A backyard brawl

Stardate 103107

"He who fights and runs away, lives to fight another day." The Great Race

It was a gorgeous 56° Wednesday afternoon, the last day of October and most of my day's work was done. This was the last day of our northeast Oregon '07 trout season, so I headed for the backyard to see if I could pick a fight, or two, or three, or four, maybe more with some of the pea-brains that live back there. The picture above will give you an idea of where I started by placing a few cast to the left side of the river around a fish holding rootwad, a few cast behind the rocks in the middle of the river, and then a cast towards the rootwad on the right side of the river. POW!, first fish of the day a 9" redband trout (by the tape--pictured here) caught just above the rootwad on the right. There were more October Caddis flying over the water this day than I had seen all season, so I was fishing with a high floating Orange Stimulator, this was a nice way to start the day's fish fights. Gee, was I pumped now, ready for the next fight.
Being the last day of trout season I knew that anything I hooked into, would not be around to offer a fight next Memorial Day Weekend; so I was fishing for dinner, a rare occasion for me when fishing over wild trout, particularly in my own backyard.

I continued to fish upriver casting my fly in all the usual places that I usually get rises and hookups, but little was happening. It dawned on me... I should check the water temperature to determine the trout's activity level. 40°, that was 8° cooler that a couple of weeks ago, the last time I fished the river. Trout fishing begins to slow down as the water temperature approaches 38° and colder, and we have had some good snowfalls in the mountain timber this autumn, with overnight frosts around the ranch most of this past week.

I tell myself, "I needed to start fishing with a nymph" eventhough those B-52 type October Caddis were flying around. So my next move was to tie on a Copper John. I was still fishing upriver and my fly presentations were not the best when I placed a cast behind a nice 4' boulder and my line went tight. Then all the tackle beyond the tip-top guide begins to run downriver. OH Boy, what a fight developed using my 1 wt. rod. I brought this guy to the landing net about 4 to 6 times, and each time it had it's way and ran across river/down river/trying to get away. I got pretty excited about the weight of this fish on my line, just hoping that I could get a picture of the end result of our fight.

Yep, this guy was about to get an invitation to dinner. A nice 12" redband.
It really hurts to be thumping these guys out, but I kept telling myself that they won't be here after winter, the spring runoff so Kittee and I should enjoy their company now.
After hooking this 12"er, I fished a couple hundred yards further upriver and as the sun had set, the evening light was getting dimmer; I turned around to fish back to the ranch. Having fished about 20 yards downstream still using the Copper John, I hooked into another nice fish. The fish felt like it had good weight and it swam strong; right into the fast current... another long line release, a short rodeo.
By the last light of day as I was passing caves in the bluff wall next to the river, and I began picturing bear and cougars climbing out of them for their nocturnal feedings. I sped up my wading steps back to the ranch's river takeout, there I cleaned our dinner and headed for the barn. I still had horses and goats to feed. Just as I finished putting out hay for everyone, Kittee got home and headed for the barn. We talked with horses, goats for just awhile, and headed for the house to put away the 1 wt. river fishing gear for the balance of '07, and got ready for dinner.

It was a very good day.

A day in the life at McKuster Ranch -- Dale