The Frozen Few

Sometimes you're catching, sometimes just fishing. This past weekend I was freezing while fishing. I arrived in Altmar, NY Friday night with plans to walk in and fish Saturday and run a drift trip with my brother Doug and Scott Glazier from Tinker Tavern Guide Service on Sunday. Scott had called mid-week and asked if we wanted to fish Saturday as he had an opening. Unfortunately, Doug couldn't get away from work early enough, so I stuck to my original plan. Saturday morning was cold, about 24 degrees when I started fishing at 8:00. The river was running at 750 cfs, up significantly from the 250 cfs in October. The low water in the fall really took a toll on the salmon. The morning was slow, as I only landed one brown and lost a pair of steelhead. Some coho were lingering in the cutouts, but they weren't long for this world. I broke off for an early lunch, hoping to meet up with Doug and get back out for the afternoon. About 2 o'clock I finally heard from Doug. He hadn't left Philly. I threw in the towel on the afternoon, figuring I would be out 9-10 hours on Sunday. After all, we would have the mobility of a drift boat, and should get a lot of hook-ups. Was I wrong! We awoke to 8 degrees, a flow of 1800 cfs, and fish that didn't want to know about anything we threw at them. We didn't get a nibble from 7:30 until almost 3 o'clock. The sharp drop in temperature and significant increase in flow seemed to just switch the bite off. While fishermen were clamoring for an increased let-off in October, the sudden change was killing us Sunday. We had a short flurry near the end of the day, with Scott and I both hooking fish and losing them. Mine took off down stream along a particularly treacherous wading area, eventually taking out 40-50 yards and never turning before finally spitting the hook. That was it. My one shot at a steelhead for the day. Looking back though, who can really complain about a weekend of fishing, five hours and a world away from all of the crap of daily life?