November Awesomeness

Mike switching up flies on a gorgeous late November morning...

What do you do when you have a week off school in November? Well, fish of course! I got out and chased a bunch of fish for a few days this week with a good amount of success. The landlocks are still playing, steelhead are still around and perch are roaming in a bunch of spots. I do wish I had chased some pike too, but we will see if I can do that this coming weekend. 

I started off by getting on some big water to chase some landlocks. They have been pretty good to me this month. After a very quiet morning on a super bony steelhead stream this was the ticket. Second cast and line was heading downstream fast attached to a nice salmon. Nymphs have been my ticket and this fish was no exception. He liked my Black and Blue nymph. It has been getting the job done!  I had to chase this fish downstream which was pretty sketchy- I hadn't waded that area yet and I had no idea what I was in for.  

Fortunately the dark area near some logs that I needed to pass in order to get to a good landing spot was only about waist deep. No problem there (especially since I fixed the leaky crotch in my waders- thank you Aquaseal!). The fish came quickly to hand after that. 25.5"- a very nice fish indeed. I rounded out the rest of that day with another salmon of about 20. Good to be out there. 

Truly a football fish!

I headed out to the lake the next morning, a very cold morning at that. The weather reports dictated that it was going to be light enough wind that I might be able to access the lakers I have been hoping to  get into. No such luck. The wind was just a tad bit too high and the lake was very discolored from all the heavy winds we have had recently. But a sheltered cove offered options. The salmon were stacked in there and sight fishing with a streamer is always fun!   I had cast in between two salmon and was slowly retrieving a Smeltaroo back when this fish came charging up and snatched it. I could tell by the stripe it was a steelie. At 22" it was a very nice fish and a true football! A nice 21 inch salmon rounded out the day, along with a few smaller perch. The big schools of perch seem to have fled for other spots. Bummer.

Nice landlocked salmon with a DP's Smeltaroo in his mug.

I got out with Damon Bungard of Jackson Kayaks the next day to repeat the same thing in the Coosa- the fishing kayak I have been dreaming about since I saw it. I like it!  Great boat.  It was a great day on the water but one that didn't produce as well as the day before. A few small perch were landed but that was about it. Quite a few fish around, but not as many as the day before. My full report on the Coosa coming later this week!

I knew that the melt off of the snow we got during the week would result in some flows more condusive to steelhead so I got out after them with my buddy Mike this past weekend. The water was up and slightly discolored.... perfect!  The timing was right. Drifting a pair of flies along the bottom is my ticket in these situations and it didn't take long to find a willing partner. It wasn't a huge fish at 18", but you can't expect Lake Ontario sized steel out of this area. Put up a great fight and gave me a good smile. We worked a lot more water but with bright skies it made things tough. I definitely spotted a couple of more fish but that was the only player of the day. 

Just the ticket for late November

There is still a bit of time left to fish in 2011. I will definitely be out there more until I can't fish any more!