This month's waker was previewed in prior posts, but wanted to feature it here anyway. My friend Rick Fielder showed me the value of gold when I fished with him on the North Umpqua in late July. He proceeded to hook into a nice buck in the first run that we fished, then he had another steelhead chomp down so hard on his skater to close in the gap of his bomber hook.
One can't argue with success, so following that trip, I stopped at the local fly shops to gather materials. I grabbed some gold krystal flash, gold diamond braid, and gold ice dubbing and went to work. The value of gold proved itself to me immediately with a rise and a good hookup on my first outing field testing the gold waker.
Just as with Rick's waker, I used yellow foam for the shellback/lip and then I elected to use white and orange for the visitility posts. It turns out the bright colors on top are very visible near dusk in areas where the surface of the water is dark.
Rick mentioned that gold is a key fly color on rivers that he fishes so he incorporates gold in many of his patterns. I'm glad that I learned the value of gold from Rick's experiences with gold flies.
The fall season is upon us with shorter days, overcast weather and cooling air and water temps. Tis my favorite time of year!
Wishing you all a wonderful fall season and abundant rising steelhead to feed the need.
