We walked to our usual starting point and waited to find any glimpse of a fish moving or a bug skittering across the surface. Nothing was happening. A few bugs here and there, but nothing substantial. We walked slowly to the next bend and waited, hoping for a different outcome. Finally, I saw rings coming from under a willow where Adam had hooked a large brown on a previous trip. Then 10 seconds later a muskrat popped up just downstream of the willow. Not a fish. We continued this pattern of slowly walking, watching, and waiting - hoping in vain for something to start happening.
With the sun dropping lower in the sky, we slowly made it to a bend where an unlikely-looking 40’ long channel, three feet wide and less than a foot deep, forms at the tail of a large pool. The banks are high and a small willow grows at the head of the riffle which had survived the resident beavers attempt to dam the creek through the summer. Where the channel rejoins the main stem of the creek there’s a small bucket where a large spruce tree extends into the creek. On rare occasions a fish sits in the bucket at the bottom. In my mind, this was the last chance at a fish for the day as our spirits were going down with the sun. I crept up behind the tree to look into it trying to spot a fish for Adam. Nothing.
I looked at Adam and said, “One day a fish will be either sitting in this bucket or tucked into the channel.” Admitting defeat I climbed up to the bank and began to wonder how my family was back home and if the kids were behaving and going to sleep for my wife. Meanwhile, Adam decided to prospect the small channel. After watching him put a few casts into tailout of the channel I decided no brown was home and readied for the walk out. In a last ditch effort, Adam made one last cast to the small willow at head of the channel.
With my back turned, all I heard was the exploding water. I turned to see Adam frantically stripping line as fast as he could, trying to catch up to the fish as it raced down the channel toward him, headed for his only escape, the main stem of the creek.
A short, frantic battle ensued. Adam was able to catch up to the fish and gain control before it could bury itself under sunken logs on the opposite side of the creek and break off.