I’ll Take A Bit Of Luck Every Time

This can’t possibly be February in Northeast Ohio. No snow on the ground. No blown out rivers. Temperatures in the 60’s. This would give Steelhead Alley a bad name if not for the great fishing. There have been multiple reports of double digit days, and it appears as though the chromers are all over the rivers. Facebook is lighting up with photos. What I’ve learned in my relatively short time fishing for steelhead is that it’s never as easy as it looks. It seems that I’ve been proving that statement correct every time I’ve been on the water in 2017. A few poor hooksets led to short fights, and long distance releases. So, when I waded into the river yesterday there was one goal, get the skunk off. It didn’t take me long thanks to three fishermen.

I hit a spot on the Chagrin River that is turning out to be my go-to place not only for steelhead but for smallies in the summer. There are several pools with some good structure that always seem to hold fish. Unfortunately, when I arrived there were three fishermen in one of the pools. I didn’t want to see if the pool was big enough to hold a fourth so I moved downstream. Decisions like this will sometimes make or break the day. You have to have a little luck.

I began to drift a bright pink egg pattern through the water, working my way from the tail to the head of the pool. I made a cast close to the opposite bank and the indicator lazily moved downstream. Then it moved ever so slightly towards me. With the reflexes of a jaguar (OK, an old jaguar) I instinctively set the hook. A brief fight ensued, but in the end the chrome hit the net, and the skunk was gone. Looking back on that take, if I had not been watching the indicator I would have missed it. That was one of the lightest hits I ever had chasing steelhead.

It felt good to get this one in the bottom of the net.

Three casts later and I hooked up again. But back to my old ways, I didn’t get a good hookset. So I played with it for about 10 seconds and off it went. Two more casts and I hooked up again. But my shoulders slumped when it came off a few seconds later. So, in about 10 minutes I had three takes from the same pool. Now, that’s fishing.

Here’s where I have to thank the three fishermen that were mentioned earlier. As I moved back upstream I passed them. They asked if I had any luck. After telling them about the action I had they let it be known that they were blanked. I told them I’ve been there many times. But their bad luck was my good luck. If they had not been there I would have worked over the pool they were on, and the skunk may have still been alive.

Go out and fool a fish!