I fished again today with Dave Calhoun from NW Rods. Now if you're not up to date, Dave is building custom salmon and steelhead rods on Gary Loomis' new North Fork Composite blanks and he has been building us new rods in exchange for trips. (I think I'm getting the better end of this deal).
We didn't start real early today, 8:30 am and I can tell you it sure beats the heck out of the usual 4:30 am. Dave is one of those infectious people who you just want to fish with, he's not afraid to cast, cast, and cast again all the while smiling.
Dave fishes a coonshrimp on a leader tied to the shank of a pink worm or steelhead jig under a float and this works for him, he has confidence in it so of course it produces fish for him. Our first fish we got to watch as it came out from behind some boulders to run his shrimp down. ...FISH ON! A scrappy 8lb steelhead that gave a few great runs before coming to the net. NICE ONE DAVE!
About an hour later Daves float disappeared, he came back on it and fish on again. No, fish OFF, it came to the surface and thrashed just enough to throw the hook. We were still in the same spot sitting on the anchor when Daves very next cast would give him another chance, the float slipped below the surface and fish on again! This fish would not be as lucky as the last and his fate would be laying in the fish box as well.
The trip lasted just a few short hours before Dave was limited with a couple beautiful summer run steelhead, and me? Well while Daves fish were destined for the smoker to be consumed shortly after, my reward was another of Daves graphite works of art that will help produce limits of fish for many years to come....
