Christmas present fishing lesson

Christmas Present Fishing Lesson By Andy Couch

It must have been during my 7th grade year, my Dad gave me a 7-foot travel spinning rod for Christmas that broke down into 3 pieces. It was likely quite easy finding a gift for someone who loved fishing as much as I did. As I mentioned in another column, during a time in the 1970s Dad took our family for several years to the lower Kenai Peninsula over the Memorial Day weekend to fish for king salmon and dig razor clams. It was usually our first big family outdoor adventure of the spring, so of course I took my new fishing rod.

There was always an attempt to gather all the fishing, clamming, camping gear ahead of time, but we invariably got a late start after Dad got off from work in Anchorage, drove home to the Mat-Su Valley, gathered the remainder of the gear we had not found, and then started the drive south toward the lower Kenai Peninsula rivers. Even with longer daylight hours near the end of May, it would be getting dark or vary dark by the time we arrived and found a camping or sleep-in-the-vehicle spot. Since Dad had commuted back and forth to Anchorage, worked all day, then drove the entire trip to the river, he was invariably ready for several hours of sleep.

On that particular trip I was the only one who got up as it was starting to get light, with everyone else opting for more sleep. Since the fishery opened to fishing at midnight there were already anglers fishing most of the better looking holes. As I was hiking up the bank past a rocky fast section of river swollen with spring melt, a salmon surfaced in front of me. I brought the rod back for my first cast, and lobbed my yarn fly and pencil lead sinker toward a spot about 15 feet upstream from where the fish had surfaced. As I released the cast, I watched my rod come apart at the second ferrule, and most of the rod flew out into the river. I was so shocked I just stood and watched without knowing what to do. During my hesitation, my sinker and fly sunk and became lodged in the rocky bottom. When I finally started cranking in the line, everything was stuck fast. I pulled, tugged, and jerked, futilely attempting to pull loose from the snag, but there was no getting loose. I attempting going downstream with the hope that the current might push the sunken rod tip section back down the line toward me. No such luck. Finally, I simply held onto the spool of my reel, so the drag would not spin, pointed the bottom section of my Christmas rod at the snag and pulled. The line broke and I never saw the upper two sections of my 7-foot travel rod again.

For a kid who did not have much fishing tackle, it was a tough and expensive education. In addition to losing most of my fishing rod, I did not catch a single fish that entire trip. I decided, after that incident, if I ever casted off a fishing rod section into the water again, I would immediately and quickly reel in as fast as possible so nothing could get snagged on bottom before I got the rest of my rod back. Over the years I’ve casted off portions of ferruled rods several times, and as a fishing guide I’ve had guests do the same thing, but my plan of reeling in immediately has always returned lost rod sections — since I learned that lesson decades ago.

Learning can be expensive, in both cost and time, however, the right education invariably pays dividends.

Ice Fishing Update

One of my nephews called me more than a week ago after ice fishing on one of the lakes in the Kepler — Bradley lake system and reported the ice depth had was then about 7 inches. He also reported some good catches of smaller newly stocked fish along with catching some larger holdover-sized fish. I’ve also heard some positive reports from other anglers, as well as an I-did-not-find-many-fish-willing-to-bite-at-my-good-spot report. Ice fishing is still fishing, so an angler does not always catch as many, or as large of fish, as expected, but it could always happen on the next trip!

Fish On!

Andy Couch has made a career of guiding anglers on Mat-Su Valley fishing trips, and is also a member of the Matanuska-Susitna Borough Fish and Wildlife Commission.