I wake up this morning in Pulaski, NY. I was on my way to my favorite hole when I realized that I needed some flies. So I run into Yankee Fly & Tackle and while I am in there, I strike up a conversation with Jason and Dan. Jason is from Utah and Dan is from Rochester, NY. They are serious steelhead addicts. They fish for them from Alaska to New York. So, since I had one more day of fishing alone until Pete gets here, I decided to fish with these guys. We all seemed to click perfectly. I have never met anyone who fishes as hard as me, for as long as me and who covers as much water as me. Jason is exactly the same. He was pissed when Dan wanted to stop for lunch at 2pm. So anyway, we get …to the hole and Jason rigs up with an indicator 2 ft. below if flyline – then 9ft of leadr – then a 3 inch tale (for one splitshot) and then 3-4 feet to the fly. Now keep in mind that most guys do not use indicators. They load up their lines with weight and dredge the bottom. Obviously that works, but you can lose alot of rigs that way too. So anyway, I love to learn, so I say what the heck I will change my style and go with the same rig. I never fish indicators and I figured why not. 4th cast, WHAM! Jason has a huge steelhead on. He lands the monster. Moves downstream a little. WHAM! Another stealhead. Moves upstream. Another stealhead. Moves back to the first spot and catches a Big Brown. Me, Nothing! Ok, This guy is kicking my ass! It ain’t luck and I am more than impressed. So, Jason takes a break and I call him over to me. I tell Jason to analyze my drift and he pointed out some critical concepts. Cast, mend immediately, Don’t move the indicator at all when you mend, Cast much further upstream and sometimes the fish are right at your feet. I cast up into some quick water. The indicator moves over a nice seem. WHAM! Monster steelhead on my line. Then POOF! Goodbye. It felt so good though to have him on my line. We bounced around to a few more holes, explored some new territory and finished up the day in an absolute downpouring rain. We had a blast and we are all fishing again tomorrow. Meeting at 5 am. Sweet! My fishing buddy Pete just showed up. Gotta run! Stay tuned for our drift boat trip on Sunday! Gonna be a blast.
