The Perfect Storm

Sometimes the sun, moon, and stars align just right for the perfect storm. 

Friday night, Old Yeller says to me, "Me and the girls have a bunch of stuff to do tomorrow, so you can do whatever you want on Saturday."  I responded, "Well, you're going to be gone, so I guess I'll just have to go fishin' instead."

I immediately checked the flows and realized I was going to have to head east to find any fishable water.  The OH tribs were nowhere near ready.  So I piled in the truck at 4:30am and started the journey.

I figured it would be a good day.  I was somewhat concerned that the flows would be a little high and the color a little dark.  Boy, was I in for a surprise.

I hit Walnut Creek at daylight and it was absolutely perfect.  The flow was right around 150 cf/s.  The creek was deep jade.  There was maybe 12" of visibility.  WOW!  And better yet, I was the only guy there.

I made my way to my favorite run below one of the many cascades on the Nut.  I rigged up with a #8 white woolly bugger with a chartreuse Crystal Meth sucker spawn trailer.  It took a few drifts to wake my friends up and then BAM.  Within an hour I had landed 7 hold-over bucks.  All were nice fish and one was particularly goofy. 

The first fish I caught was 23" long and 16" in girth.  It was like catching a little bowling ball.  He looked like the goldfish of steelhead.

After about an hour on the Nut, the Nut started looking like the Nut.  Out of nowhere, about 100 guys descended on me.  That's not for me, so I decided to make my way over to the Mile Creeks.

Now, at this point you might be wondering, where are the pictures of the fish from the Nut?  I can only tell you they were good pics.  Read on and you will see where the pictures went.

So, things were getting a little too close for comfort at the Nut.  I decided to hit my favorite Mile Creek.  I figured based on the conditions of the Nut, this creek would be nice as well.

Again, the creek was PERFECT.  And even better, I noticed all of the ice had blown out of the mouth of the creek far out into Lake Erie.  Hmmmm, I wondered if there were going to be some fresh fish?  I headed to my favorite hole, made a couple of drifts with the woolly bugger and Crystal Meth sucker spawn and SMACK...fish on.  And now the story begins...

This fish was fresh.  This fish was crazy.  She was jumping all over the place.  So, I decided I should get some video.  I pulled out my camera and started shooting some video of this crazy girl. 

She ran to the top of the run and jumped around.  She jumped her way to the back of the run and then started to drop into some shallow water below the hole were I caught her.  Hmmm, this might get a little crazy.  I better slip the camera in my side pocket for a minute so I can follow this fish (because, as with the rest of the ladies in my life...she ain't following my lead).

Well, she's not satisfied with the shallow water, so she heads to a fast clean shale bottomed chute.  I had to follow.  I took ONE step into that shoot and the studs in the soles of my boots turned in to ice skating blades.  SPLASH! 

I took the plunge hard.  I was baptized and my waders were starting to fill (it would have made a good video in and of it's self).  I am literally tumbling down that chute trying to get out of the fast water so I could get up...all the while keeping the rod in the air so as to not loose that fish.  That was some hook set.

I finally landed on a little gravel peninsula on the east side of the stream, reeled in any slack line, and headed after the fish.  Of course, she went straight under a fallen tree in a deep hole.  Oh I was NOT loosing this fish.

I was already soaked, so what's a deep hole to me at this point?  I nudged her out from under the tree and danged if she did not start dropping back towards the lake.  Really?

So, I slogged out of the deep hole and ran down as fast as I could.  It was personal now.  $#&%!* piece of chrome!  I caught up with her, got past her and finally encouraged her over to the shore line right at the mouth of the creek.

Oh I'm getting a picture of this fish.  I reached to my side pocket for the camera...and it was gone.  It must have fallen out during my bath.  That chute was fast.  God only knows where that camera ended up.  I looked for quite a while, but had no luck finding it.  And that my friends is why I have no pictures of the fish from Walnut Creek.

I pulled out my cell phone and shot a few pictures of that fish and then I had a real dilemma on my hands.  Should I eat her raw right here and now out of spite, or just let her go?  Of course I let her go and of course she swam off swift and fast with no need to be revived...while I stood there soaked and out of breath.  I really should have eaten her!

I did manage to dry myself off and get back to fishing.  I caught several more fish in the run SHE came from and decided to move up.

The next hole up can have a lot of fish in conditions like they were yesterday.  This hole was absolutely stuffed with fresh fish.  There was an hour and a half period of time where my buddies (who showed up after my bath...thank God!) and I were catching one fish after another.  The water became a little clearer for awhile before the afternoon melt-off.  We switched to a variety of offerings and nearly everything was working.

This day ended up being one of the single best days I have ever had fly fishing for steelhead.  I ended up landing 27 steelhead and only 8 of them were hold-overs.  The 19 fresh fish I caught completely wiped me out.  I was exhausted at the end of the day to say the least.  But, it was a good tired.  Now, the soreness I experienced this morning was not quite as enjoyable.

It's not often you get to enjoy the perfect storm, but when it all lines up like it did yesterday...you'll end up with a memory of a lifetime.  And SHE certainly added to it, but I have yet to decide if that part of the memory is positive or negative.  If you happen to be on 12 Mile Creek over the next few days (or maybe trolling for walleye out that way this summer) and you come across a silver/grey & blue waterproof Cannon digital camera, touch base with me.  I sure would like to have that thing back.