clearwater steelhead

It is a clear saturday and the high tide is at 12:30. If I hang around the house I am going to have a 'honey doo' list laid upon me, or the dogs are going to want to go for a run. I had better make my escape soon, so I start loading up the truck with the kayak for some quality fishing time.

This is the escape boat, just load it into the truck and remember to bring the battery, lunch and PFD.

I head up to the Chetco river just out of Brookings OR. We havent had rain for 2 weeks now and the river is flowing at only 700 CFM. It needs at least 1500 CFM to float a boat over the rocks in the upper river, so I will have to stay closer to the ocean where the tide still influences the depth. I settle on Tide Rock where there is parking for the truck and a 50 yd hike to the water, down a levee and across some gravel. Arriving at the 'put in' spot I unload the gear and lug it to the waters edge. The bank fisherman there tells me that there hasn't been any action there all morning, So I get underway and motor/paddle upstream toward Social Security Bar, where there are a couple of guides and clients in their drift boats. The first one turns out to be Val Early, one of the better guides on the river, and they have an empty boat. She says the other boat has one fish. So it is going to be 'one of those days'. The river is low and gin clear. I will have to cast long and pay attention if I am to get into a fish.

I put on a little Hot Shot and troll downstream to the riffle below Tide rock. As I move along I see a V in the water heading my way. I watch the V for a while, expecting an otter or seal nose to pop up for a breath of air, but there is none. Shortly I am next to the critter and it is a steelhead 8-10 lbs with what appears to be a wound on his side. The fish is swimming in a dazed pattern with no interest in me or anything but to continue moving along. The fish has already had a tough morning so I will not add to it.

Now in the faster water I switch to a Small corky, a little yarn and eggs in a drift rig set up. I cast long and use the motor to keep the boat parallel with the bait. The slack is kept out of the line and the rod tip bounces, describing what the sinker is doing as it moves over the gravel bottom. If a fish picks up the bait the rod tip will go down a little and not come back up, and I will have a second or two to set the hook. Dozers will not get a hook up on this day.

I make several passes on this riffle working some snaggs to see if there are fish resting behind them. With no action, I continue to drift to the next riffle below Morse Hole. It is the last riffle on the river, and below it is the estuary. Here I will have to turn around and work back upstream. I am working a drift when I hear a snort behind me and turn to see a male sea lion who is intent on fishing this riffle with me. Shortly a female appears and the two of them move up stream from me. The male is not intimidated by a boat that is smaller than he is, and the two of them work upstream while I continue working 'My fishing hole'.

Soon the water is roilled with debris created by the sealions chasing fish, and I am not getting any attention. These buggers have spooked all of the fish within half mile of me, so I decide to give it up and pull in my line. I have the line half way in when I see a large bow wave heading down toward me, and I know it isn't a fish. I crank on the reel a little faster and see the male shoot under my line. He apparently felt my line on his back, and he arced out of the water in front of me and landed with an impressive splash. The female was right behind him. They were gone, but it didn't matter, the fishing was over.

The tide was running now and the current was stronger. Using just a paddle I could barely make headway. The hull speed on a 10 ft boat with 200 lbs of guy and gear is not very fast, but with the added thrust of the motor I made good time. While paddling along I was listening of the hum of the motor and began thinking about that steelhead I had met earlier. Did it have an encounter with a seal or sea lion? I wondered if the sea lions had found it when they were upstream from me. If they did, it would have been a short chase.

In a short while I was back to Tide Rock and the take out point. I anchored the boat in a foot of water and hauled the motor, battery and gear up to the truck. Then I shouldered the boat and headed up the levee. Now I can remember days when I could have run up a hill like that with a 55 lb load, but that was a while ago. Now that I have accumulated 60++ years of life experience, it seemed wise to stop half way up and rest the old bones. After a few mins I completed the trip, secured the boat in the truck and headed home. Driving along the river I enjoyed the P-nut butter sandwich that I never had time to eat while on the water, and my thoughts returned to that steelhead.