Friday, November 29, 2013
Monday, November 25, 2013
Early Winter Steel Recon
November is one of those tough "tweener" months for a steelheader like me. Conditions on my local flow is volatile during November with periods of the river being blown out by early winter rains or levels being bumped for no apparent reasons by the Corps. When levels are stable enough, I'm able to get surface steelhead up to Thankgiving and beyond, but that hasn't been the case this season. While I have had a few surface hookups in water temps as low a 44 degrees on the North Umpqua in early November, the water is often too high and cold for surface steelheading during this timeframe.
For some folks, November could be seen as a good month to take some time off from fishing, maybe do some other things like yard work, home improvements, hitting the honey-do list hard, etc - I have done some of those things, but my inner voice that says "you'll never get a fish if your line's not wet" just never stops. I recently took a couple very early trips to chase after the unlikely encounter with a front running winter steelhead. One of these trips involved friends Steve Turner, Adrian Cortes, and Aaron Ostoj coming my way with Steve's Clackacraft in tow. Steve traveled from his home in Ridgefield, WA and Aaron met up with him at his home in the pre-butt crack of dawn hours and they picked Adrian up from his home in Beavercreek on the way down to meet me in Springfield. We spent a couple wonderful days on the water, floating in Steve's gorgeous Clackacraft on day one and we bank fished on day two. Steve even let me share rowing duties in his newly reconditioned Clacka and I proceeded to bang it into in a rock in the only stretch of moving water for miles. Steve had a beautiful new set of Sawyer composite, counter-weighted oars that made rowing a pleasure.
While it was no surprise that we didn't enounter any steel during our two days of fishing, we had a wonderful trip spending time together, sharing in our common bond as brothers in Christ, and having the opportunity to get our winter steelhead rod/reel/line setups dialed and mentally shifting to the rhythm of winter steelheading.
When amongst these guys, I'm in some pretty fast company. Adrian and Aaron are top notch classic Atlantic Salmon fly tyers and they both tie their magical creations in hand. Just take a look on the "hooks, feathers, and floss" board on Speypages for a glipse at some of their talent. Aaron also happens to be the proprietor of AO Feathers, a premier supplier of exotic fly tying materials for those classic Atlantic Salmon flies and beyond. Aaron also dyes alot of his materials in house and all of his materials are only of the highest grade and carefully selected. Check out Aaron's wares at: http://www.aaronmostojfeathers.com/
Steve is a master behind the camera. I have been an amateur, self-taught photographer and Steve's compositions inspire me to take my snap shooting to a higher level. Thanks to Steve sharing his amazing photos with me, I've been yearning to purchase a used, outdated Nikon DSLR body so I can make use of my old Nikon AF lenses from my film shooting days and hopefully take some better fishing photos. After our trip, Steve emailed me some of the photos he took while we were out on the water. Among the photos that I really liked was one of a guy casting - the composition was perfect, all the elements and background came together for a perfect shot with the line in the air during a single hand speycast, the only thing "wrong" with the photo - the caster in the pic is me!! Geeze, for Steve to get me to like a photo that I appear in, now that's talent! Steve's website: http://www.steveturnerphoto.com/
For some folks, November could be seen as a good month to take some time off from fishing, maybe do some other things like yard work, home improvements, hitting the honey-do list hard, etc - I have done some of those things, but my inner voice that says "you'll never get a fish if your line's not wet" just never stops. I recently took a couple very early trips to chase after the unlikely encounter with a front running winter steelhead. One of these trips involved friends Steve Turner, Adrian Cortes, and Aaron Ostoj coming my way with Steve's Clackacraft in tow. Steve traveled from his home in Ridgefield, WA and Aaron met up with him at his home in the pre-butt crack of dawn hours and they picked Adrian up from his home in Beavercreek on the way down to meet me in Springfield. We spent a couple wonderful days on the water, floating in Steve's gorgeous Clackacraft on day one and we bank fished on day two. Steve even let me share rowing duties in his newly reconditioned Clacka and I proceeded to bang it into in a rock in the only stretch of moving water for miles. Steve had a beautiful new set of Sawyer composite, counter-weighted oars that made rowing a pleasure.
