Part 1
Root River, water running around 3.57 feet. 40-ish degrees (air temp)/Partly Sunny. Water: dirty/not visible at all. Patterns: Orange egg/pink egg/bead heads...Nada! Fished from 10:30am to 12pm.
The Root sucked. Plain and simple. What is it with me being the only person on the river and some guy comes and stands 10 feet away from me and starts casting? How is this possible? Quick rant over. Nothing good was happening here so I was heading back toward the weir. 2 people, John and Tim (Guys, I am really bad with names so if I am wrong, I am sorry and please correct me), stopped me, recognized me from MP's site, and we got to talking. They mentioned hearing the Pike was good, but they were heading back to the island. I figured I'd head to the Pike since it is much closer to home in case the Pike sucked too.
So off to the Pike I go, and here's the summary guys.
Part 2
Pike River, water running around 2.33 feet. 40-ish degrees (air temp). Fished from 1pm to 3:45pm. Water was a bit cloudy but mostly visible.
Well the Pike was basically what I thought it would be. I only had one spot in mind: below the log jam just beneath Petrifying Springs. I got there and immediately saw a brown sitting on a redd. 7 casts and 7 sticks later, the brown slid away, and I didn't see him again. Gotta love this part. Another guy on an empty river siddled up next to me...a quick glare his way, and he was gone. I was ready to quit at this point, and headed to the park to retrieve the car.
I figured since I was back in the park, I'll check it out. I headed up to my favorite spot and dropped in the water. One cloudy redd looked like it was holding a fish as I swore I was staring at a fin. Just as soon as I convinced myself it was a fish, a fish about a foot to the side of redd pushed up stream. 2.5 hours and only my second fish sighting. I drifted for about 20 minutes trying to find the fish, and gave myself the surrendering "1 last cast" before heading out. Well my last cast paid off as the line went tight...you betcha...fun time had begun. About 5 minutes later, I had netted a beautifully flawless hen steelhead. So while the fishing sucked, at least it ended on a positive note. I'll be back tomorrow.
The pics aren't the greatest as I was the only one there and could barely keep the fish still long enough to make it smile.
Enjoy the fish pics!