Saturday, May 08, 2010

lucky charm magic!



after 3 weeks of continuous skunks... hardly, I can feel the innate confidence and the faith of the good ol river. but what should I do on the weekend? there is no better excuse to visit the wilderness than fishing and photo shooting...

The flow seems right and there should be a lot of wild flower blooming now... I love walk in the woods at this time of the year, it's a multi-dimensional experience, not only the freshness of the early Summer air is well mixed with a lot of bird songs, but also the smell of all kinds of wild flowers and trees. No exception of this very morning... the river is steaming with fog, it's one of the days that you think the fish should be happy and should be biting... ha... it's my imagination and sometimes the imagination will overpower the bad fishing juju I have been carrying in last 3 weeks... the heron was already there on the rock... "good sign!" I told myself. because it means they are there hunting for bait fish (the shed)... the freshwater shed here is very abundant and can grow into a very scary size (to me). I caught two last month, and they are 15 inches long... no wonder I have seen some fisherman here use 12 inches lure...

I have two thing in mind in this very morning, if the fish are not there or not biting... at least I can try some new lines (sinktips), so I brought two rods and two reels with me... one is smaller floating spey line with Hardy Zenith, the other is heavy sinktip. Two different lines cover two different zone, and the casting styles will be also different longline spey and skagit.


Few casts later, a very nice fish took the little bunny...I thought I was hook on the bottom again, and next thing I noticed is the swift jerking of the rod and the reel scream like it was powered by a engine... I was a bit shocked because this is the first time I hook a nice fish with this new reel... I quickly pinch my index finger on the quickly vanished line... NOT A GOOD IDEA! the line burns! that is how fast this beast run... I know this might be a good size striper...because when they get hooked they never hesitate like other smaller hybrid, they run right downstream heading to the ocean immediately... I have to act quickly, because there are several big rock downstream, if she passed the rock, there is almost no chance to land her... Instead control the line, I inserted more pressure in the running spool with my mid finger, next thing I knew was I am putting pressure directly on the spinning backings inside the spool... this is the trick I learned from the SkagitMaster DVD. Ed Ward demonstrate how to control the line by using the reel spool which doesn't have open palming frame, in my case, the Zenith reel. 15 lb tippet really received a lot of pressures... so does the rod... it already bend to the butt section and the cork is still jerking because of the madness from the distant beast! HeeeeBa! all the doubts from the previous skunks are gone, and now the game is on! I really don't care about if I can land this fish at the moment... my soul is enriched by the air, the river sounds and the smell of the forest...and of course the electric shock from the fish...


the swing, the unite, the harmony and the rhythm...


The green mode, the green mood!


Hookup! Gear 0 versus Fly 2. You gonna believe feather is better than plastic! Ha!lol

small fly and strong tippet... will do!

"COZY" swing and sweet...life is so wonderful! : )

7 comments:

Hitoshi said...

SUGOI!!!

BLUEANGLER said...

Thanks! Hitoshi san,

The lucky charm works like "chum"!
: ) loving it!

Marcus said...

Woo Hoo! Its time! Well done Mark. I can;t wait to join you down there sometime soon...

flyfishingunlimited said...

Congratulations Mark! Great catch, beautiful story and magnificent photos!

BLUEANGLER said...

Thanks for the kind words! my friends.

Marcus,
It just started! I haven't see many people on the river yet, but sure it will... plan a trip soon!

Thanks Vlad, it was a great outing indeed... I appreciate the compliments!

wyoflyfish said...

That really is a beast! Wonderful photos and story.

BLUEANGLER said...

Thank you! Sam

Some good lucks for me this month... : )