While it was no surprise that we didn't enounter any steel during our two days of fishing, we had a wonderful trip spending time together, sharing in our common bond as brothers in Christ, and having the opportunity to get our winter steelhead rod/reel/line setups dialed and mentally shifting to the rhythm of winter steelheading.
When amongst these guys, I'm in some pretty fast company. Adrian and Aaron are top notch classic Atlantic Salmon fly tyers and they both tie their magical creations in hand. Just take a look on the "hooks, feathers, and floss" board on Speypages for a glipse at some of their talent. Aaron also happens to be the proprietor of AO Feathers, a premier supplier of exotic fly tying materials for those classic Atlantic Salmon flies and beyond. Aaron also dyes alot of his materials in house and all of his materials are only of the highest grade and carefully selected. Check out Aaron's wares at: http://www.aaronmostojfeathers.com/
A glimpse into Aaron's fly box:
Perusing Adrian's fly wallet:
(Photos courtesy of Steve Turner)
Steve is a master behind the camera. I have been an amateur, self-taught photographer and Steve's compositions inspire me to take my snap shooting to a higher level. Thanks to Steve sharing his amazing photos with me, I've been yearning to purchase a used, outdated Nikon DSLR body so I can make use of my old Nikon AF lenses from my film shooting days and hopefully take some better fishing photos. After our trip, Steve emailed me some of the photos he took while we were out on the water. Among the photos that I really liked was one of a guy casting - the composition was perfect, all the elements and background came together for a perfect shot with the line in the air during a single hand speycast, the only thing "wrong" with the photo - the caster in the pic is me!! Geeze, for Steve to get me to like a photo that I appear in, now that's talent! Steve's website: http://www.steveturnerphoto.com/
AO enjoying a light hearted moment on the water
Steve's cool photo of amateur caster with outdated glass rod:
Fly tying master Adrian Cortez (Fshnazn)
Aaron and Adrian humoring each other while the guy with glass rod works down a run.
(Photos courtesy of Steve Turner)
Thursday, November 21, 2013
Switching Gears
Now is that time of year when I am switching gears between fishing for summer runs and preparing for the fun ride of winter steelheading. I'm about ready to fully leave behind the worst summer steelhead season I've had so far. Finding rising steelhead was tough and I did not bring one fall steelhead to hand - very disappointing when I am typically able to raise my local hatchery summer runs to the surface with some regularity in Sept, Oct, and Nov on my homewater. Unless the Army Corps brings the river level down soon, my surface steelhead season is over on the MF Willamette as it is currently running too high for any more surface steelheading until fresh summer runs arrive next season.
Switching from this:
To this:
(I tend to tie just a few extras of each pattern to be sure I don't run low and have enough to give a few away)
The season of weather and water dependent fishing opportunities is upon us, a time of doing our best on prophesying the arrival of fresh winter steelhead in our favorite runs and pools. It will be a time of connecting with my regular winter fishing friends and re familiarizing myself with my winter rivers. I'll be mentally shifting gears from the visual summertime routine of twitching and swinging wakers to the tactile experience of the winter dry line swing with wet flies on heavy irons (and not so traditional modestly weighted patterns like MOALs, marabou intruders, and Samurai's - a marabou/rabbit strip pattern). Giving skaters a go in the afternoons will be part of my routine this winter as well. Bill McMillan has told me that a degree or two rise in water temperature during midday to early afternoon can cause winter steelhead to become active enough to rise to the surface, even in relatively cold water.
Wishing you all a wonderful winter steelhead season. May many chrome encounters come your way, I'd love to hear your stories so feel free to comment on here anytime.
