DAY 2
Wasn't sure how I'd sleep in the
bottom of the boat cabin; turns out I sleep perfectly
well. Woke up to a beautiful morning and we loaded
up all of our rods and gear in to the jet sled. After
omelets, sausage, and coffee, we headed towards our
first target river. About three miles up from the mouth,
we stopped and excited, I grabbed my spey rod and
ran up river. On my fast walk to the top of the run, a
2 foot bull trout ate my fly that was dragging off the
end of my Skagit head, and it was at that point that I
realized just how lucky I was to be on this trip. A few
casts later, I had landed a 24-25 inch bull trout- on
purpose this time. At that point, I had caught the target
species, and relaxed enough to go help dad get set up.
I had streamer max lines rigged on the single hand
rods and tied on a hunk of articulated white and silver
bull trout parfait (rabbit hide, dumbbell eyes, polar
chenille, cherry, cocktail umbrella). Minutes later, Dad
was on the scoreboard as well with another bully. We
landed 16-25 inch Bull trout every spot that looked
like one could be there. Just before lunch, and at our
best guess 5-6 miles up-river, I landed one really nice
fish. We made a fire on the beach at lunch, scoped out
the elk tracks, watched some sheep on the mountain
side, and set up Craig's rod finally. After lunch, Craig
landed his first bull trout on his new Sage Pulse we
brought him from the shop. We fished the runs back
to the mouth before heading back to camp, and at our
best guess, we landed 30 bull trout and a handful of
cutthroat. Dad even caught his first fish on the spey
rod (it was Jerrin's rod and I was so stoked for Dad that
I stepped on it and broke it while I was taking Dad's
picture). Back at camp, Jim evidently saved Chuck's life
(the guy who owns the dock), and luckily the only other
fisherman to show up happened to be a doctor and
stitched Chuck up. Chuck's wife baked us a pie for after
dinner for Jim's heroic efforts. We decided to scope out
the other nearby river quick before dark and jetted up
about 3-4 miles and landed another half a dozen fish
before dark. Dinner, cards, stories, bed.