Searching For Steelies On The Saugeen
After the spending the past week dealing with some incredibly awful tooth pain, I was in desperate need of hitting the water. Since I had spent a good deal of time inside, I really wanted to walk along a river, get some exercise, enjoy the sunshine, and do some fishing. I think Darrell was a smidgen afraid of taking me anywhere on the weekend. After all, he had to deal with it if I broke down crying due to the unbelievable pain from the tooth infection. But the allure of returning to the Saugeen River to cast for steelhead proved too strong and he gave in.
It was dark and foggy on Sunday morning when Darrell and I said ‘bye’ to the dogs, got into the car, and headed for Walkerton. While I may have forgotten to set the alarm clock, we made the drive in short order and stopped at Tim Hortons for a quick breakfast before heading to the river. Visiting Tim Hortons early in the morning is something I quite enjoy. The regulars start arriving, greeting the staff and each other by name. They argue over why they should sit at a different table than usual, and eventually it leads to a lot of good-natured teasing. It’s always a great way to start the day.
The stretch of the Saugeen we decided to visit was at River Bend Park. We had visited this park last month and loved the look of the river – a perfect place to fish for steelies.
My experience with steelhead fishing is very limited. Darrell and I have visited rivers during the extended rainbow trout seasons, but I have never caught anything during these few trips. I had been given a brief introduction to float fishing with Darrell’s float rod but quickly became bored with watching the float drift down the river. I had tried using my fly rod on these occasions but my casting was so atrocious that I usually threw it down in frustration. In the end, going out for steelhead tends to mean I have a light action spinning rod and toss spinners and crankbaits.
On this trip, I again stuck with my spinning rod. Darrell used his float rod (paired with my Shimano Stradic CI4 reel – lucky him) and rigged up a single roe beneath the float. We donned our waders, hats and gloves, and as the sun began to rise we walked into the river at a beautiful pool that absolutely had to hold fish. With some skinny water above it, a real deep run in front us, a good current, and a great deal of foam, there had to be fish in this pool.
Walking back from one of the pools.
When I first got a pair of waders it was odd for me to walk into water that came up to my knees. After I had spent twenty minutes casting to a variety of spots, I took a moment to look around and realized that I was standing in water deep enough that I had to hike my coat up to keep it from getting wet. It’s amazing how much things can change. I felt perfectly comfortable wading out to that point and had done it, without even thinking, strictly so that I could cast into a back eddy. I am continuously amazed at the things I find myself doing these days. Most of them would have been unthinkable a few short years ago.
While I continued to toss spinners, Darrell worked on getting the height of his float just right. A couple of snags later, he declared that he had everything set perfectly. I just laughed, looked up the river to where I had heard drag, saw that another angler had gotten snagged, and took another cast.
Suddenly, Darrell’s rod bent over, and as I was about to ask him if he had bottom or a fish, a fish jumped out of the river, spraying water everywhere. Holy heck, fish on!
Darrell got to have some fun after hooking this fish.
Now, as I said earlier, I haven’t done much fishing for steelhead. I have caught a few rainbows out on Lake Ontario, but that really is the extent of my experience. Watching this fish leap out of the water, peel line, run the length of the pool, get brought in close only to make another couple of runs…well, it was pretty spectacular. Darrell’s experience and skill stood out as he played out the fish where I, being the person I am, would have gotten excited and ended up trying to horse the fish in.
It was a fantastic few minutes while the battle ensued. I stood on shore and enjoyed every moment of it. One thing I have noticed about fishing is that it is exhilarating to watch some fish be brought in, even if you’re not the person holding the rod. When the fish finally relented, I took a couple of quick photos and watched, with a huge grin on my face, as Darrell let it swim away.
As happy as I was to watch, Darrell was even happier to catch this one 🙂
Hey fishy – time for your closeup!
We fished that pool for a while longer with no more bites and headed on down the river the check out some more spots. We weren’t the only ones on the river – there were pairs of anglers in most of the pools we walked by, at least one had caught a fish, others had not. Everyone was friendly and eager to talk about the fantastic weather we were enjoying – the sun and warmth being quite abnormal for mid-November.
Neither of us managed to catch another fish that morning, but we did some good scouting for future reference. We had to call it quits earlier than we would have liked in order to get back home in time to pick up some hay for the horses. I felt invigorated and happy as could be after spending time in the river and watching Darrell land that fish. I may have to give that float rod a second chance. Maybe I’ll take the fly rod out next time as well, since I grew to enjoy using it this summer. One thing is for sure, at this time of the year, there is nowhere better to be than on the river.
argosgirl
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