May 7, 2017
Broke a big one off first thing this morning but managed to bounce back and land a pretty nice cutthroat and this bull near the tail end of the exchange.
seen from Italy
seen from United Kingdom
seen from United States
seen from China
seen from United States
seen from United Kingdom
seen from Yemen
seen from Italy
seen from United States
seen from Indonesia
seen from United States
seen from Malaysia
seen from Canada
seen from Malaysia
seen from China
seen from Germany
seen from Portugal
seen from China
seen from Italy
seen from Spain
Broke a big one off first thing this morning but managed to bounce back and land a pretty nice cutthroat and this bull near the tail end of the exchange.
Yeah, it’s that time again.
USPS brought a gift on Friday: a brand new Sage Pulse 3110 trout switch. I was curious to see how tried and true Graphite IIIe would translate to a trouty two hander and happened to be in need of something punchier than my 2109 ONE minus the $1,050 price tag.
It arrived just in time, too. The wind forecast today was anywhere between 7 and 11 mph. Naturally, it would be blowing in the opposite direction of the tide. Appropriate test conditions for the new stick.
Verdict? The Pulse has it where it counts and helped me reach out and touch several cutties despite a stiff 8 mph ENE wind, without feeling like it was too much rod for a 16 inch fish.
Almost that time again. Ran into a few roaming packs of sea runs, but they weren’t keyed in on any fry yet. A few of them were clearly post-spawn fish, like the snaky kelt above. Check out that torn-up caudal fin. T-minus a week or two, maybe three...
Mustered the effort to give salmon one more go...and glad I did! We’ll see if that will be enough motivation to keep going into the fall. In the meantime, goodbye Summer That Never Was.
Been busy and, honestly, with the salmon season being severely limited, not really motivated to do any serious fishing. That is, until I got word about the new Redington Trout Spey. I was lucky enough to get my hands on the 2 weight and take it out for a spin today. The tides sucked but I was able to avoid the salad long enough to dial this stick in: 250 grain OPST Commando with an Airflo 10ft Salmon/Steelhead Poly, backed up with OPST Lazar Line 40lb. That’s a 25 grain lighter sweet spot than my Sage ONE 2 weight Trout Spey! Paired it with a mint, NIB Waterworks Purist 2 that I bought earlier this year but couldn’t find a suitable mate for--match made in heaven! Super light rod meets equally light, now-classic bare bones reel. This rig is a great addition to my truly trout-sized two-hander lineup and could save my so-far disappointing late summer/early fall.
Post spawn + chum fry hatch = opportunity to showcase the diversity of sea-run cutthroat spotting, color and vibrance!
What was projected to be a gloomy, overcast day gave in to cotton-white clouds and stretches of blue, and what was intended to be a day to calibrate and tinker with equipment relinquished its focus enough to do a little “live fire” testing.