Todd
Wednesday, November 6, 2013
Dry Spell
Seems like steelhead fly fishing blog posts are supposed to be exciting, heroic stories of fish caught and lots of them at that. I love when I have experiences that warrant those kinds of fish stories, but my reality is that I often go through dry spells with days, weeks, sometimes months between solid connections with steel. In fact I'm right in the middle of a good dry spell right now. It's been at least a couple months since I've experienced a solid hookup with a steelhead and several weeks since I've raised a steelhead to the surface. This can seem dismal and hopeless, especially considering that I'm out fishing at every opportunity throughout the year, but the inner vision of a steelhead grabbing on the surface keeps me persisting with my efforts during the summer/fall season.
Sometimes my dry periods are due to my stubborn choice of sticking with dry line techniques. For instance, in the winter, even though it can be tough to keep the faith while fishing with a dry line and heavy irons when my buddies who are competent sinktip fisherman are fishing circles around me, my persistence is unwavering. In the summer, most folks are fishing dry lines anyway, but for some reason, I insist on making a tough game tougher by fishing surface flies almost exclusively, even over my local hatchery steelhead. Again, when my more realistic fishing friends prudently go to wet flies when the skaters aren't producing and start getting fish, I'm still out there persisting after the surface grab. But then again, some of my fishing buds (won't mention names, but Craig, Tony, Cory, Keith, etc know I'd be talking about them) are just fishy anyway, often out-fishing me at my own dry line games.
Steelhead on the fly is a tough challenge any way you look at it, a game that separates the casual from what can be a very dedicated and obsessive crowd. While being able to withstand long periods without fish can seem virtuous (in some twisted way), it remains a worrisome condition that in our day and age, modestly competent fly fisherman (myself included of course) can fish with dedicated persistence and go empty handed for the great majority of the time. In the summer and fall, I am blessed to fish over wild steelhead on the North Umpqua along with my opportunistic local jaunts after hatchery summer runs. Thus far, I've yet to find any kind of consistency on the NU even after fishing it for the past 4 years and my backyard river, the Middle Fork Willamette gives up surface steelhead very sporadically at best, and this year has been especially poor with the low returns.
No surprise that my inner vision of what steelheading should be came out of my repeated readings of Dry Line Steelhead with Bill McMillan's depictions of surface fishing techniques that came out of his fishing experiences on his beloved Southwest Washington rivers - rivers that were already in decline at the time of his writings. As I described in a prior post, I was fortunate that my early surface steelheading dreams came to life on the Bulkley River, BC in 1995, when I was first able to actually experience surface steelheading like I read about in Dry Line Steelhead. I am both blessed and cursed by these early influences and experiences in that they have embedded a mental picture that I continually seek to see repeated at just about any cost - even in the face of repeated and prolonged skunkings. I often feel like an old man stubbornly holding to the good old days. Most folks will just do what it takes to get a fish and happily get on with things, but I remain trapped in my own self-imposed and confined definition of success as I just can't let go of those images that give meaning to steelheading for me.
Yes, there are a few places that produce fishing like the old days, with good numbers of fish and little fishing pressure, but such places are getting harder and harder to find and/or require travel and expense. With greater numbers of fisherman like me seeking quiet places out and with the internet, there are really no secret places anymore and I am not affluent enough to afford to maintain a yearly itinerary at various steelhead lodges in BC. My reality involves fishing well known rivers, over dwindling stocks of wild steelhead (or only hatchery steelhead), with fishing pressure ever on the rise. Therefore, it's not surprising that aggressive steelhead on the surface can be an extremely rare prize for me to encounter.
While this post sounds more like a lament, I continue to feel blessed that I have experienced some magical days when my crazy mental picture is fullfilled - when aggressive steelhead come to the surface in summer or when that line comes tight on a dry line grab in winter. The beauty of these moments keeps me going in my unwavering faith that I will experience them again.
Reminiscing helps during dry spells!!
Steelhead on the fly is a tough challenge any way you look at it, a game that separates the casual from what can be a very dedicated and obsessive crowd. While being able to withstand long periods without fish can seem virtuous (in some twisted way), it remains a worrisome condition that in our day and age, modestly competent fly fisherman (myself included of course) can fish with dedicated persistence and go empty handed for the great majority of the time. In the summer and fall, I am blessed to fish over wild steelhead on the North Umpqua along with my opportunistic local jaunts after hatchery summer runs. Thus far, I've yet to find any kind of consistency on the NU even after fishing it for the past 4 years and my backyard river, the Middle Fork Willamette gives up surface steelhead very sporadically at best, and this year has been especially poor with the low returns.
