“What’s that buzzing sound?” I couldn’t make out what it was; likely to it being so early this morning and me being in a place between blissful sleep and barely waking. “Whatever. I’ll figure it out after some more sleep.” I wouldn’t know until later, but that buzzing was my daughter texting me Happy Father’s Day.”
It was half past seven with rain in the forecast. Yesterday I caught a nice Brown, so was motivated to get out and chase some more fish, but first, since it’s Father’s Day, I’m treating myself to a nice ribeye steak breakfast. “Yeah, whatever, dude. That’s nothing special. You’ve been eating ribeye every day for the last month.” It’s true I have been eating it every day, but the price of meat is so inexpensive, I can’t help it.
I drove to a new fishing access site. I had my eye on it for a while, but never dropped in to check it out. This outing was going to be short and sweet. I wanted to get ahead of the rain, so my window was small. That means I wasn’t even putting my waders on. It is going to be a hit and run.
As I made my way down the trail, I face timed my youngest back home. He’s still young, but enjoys fishing as much as my daughters. Through the trees and a hop over a small creek, I was on the banks of the Bitterroot.
“Whoa! this place is perfect,” I said to my son. I proceeded to show him, via video chat, how to read the river. “Okay, buddy, you see that part where the faster water meets the slower water? It’s called a seam. Trout will hang in the slower moving water right next to the faster moving water, along that seam, waiting for food to drift by. Once a tasty meal comes by, the fish will go after it and then go back and rest in the slower moving water. So, I’m going to fish that seam and I’ll call you back if I catch something, so you can see what I caught.”
At home, I had rigged my rod with a Rapala CD7 (Countdown 7) in rainbow pattern. That dang ‘ole lure had been sitting in my vehicle for three weeks, still new in the box. It’s about dang time I used it, because it’s not going to catch anything sitting in the box.
I cast forty-five degrees up river and let the current swing the lure into the seam, while I reeled in to give it action. And just like that, on the first cast, I lost a ten dollar lure. Yeah $10 is what the shop here in Darby is charging for Rapalas. Ok great. I could drive to Hamilton to buy one, but do I really want to drive seventeen miles for lures? Nope.
I looked in my lure box and had no more rainbow pattern Rapalas. “Whatever, let me try this 7F (floating) brown trout pattern. Maybe it’ll piss off a brown or two.”
First cast, slow retrieve, SLAM! I hooked into a big one, or so it feels because I’m also fighting the current. “Damn, this one feels bigger than yesterday’s brown.” This trout was definitely putting up a better fight than yesterday’s. I was finally able to turn it’s head and bring it to where I could scoop it with my net. “Wow! That’s a nice rainbow. looks bigger than yesterday’s brown, certainly fatter.” I guess this rainbow didn’t appreciate any brown trout in this part of the river.
It had only been five or so minutes since I had spoken with my son, so I video called him again so he could see what I caught. Shoot! Now that I think about it, it was only my second cast.
Releasing the trout was a breeze. Since I catch and release, I’ve taken conservation seriously and replace all of the treble hooks on the Rapalas with single hooks. I’ve not noticed a difference in hook ups, but releasing fish is a whole lot easier. I also try and keep the fish in the water as much as possible and handle it as little as possible, which is why using a net is so important to me. keeping the fish in the net, while still in the water, goes a long way for conservation.
I tossed the lure around a few more times, but it started to rain, so headed out. Yeah, but I didn’t go back home. I went straight to that store and bought me three more $10 Rapala Countdown’s, in rainbow pattern this time. I swear if this keeps up, I’ll need a second job.
