Switching Gears

With a freezer full of venison I took the opportunity today to chase a trout down the Sacramento River.  Two days working around the house is all a retired guy can take, so Terry and I launched the boat and headed up river looking for a trout dinner.  Since the limit is only one hatchery trout it needed to be a big one.  The plans were to get an early start but the damn dog started barking about 1:30am and after investigating the perimeter of the compound in my skivvies with a spot light looking for the infamous local mountain lion and her kittens, I was wide awake until 4:00am.  At 4:30 Michele's alarm blasted be out of sound sleep (can't wait til she retires) and then again when she kissed me goodbye at 5:40am and needless to say I didn't get up to early.  At 8:00am I was about to head out the door and the phone rang,  and low and behold it was the Game Biologist from the fish and game returning my call from yesterday.  After 45 minutes of discussing the rights of mother mountain lion and her kitties eating our local goat, sheep and deer population I finally got out the door.  By 9:15 we were hot on the tracks ( do trout even make tracks, I must still be in hunting mode) of the trophy trout and steelhead of the Sacramento River.  It started off really slow, Terry caught the first squawfish ( I mean Sacramento Pike) and then I hooked a small 14" rainbow.  All that excitement called for lunch about 11:00am and we escaped into the shade of Inks Creek for a sandwich and coke.   The first drift after lunch produced dinner for a week when Terry set the hook and a beautiful 9 lb 1 oz. Steelhead.  I didn't realize how big the fish was and because I thought my line was way past Terry's I didn't reel in and the fish decided to launch for the stars making a jump that cleared the water by four feet and quickly crossed over my line.  Well, now we have tangled lines and the fish decides to head south for a while, racing towards the boat with lines going all directions.  I reeled up close and bit my line off, donating my lure to the cause.  Now the toad is right behind the boat rolling like a gator with a pig in his mouth and all the time I am thinking any second that flatfish is going to just pop out of his mouth and Terry will blame it all on me because I can see both lures hanging out of his mouth.  I reached for the net and the ol' net boy got him on the first pass.  Looking back it was quite the circus but that is what memories are make of.  Terry has fished the river for many years and he claims this steelhead is his largest ever. 

What a year, Tadd's buck of a lifetime, Terry's Steelhead of a lifetime and Pop's memories of a lifetime.