Going fishing

Summer is beginning to look like we are getting to the short end of the stick. Last week I had driver's training in Pendleton with MidCo. Yesterday I had First Aid and CPR training with the Milton-Freewater School Dist., and next week I have special needs children training session with MidCo; busy, busy, busy. The following week 8/25 school re-starts in Milton-Freewater for another year.

So today it was time to go fishing. Before going fishing today, I prepped 4 lbs. of blueberries for freezing, got them in the freezer, made a large bowl of potato salad for dinner, and then made a large pot of olive/green pea macaroni salad for quick munchies to take care of us the rest of the week.

My plan for the day was to have my chores done, horses watered and jumping into the river at 4:00 PDT. That is 3 o'clock by-the-sun feeding time for the river's fish.


On my way to the river I filled Rusty's, the mare and gelding herds' water troughs and walked around petting the mares while their two tanks filled.

Now to save allot of chatter on my part, I will let my photos and video of the afternoon's activities tell the story.

As usual when I get into the mare herd there is always Rosey and Summer to greet me, shortly thereafter there is always Raji and Sunny by my side.

There is Moon and Misty

Shaiela

Jasmine

Goldie

Peaches

Goldie and Summer

There are a few girls here to be petted on a daily basis, part of my chores.

Leaving the mare herd, I went through our wildlife habitat recovery area next to the river and enjoy some of the blossoms along the river while looking for any spring Chinook spawning that might be taking place in the river now. Tis the season for salmon spawning.

Climbing down into the middle of the river, making my first cast of the day... Fish On! Appears it might be a good day for catching.

Fishing upriver, using a Copper John fly pattern and continued to catch maybe 30-40 pretty little redband trout, most in the 7"-8" size range. All were beautifully marked; red side bands, camouflaged back colors, with white tipped fins. It appeared to me that maybe no one has been fishing our ranch waters and killing fish this summer, but I didn't catch any of the larger 10" fish that were here a few weeks ago.


I do have the river well posted on our north and south side of the river. It appears that people might now be reading and respecting our private property boundaries.

I only made it up to the second fish weir today. While fishing the pool below the rocks I caught maybe a dozen fish and one hookup was caught on video.

Fish ON!!
(a video link)
~you can view at 480p and full screen~

This was my first time trying to one hand fly fish and one hand operate the video camera. Surprised what I got. You can click this link above and relive the last hookup of today with me.

I fished today for about two hours, then the two-way radio came calling. Kittee was home, and looking for me. I brought in my fly from the last cast and headed for the house. As I walked through our wildlife rehab area I spotted one of our evening fawn visitors.

Usually we have two fawns, sometimes three fawns visiting us as the sun sinks slowly into the western skies. Today I only "spotted" this one.

A day in the life --- Dale