No surprise that my inner vision of what steelheading should be came out of my repeated readings of Dry Line Steelhead with Bill McMillan's depictions of surface fishing techniques that came out of his fishing experiences on his beloved Southwest Washington rivers - rivers that were already in decline at the time of his writings. As I described in a prior post, I was fortunate that my early surface steelheading dreams came to life on the Bulkley River, BC in 1995, when I was first able to actually experience surface steelheading like I read about in Dry Line Steelhead. I am both blessed and cursed by these early influences and experiences in that they have embedded a mental picture that I continually seek to see repeated at just about any cost - even in the face of repeated and prolonged skunkings. I often feel like an old man stubbornly holding to the good old days. Most folks will just do what it takes to get a fish and happily get on with things, but I remain trapped in my own self-imposed and confined definition of success as I just can't let go of those images that give meaning to steelheading for me.
Yes, there are a few places that produce fishing like the old days, with good numbers of fish and little fishing pressure, but such places are getting harder and harder to find and/or require travel and expense. With greater numbers of fisherman like me seeking quiet places out and with the internet, there are really no secret places anymore and I am not affluent enough to afford to maintain a yearly itinerary at various steelhead lodges in BC. My reality involves fishing well known rivers, over dwindling stocks of wild steelhead (or only hatchery steelhead), with fishing pressure ever on the rise. Therefore, it's not surprising that aggressive steelhead on the surface can be an extremely rare prize for me to encounter.
While this post sounds more like a lament, I continue to feel blessed that I have experienced some magical days when my crazy mental picture is fullfilled - when aggressive steelhead come to the surface in summer or when that line comes tight on a dry line grab in winter. The beauty of these moments keeps me going in my unwavering faith that I will experience them again.
A nice bright winter hen that grabbed a MOAL in March
Hatchery steelhead do take skaters, somtimes:
A nice Deschutes buck, the fly: #6 steelhead caddis
A memorable early December dry line buck
First winter steelhead taken on a traditional Winter's Hope
First winter steelhead taken on a skater!
Reminiscing helps during dry spells!!
Sunday, October 27, 2013
Harmony's first boat ride
I took my 7 month old grand daughter Harmony for her first ride on my drift boat yesterday. Her parents TJ and Stephanie decided to come along too.
It was another perfect fall day with cool overcast conditions. TJ got a decent rainbow on a wooley bugger while I busted out my old Sage 9140 brownie for old times sake. The long rod allowed me to make casts from the rowing seat while not getting hung up on stuff and giving TJ room to cast from the bow. Of course I fished my skater with confidence, especially in spots that have produced fish in the past, but my internal vision of steelhead coming up to attack my skater never materialized. Oh well, such is the life of the long suffering surface steelheader - self-inflicted punishment is part of the deal.
All in all, it was a blessed day with my precious little granddaughter, my son TJ, and daughter in law Stephanie.
I even rowed smoothly enough for Harmony to be able to take a nap up front
It was another perfect fall day with cool overcast conditions. TJ got a decent rainbow on a wooley bugger while I busted out my old Sage 9140 brownie for old times sake. The long rod allowed me to make casts from the rowing seat while not getting hung up on stuff and giving TJ room to cast from the bow. Of course I fished my skater with confidence, especially in spots that have produced fish in the past, but my internal vision of steelhead coming up to attack my skater never materialized. Oh well, such is the life of the long suffering surface steelheader - self-inflicted punishment is part of the deal.
All in all, it was a blessed day with my precious little granddaughter, my son TJ, and daughter in law Stephanie.
