I made the treck north this week to Oak Creek as it was running low and fairly clear (around 25 cfs). I made a pit stop to drift some yarn flies at the Root on my way up. Visibility was 10-12" and it was still running hard, wading in just hip boots was tough in some spots so I hiked back to the car and got on the road. For some reason I never made the connection that Oak Creek and Racine are only 15 minutes from one another, you just don't make the 10 minute trip out to the highway and they are right next to one another.
My first landed fish of the morning was a 22" male, had a quite a few battle scars. After him I hooked up a few times, one larger male took me fifty feet or so up river before screaming drag downriver. If I had a net I would have landed it but as I leaned down to grab him he flopped off.
The second landed fish was a beautiful two foot long female, she was spawning whenever I held her vertical. I tried to keep her in the water and on the horizontal while getting her on the stringer. I am out of spawn and even though she was letting her roe go there was still enough to tie up two dozen nice spawn sacs when I got home. One for each inch of her. Would have been enough for 80-100 if she hadn't spawned on the river.
I then packed up the fish and gear and got them in the cooler and trunk respectivly. I met a friend to hike to and walk "the secret beach". After that outing I returned to the river to kill a little time before the drive home so I could miss Chicago rush hour. I hooked up a handfull of times but fishing the swift water that I was, I had breakoffs and popped flies. I'm getting a hang of fly fishing slowly, but I still have plenty to learn.
These may be my last great lakes salmaon/trout until the fall. If so, it was a great last spring trip, I'll be looking foreward to those beautiful spawning browns and monsterous Chinooks.
No comments:
Post a Comment