Pyramid Blank, Big Ditch Redemption (long)

[WadeK]

Saturday 1/18 a friend and I hit Pyramid from ~9:30 to 1:30 float tubing for nothing. The water and conditions looked beautiful but we didn't see any fish life. Not even minnows. Afterwards we hit a nearby Wild Trout section, which I've never been to, till dark. I blanked here too, but my buddy hooked 2. The big one was about 4". The water is way lower than he'd ever seen it. I did a lot more looking than fishing. We both decided to write this place off until we had 3 or 4 wet years in a row.
Sunday I hit the Aqueduct from 3:30 ‘til after dark for 2 Striper, 1 on the fly and 1 conventional. I didn't think I was going to get anything when I got there, as there wasn't hardly any flow and there was a lot of decaying witches hair floating around. Just before sundown the flow went up just a little and the witches hair got swept away somewhat.
I walked upstream to the next drainage bridge. Just as I was getting ready to cast a fly to the eddy below the midstream piling I hear 2 splashes on the upstream side. I hustled up and around and saw the rings spreading from my side of the piling. The cast landed about 4' short of where I wanted it, with an S mid line. Before I could get the S out I saw I had a hit. 2 fast strips and it was obvious I was too late. Daymn! A half-hearted strip later and something didn't feel normal so I made a fast strip which turned into a strip-set. FISH ON! It immediately dove under the bridge and I had to drop my rod tip and walk onto the steep concrete to avoid having my line scrape. It jumped twice on the other side of the bridge and sounded decent size. It next tried to make it back to the piling. The tug of war had me wondering if my knots and the 2X tippet would hold?!?! They did and it decided to head back downstream. A second later I could feel the fish trying to scrape the fly off on the bottom. Talk about trying all the tricks! A few seconds more and I finally broke its will.
Or so I thought. I pulled it up until I could see the butt of my leader under the bridge, but still couldn't see the fish. I was thinking I'll need to walk it up to the next ladder because I don't think the leader would hold to drag it up the side, when it burst for the upstream side of the piling. I finally got to see the fish as I stopped it about 1' short of the piling. It looked almost as big as my PB fly caught Striper! After I stopped it short of the piling, it hung there for a few seconds, not coming towards me but also not pulling away. After that brief break, it took off upstream headed for the ladder I was planning to use to land it. I put enough pressure to slow it down but didn’t try to stop it until it was almost there. Walking up to it while reeling and maintaining enough pressure to keep it from lunging into the junk hanging from the ladder was possibly the trickiest part of the fight. When I finally got close and it became aware of me, it tried to dive but was already too tired. I slipped my thumb into its open mouth to lip it. Just then it thrashed driving the hook point into the side of my thumb knuckle.
Thankfully I had flattened the barb when tying it, and it backed out of me and the fish easily. 28” of beautiful Jailbird sat there waiting for me to decide its fate. My housemate had asked me to keep some for her friend before I left the house. The last time I kept a stocker trout for her, it sat in the fridge for 5 days before she came and picked it up. EWW! This trophy wasn’t going to be wasted like that! I held it as far out in the current as I could until it thrashed to get away. I let go and it jetted away strong.


Tight Lines,
Wade

[Darian]

Great, fun story. Congrats on the fish, fight and catch.

[Paul B.]

Thank you for the post. I hope to get out this weekend too.