Stuck on Suck

I had one of those days where nothing seemed to work out.

Started on the early incomer with Sockeye and Shaky J in tow, trying for the flood push fish.

That's somethin' to see in a little estuary.

Glassy, foggy, then a set of V-wakes pushing at you...

Mud and water flying as they get too shallow...

Comin' back around, the water a little deeper, only to beach again.

At any rate, we forgot that the tide had an 18 foot change today, and ended up sprinting in between casts, partly to keep up with the fish, and mostly to make it back to non-nipple-deep water.

Sockeye hit a few on the sub-surface stuff, but Shaky J and I were stuck on the 'wog thing, throwing at fish that were moving waaaaay too fast to care about much. We both got a few takedowns, but with 3-400 fish passing in 25 minutes, mostly we got the Fin.

After a depressing drive to a few other overcrowded places, we hung it up for the day.

But sunshine in AK is at a premium these days - did I mention that it was sunny? - so not wanting to "couchandtv-itis" it, I went back out, this time to a popular but uncrowded spot.

There, the strangest thing happened...While casting, in mid-forward haul, the running line on my flyline snapped and I got off what I consider to be my best distance-cast ever.

The head sailed about 140 feet, with a loop to die for. Tight 'n Sexy.

Luckily, the line landed in a relatively shallow section and the fly snagged, so I waited a curse-filled 20 minutes for the tide to go down low enough to get out to it and fish it out with my rod-tip.

Not wanting to give up on the day with a goose-egg to show, I stripped and nailed the two halves together and soldiered on.



Apparently, this variety of boneheadedness appeals to fish. I was visited by 3 fish in the next hour, and managed to keep them from tearing my flyline asunder once more.

After the 3rd, I figured I should go while I was on a hot streak. I didn't feel like having anything else break, and I was pushing my luck at this point.

Tomorrow, a hasty Phone call to the nice folks at Rajeff (Hi, Jamie) to see about some warranty love for their up-until-now fine product.

Then I gotta go fishin'.