Sunday 20 January 2013

A Little Slush Won't Hurt You.

Friday afternoon and my phone beeps, a text message from a friend. "FYI River is full of slush, not sure if she will clear or not, might not be worth the trip". Damn. The weekend prior a friend and I attempted an outing. We knew the river was off but to what extent we were unsure. Long story short she was way off and huge masses of icebergs were making their way to the open waters of Lake Huron. Determined or crazy, I'm not sure which, we decided to fish her anyways. For the next several hours we dodged the ice floe and probed the dirty brown water for those fish we love so much. You guessed it.... nothing, except all the hooked bergs and logs brought to shore. I think that the fun of hooking them ultimately kept us there longer than we should have stayed. So my sights were set on the coming weekend when I knew she would be past prime conditions. Back to the text.... I was going...I can handle a little slush.  I had waited a week and who knows when the next chance to fish will be. I had to go.  I arrived late the next morning and although the river was slushy she had great flow .

 
 I began by breaking and releasing a huge slab of shelf ice and pushed it out into the flow. The slush was soft, I was hopeful that it would clear out with the mild temps. Several hours passed and the slush cleared, shortly after I rolled two fish, one right after the other. I was annoyed that I missed my first couple chances, but ultimately happy conditions had allowed the outing. The sun came out several times while at that first run. I decided to walk up to the next dig, happy to find it vacant I went through an array of patterns with no success. The wind was picking up and a light rain/snow mix was falling. Finally I felt that awesome feeling of the rod loading up on a fish. Instantly like a reflex I worried about rolling this one too. After a minute I was confident this was my first of 2013, that is until I somehow allowed this fish to reach the tailout and into a set of riffles. I couldn't get below her so I followed quickly, gingerly giving her line as needed, finally I was able to slide her into a soft pocket of water and promptly tailed her. I was impressed with this fish as she fought with intelligence and strength .
She darted out of sight and I returned up river and made my way back to the Van. I decided to call it a day, satisfied I drove home.






4 comments:

  1. Brilliant! I am afraid of slush... (LOL)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Mate. I was not keen on plan B. Took a big gamble, got lucky. This weekend hardwater, No choice!

      Delete
  2. Nice!!! Good for you Tony! I can't tell you how many times I have arrived to that disheartening revelation of a Slushed out Flow.
    It really is a kick in the stones. Especially when you are so set on making it happen that you disregard the obvious and force it. More than not I have just turned around with my tail between my legs and hiked out. Good for you on waiting it out and the reward. Right on! One for the good guys. LOL!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks Brian! Seems I always force it... Lucked out for sure. I hate that hike out too....

    ReplyDelete