Salmon River: Take 3!

So I just got back from the Salmon River. I've been worked up their once, went back a few months later and did OK. Today was Round 3.

Steelhead are a cool fish. But they're really really hard to catch. I fished hard for about 5 hours, which is tough enough to do b/c it's hard to pay attention when the fishing is tough, and if you're not paying attention at the exact right moment, game over. You lose. Anyway, I finally stuck one, and I got a decent look at it. If it wasn't over 10 pounds, then I've never caught a fish before. It was a super bright chrome steelhead. Generally, the brighter chrome they are, the harder they fight, so this guy had plenty of steam. I only had him on the line for about 10 seconds b/c he ran downstream about 40 yards, and broke me off. It sucks that I didn't land it, and that I didn't get a picture to prove how big it was. But suffice it to say that I don't remember the last time a fish left me weak in the knees. I had to sit down for a minute to collect myself b/c wading with jelly legs is a bad idea.

So then I fished the rest of the day and didn't catch crap.

But, I did manage to land something earlier in the day, so I wasn't totally blanked.


I go fishing for steelhead, and I catch a little smallmouth. Don't ask me how that makes sense.

Anyway, here's a couple of other shots that turned out OK.

We spotted this guy from the bank, and fished to him for about 10 minutes with no response. Then my buddy walked up to him, which was weird b/c they usually don't let you get that close. Before the fish swam away, my buddy got got close enough to see that the fish was missing its right eye. Every cast he put past the fish went on its right side. I was having a hard time figuring out how the fish didn't even respond a bit to his fly. It was like the fish couldn't see it or something...

Anyway, it was a fun day, but the steelhead game is a little different than western trout fishing, where you can have 20+ fish days. That ain't going to happen with steelies. At least not for me.

Gallery o' Terror

So I was looking at my brother-in-law's blog, and I realized that Halloween is a pretty cool time of year. I'm not anything close to as creative as Guy is, so this picture is the best I could come up with to participate in the Gallery o' Terror. The sad part is that Guy is the one that did this picture. So my best shot at getting in on the Gallery o' Terror is by posting something that Guy did. That's lame, I know.

The story behind the picture is actually kind of funny. A few years ago my mom paid for family pictures. The package my mom bought included pics of the whole famn damily, and pictures of all the couples in the family. Being that I am not a couple, but am actually a single, I got single pictures taken. The photographer was a total dork, and I'm pretty sure he always saw himself photographing in Hollywood, or some stage much more grand than Orem. Worse, I'm pretty sure he thought of me as his best shot to break into the big time by nailing a killer head shot for me. You'd have thought that to listen to the guy work his magic, anyway. I've never felt like a bigger tool in my life, and I've probably never looked like a bigger tool in my life (at least I hope I've never looked like a bigger tool in my life). The whole thing was pretty laughable.

Anyway, there's one particular photo where I somehow held a conflicted/pensive/sophisticated look long enough for him to take the picture. Most of the time I was laughing too hard b/c I kept on thinking of rude names to describe the photographer, and because Willus snuck into the room and was dancing around behind the guy and making faces. A bit juvenile, that one. So most of the shots are of me with a big, stupid turd-eating grin on my face. However, he did manage to get one shot of me being lame and trying to look cool. My mom loves it. I hate it. Guy got ahold of it, and with a little Photoshop magic, this picture is the result.

If I can ever get Willus to email the real version to me, maybe I'll toss it up here. It's pretty bad though, so I might not.

Better than my best day of school work

So I went fishing on the Ausable River again yesterday. I fished there last year and pretty much got worked. Unfortunately, yesterday wasn't much better. Fortunately it was beautiful up there, and, despite the fact that it rained like an S.O.B. for a while in the morning, the weather felt great. Maybe that's because I got out of the 85 degree weather we've been having lately in Albany, I'm not sure. And finally, it was a day spend doing something other than school work, which makes it a good thing, ipso facto.

Anyway, you'll notice that there is one thing conspicuously missing from my fishing pictures: any actual fish. While I did catch 2, combining for a collective 17 inches of trout, I didn't feel much like taking a picture of them. Just not that impressive. It was a frustrating day of fishing, to say the least. I would love to say that it was tough fishing yesterday, and that nobody was catching fish, but my buddy Carter did pretty well, catching something like 8 or 9 fish, many of which were caught on bugs I tied. There's no justice in this world. And on top of all that, the Ausable is the trickiest river to wade that I've ever been in. I came very, very close to taking a swim on a couple of occasions.. I'm actually a little sore today from the wade, that's how much of a workout it is just picking your way through those slippery boulders.

Anyway, here are a couple of shots from the day:







Like I said, it was really, really pretty, and it was also not studying, which makes it worth every penny.