Yesterday, I fished a coastal stream I hadn't fished before. It was a pretty creek and full of steelhead smolt and small cutthroats. I kept thinking there had to be steelhead around, but hadn't caught anything over 6 inches. As I pushed further downstream, I still was hooking tiny fish left and right (luckily with barbless hooks if you let slack into the line you can get the fish off without even having to bring it in). So, I decide to head upstream. I noticed some beer cans where I parked, so I picked them up and threw them in the back of the truck. I headed upstream fishing anywhere that looked inviting. Still no luck. I finally reached a little bit of a canyon. There was a really inviting run that looked like it had to have a fish. First cast and I appeared to hang up on the bottom. Then, as sometimes happens but not as often as I'd like, the bottom started to move. (I'm not sure why steelhead seem to be slow to react to getting hooked sometimes. Maybe it's only fish that are used to being hooked that react right away, I'm not sure.) After a few headshakes the fish ran upstream, racing to get under a rock ledge. Knowing that this almost surely meant my line snapping on the rock, I pulled back. I felt the line go limp and thought the fly had come free. To my surprise I saw him leap clear out of the water towards me and then head across the stream. Somehow he was still on. I managed to get below him in some soft water and went to tail him. As I went to close my hand he realized the situation he was in and bolted downstream. I raced down after him, hoping not to trip or find a deep pocket of water. I managed to get my line back reeled in and finally tailed him. It was an exciting capper to a good morning on some new water. (For the record, there are no pictures since the camerawoman was asleep in the truck. EDIT: She did help pick up beer cans.)
When I got back to the truck I realized there were more beer cans that I hadn't picked up. I apologize because I'm about to get a little preachy. I have no problem with people drinking beer in the woods or shooting their cans in the woods as long as you're safe about it. BUT, if you are going to do this, please pick up after yourselves. There were probably 20 beer cans in this small area that we picked up. Next time they go out there to do this they will probably realize someone picked them up. They will probably think one of two things. 1) "Looks like we have a maid who cleans up after us, let's just leave our trash out here again." OR 2) "Looks like someone picked up our trash. Maybe we should do that ourselves this time." I guess we'll see, but I'm hoping there won't be a pile of shot up beer cans next time.
(For some reason almost surely was the phrase of the day yesterday. Sometimes math just creeps into my head and takes over I guess.)
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