hole, and that im going down river and if i see you there we are going to have words." My father was with me (non-fly fishing) just to hang out, so decided that was the most i was going to say.

To the two dudes out there, if you read this, now that my dad isn't listening, F you Phew, Finally got that out of my system.

[Mike R]

Better watch where you wade on the feather---there's two older gentlemen out there who have absolutely no class. Was fishing at the top of a riffle a week or so ago and two guys came up out of know where from the bushes below me. They looked pissed and surprised to see me there. I try and say hi, thinking they are just going to move on, as there was a ton of water to fish. Didnt get a hi back, just one d-bag down low hole me by about fifty yards and then the other one goes up above me a way--even though they totally just cut me off in both directions i choose to be the better man and not say anything---then they decided to do the unthinkable. I start catching fish and the guy above be walks down and proceeds to wade out just below me, to the point where i can hit him with the end of my drift. Now im pissed. I murmur a couple things under my breath and decide, you know what, screw it, im just going to go to the next spot. As i walked by them i told them "they could have the hole, and that im going down river and if i see you there we are going to have words." My father was with me (non-fly fishing) just to hang out, so decided that was the most i was going to say.

To the two dudes out there, if you read this, now that my dad isn't listening, F you Phew, Finally got that out of my system.

That's about par for the course for the feather. But, if you go up there expecting to have entire riffles to yourself, get ready to be surprised. If one guy drops in 50 yards below me, I'm pretty happy he didn't come in any closer. Another technique that people do on the feather is to move down through a run. If someone isn't moving through a run, someone else may just leapfrog them. He may have been a little close when he dropped below you but how long were your drifts? I have run 100' drifts there and I get real close to those guys below me but I don't fault them for it. Did you let him know you thought he was a little close or maybe asked him if he was planning on moving down (*a polite way of saying "move along") instead of getting pissed. I'm not trying to paint the picture that you did anything worng but there may have been some other circumstances.

It's like when somebody gets pissed off when somebody is fishing the bottom of the PH2 riffle and gets steamed when another angler joins them. Depending on where you are, you have to change your attitude a little. Trinity, don't crowd me. Feather, leave me enough room to cast.

Heading back to lurking,
Mike

[Jake O]

That was the problem Mike, I was moving down the riffle when the second guy dropped in right below me. While I also have long drifts, the guy was like 20 yards from me. While i wasnt thrilled, I wasn't going to say anything when his buddy was fifty yards away. As far as talking to him politely, I have done that on numerous occassions to let others work in--no big deal. However, on this occassion that notion went out the window when I tried to say hi to the guy initially and he looked at me all angry as if i was fishing his private section of the river, and then to spite me moved down right at my toes.

In any event, don't want to sound like a complainer, just wanted to blow some steem since i didn't really get to mince words at the scene of the incident. If your reading this mystery duo, i hope you fell in the river and got your thongs wet--hehehe

[Mike R]

Sometimes you just run into D-bags on the river. If you really want to see some jackwagons, try duckhunting. Makes flyfishing look like afternoon tea.

Good luck up there,
Mike

[Jake O]

Funny you should mention that--im an avid duck hunter, seen plenty of dip nuts on both public and private land. In fact, I had a guy in the blind next to me this morning turning his light on and off two minutes before shoot time. Still got 11 though before i had to leave for wrk at 8---good day.

Sorry to hijack the thread david, nice fish by the way!

[itsbenlong]

Hey David, glad to hear you got into some steelies on the Feather. I was there Saturday morning a ways down from the outlet and got into them a bit. Got two to the bank, one was an adult about 3 lbs and had two others shake off between 9am-11am. I think good times are on us. I fished for 4 hours on 3 riffles and only ran into one person who happened to be really cool and we shared spots all morning. Great times!

[winxp_man]

Not saying anyone is wrong or right or anything of that sort.

I fished for quite a few days for shad this season and it almost got elbow to elbow. As long as the person next to you know what the hell to do your good to go. Jeff C. and I fished about 10 ft apart and I can remember getting hung on each others lines maybe 4 times out of 4-5 days of fishing like this. We knew what we were doing and everything went smooth. At one point we were going back and forth catching shad one after another. I think we got up to like 6 fish in a row one Jeff one me.

It was good time and again we knew what we were doing. I guess its harder when you don't know the person and they don't even attempt to say "hi" as a response back to your greeting.

[Jake O]

To me shad fishing is a little different--you are fishing to a specific slot, whereas with steelehad and halfpounders its more of a cover water thing. And yes, not even being polite enough to say hi after you low hole and high hole someone doesn't leave the best impression.