HAIKU MONDAY: On Chick Floats and the Making of a Steelhead Bum

Here it is a Haiku Monday again, and Fish Hack is proud to say he rocked it on the Rogue River with Hack’s two fave chicks, Tax Deduction No. 2 and The Most Significant Other, who now can say they caught a Rogue summer steelhead and kept the fishes’ eyes from becoming X’s.

Catch-and-release chicks./Caught steelhead that swam away./Nice ethic, Ladies.

For you remaining Haiku Monday virgins, this is when and where Fish Hack waxes on and off non-Brazilian style on the outdoors and whatever, with some bad forms of old Japanese poetry sprinkled in.

The thing that Haiku’s, good whiskey and Fish Hack all have in common? Best in small doses.

Fish Hack full-time Dude?/That would last about a week./Better as B.F.

Earlier last week, while fishing with Fish Hack best bud Jeff Barnard, TD#2 hooked, fought and boated a 6-pound chrome summer steelhead fishing from TouVelle down past the former Gold Ray Dam site…Fish Hack’s new fave waters.

Great steelhead water and the dicey placement of Pucker Rapid — remember that rapid below the former dam site that makes your back pockets do just that when you try to see the line a driftboat can take safely? — keep most steelheaders outta there. No houses, either. Just that annoying air boat every now and then.

Seriously, Some dude goes all Everglades down there with an air boat you can hear two miles away. When he’s not there, the drift totally rocks.

So TMSO gets a one-day license — remember, small doses — for a chick float Saturday. They each hooked and got schooled by 4-pounders that got away.

Then TMSO lets out her plug in a big riffle, clicks the bail and WHAM. Fight’s on.

TD#2 talks her through the battle like the control freak that she is, and soon after nets TMSO’s first steelhead. A 20-inch hen, caught right under the shadows of Lower Table Rocks.

The quick release was more important than a photo, so no fish porn here.

Now, TMSO is hooked. She’s looking to buy a few rods, use sick days on the water and maybe start working part-time.

Now everything not steelhead is better in smaller doses.

Fish Hack bares witness:/Birth of a Steelhead Bum./Is there hope for her?

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  • Blog Author

    Mark Freeman

    I've underachieved as the Mail Tribune's Fish Hack since 1989. I can't help but find a few things to yuk about with pathetic regularity in the outdoors. My most treasured award? An OSHA citation for a messy desk -- Fire hazard. YEAH! Read Full
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