I managed to scrape my ass out of bed at 6 this morning (after a 3am bedtime..) and take an adventure to Bayfield.
The day started as I picked up my fishing buddy and headed out for Bayfield. The sun attempted to come out between the bouts of rain - as would be the story for most of the day. We parked in Bayfield and walked upstream a Km or so and found some fish holding at the base of a pool. My friend started (and didn't change all day) using a worm under a float while I was attempting to use a bead-headed prince. There still wasn't a solid current where we were fishing so I had to change to something a little light to stay off the bottom. After switching to an salmon egg-pattern I managed into my first fish. It put a nice bend in the rod and was a pleasure to pull in! After a quick photo my foe was released for another chance.
Fast forward about 45 minutes and I had switched to my float setup and planned to drift some 'bags. I hooked into what looked like a smaller steelhead (it has continued to elude me) but my 8lb tippet couldn't take the force and I ended up losing my hook/float. I felt bad because the float was still attached to the hook in the fishes mouth, so you could see the float moving around the pool lol Well, sh** happens I guess.
After another ~1km trek upstream we hadn't seen any more fish holding and decided to start making our way back to the car. On the way back we ran into a few guys who had some luck, saying they pulled in about 5-6 rainbows during the morning. The one guy had a nice eating-size 'bow on a stringer and it was definitely a healthy looking fish.
We decided to leave and fish at a secret area that only the fishing elite (and this noob) know about. Upon arrival we were disappointed to see so many cars, but we decided to continue on anyways. After a 30 minute trek we came across our special area. Usually with good levels this hole would contain 15-25 fish, unfortunately we didn't see that many but there definitely was a few. I started by tossing a black wooly-bugger into some rapids and had a take on the first attempt. This was a healthy fish, and the colours were amazing - a true steelie! He took off upstream with me in tow, me being all-the-while afraid of the lurking tree's in/on the water. Of course Murphy's Law, the fish bolted like a maniac under/around some trees and snapped off. Well, sh** happens I guess
I threw on my olive bugger and had another take, and this time he rolled and broke the fly off, ah well another time. It was getting to be around that time where we had to snap back to reality and call it a day. We decided to walk the river back instead of taking the trail - it took us an extra 25 minutes but the scenery was beautiful (and I wanted to scope out some more fish!). We saw 1 or 2 more fish, but they weren't interested.
All in all a beatiful day on the Bayfield river.
Oh yah, it rained on and off all day.
I've attached pics, but since they're a high resolution here's a link thats a little easier on the eyes: http://imgur.com/a/hMcAG
