Bull Trout saves the day from a skunk

There are days when you just can’t seem to get the fish you are after, what to do?  Well, like the song says “When you can’t be with the one you love, love the one you’re with”.   On a recent end of season steelhead trip the steelhead all seemed to have lock-jaw.  I was getting great swings that I knew were going over fish but they just would not open up and eat.   Luckily I had some grabs and these turned out to be bull trout which saved the day from a skunk and I got to land a beautiful (and endangered) fish.

Bull trout have saved a skunk on quite a few steelhead days for me.  I’ve caught bulls on the Methow River too on days when I just could not buy a steelhead there.  I’ve caught the bull’s sea-run cousin, the Dolly Varden, on the Skagit and saved the usual winter steelhead skunk.   In fact, the last winter steelhead I did hook up with I assumed was a Dolly until it ran and jumped.

On our trip to Miami this winter we were fishing over a pile of laid up tarpon that would occasionally roll and very rarely actually eat something but we could not get them to our flies.   We accidentally got a snapper to grab the tarpon fly and decided to make lemonade from the lemons we were dealt and tied a Clouser onto our 8-weight and began catching a huge variety of fish – snappers, jacks, bluefish, mackerel – that were willing to eat the damn fly.  Heck with the tarpon, let’s just catch some fish.  It was a blast, even the guide got into it.

I even know a hardcore permit junkie who spent an afternoon catching snappers at the edge of the mangroves when the permit just were not to be found.  Heck, I’ve done the same just to feel the rod bend when down in the Keys and the bonefish are all acting psychotic.  Find a small mangrove key, pull over, tie on a Clouser and catch some fish.   Learn to love the secondary catch, it can save the day and lead you to land a few new species.