Sunday, October 13, 2013
Fall Steelheading Pics
Since I have not been doing a great job of hooking steelhead lately, I figured to post up some photos which capture the beauty of my favorite steelhead season:
Quiet Places
Craig throwing a long line
Frozen rods at camp
Adrian getting it done with his Reid Cane
Fishing with Craig
Sunday, September 29, 2013
Maiden Voyage
After years of being a die hard bank angler, I finally succumbed to the allure of boat ownership. For my 50th birthday gift, my dear wife Wendi decided to generously supplement my meager savings of mad money in my boat fund so I could go boat shopping right away, rather than having to wait until I had enough pennies saved on my own to put me in the ballpark for a decent drift boat.
Thanks to my good friends Tony Torrence, Craig Coover, Cory Dixon, Keith Tymchuck, and others, I got great advice on what to look for in a reasonably priced, yet functional boat. I scanned Craigslist and watched our local area for used aluminum drift boats on the market. I almost jumped at a deal on a 14' Alumaweld, but thankfully, a quick call to Tony Torrence kept me from making the mistake of purchasing a boat I would quickly find to be too small. It seems all of my friends who are experienced with boat ownership were unanimous in recommending a 16' drift boat, probably 54" wide, though some, like Tony, still preferred 48s.
I found a listing for a 16' x 54" RB drift boat that had been on Craigslist for awhile. I called the seller and the boat was still available. I emailed the add to Tony to look over and he said "looks good". I went to look over the boat and it seemed to be in decent, well used condition. The trailer looked ok, two pairs of oars plus a spare, anchor, and many extras were included in the deal. The only real issue I noted were a couple dents in the chine, but the seller assured me the boat didn't leak. I made an offer which the seller accepted and arrangements were made to return with cash and to pick up the boat the following day.
Thanks to my good friends Tony Torrence, Craig Coover, Cory Dixon, Keith Tymchuck, and others, I got great advice on what to look for in a reasonably priced, yet functional boat. I scanned Craigslist and watched our local area for used aluminum drift boats on the market. I almost jumped at a deal on a 14' Alumaweld, but thankfully, a quick call to Tony Torrence kept me from making the mistake of purchasing a boat I would quickly find to be too small. It seems all of my friends who are experienced with boat ownership were unanimous in recommending a 16' drift boat, probably 54" wide, though some, like Tony, still preferred 48s.
I found a listing for a 16' x 54" RB drift boat that had been on Craigslist for awhile. I called the seller and the boat was still available. I emailed the add to Tony to look over and he said "looks good". I went to look over the boat and it seemed to be in decent, well used condition. The trailer looked ok, two pairs of oars plus a spare, anchor, and many extras were included in the deal. The only real issue I noted were a couple dents in the chine, but the seller assured me the boat didn't leak. I made an offer which the seller accepted and arrangements were made to return with cash and to pick up the boat the following day.
Go Ducks!
Dents in Chine - adds character
Today was the day set for the maiden voyage with my new/used toy. My classic 74' Bronco had been sitting in my garage for the past few years (due to it's poor fuel economy) and now was it's time to be put back on insurance and enlisted for boat towing duty. My old friend started right up after getting the carburetor fuel bowl filled and pumping gas into the cylinders. It was great to hear the roar of dual Flowmasters behind the healthy 351Windsor, a sound I'm sure my neighbors hate.
I felt it only right to offer the first boat ride to my family. My 21 year old son, (also named Todd, TJ to mom and dad) and son-law Shaun decided to take up my offer. Towing the boat and launching went without a hitch. I think all the years of watching and helping friends with their boats sunk in and I was blessed that my father in law Jim Jones taught me to row in his 16' x 54' Willie in 1994 when we lived in Montana.
Today was a perfect overcast day and I was optimistic for steelhead and I figured TJ, who doesn't fish very often, would do well in fishing for trout. I had the guys fishing out of the boat between spots and we would spread out when stopping at runs. We were having a great time enjoying the new luxury of fishing out of a boat. I found this drifter to be smooth riding and easy to maneuver, so I was thrilled to realize that I got exactly what I needed in a used watercraft.
We fished in familiar spots that are known to hold fish in this stretch of the Middle Fork Willamette. Seeing this stretch of river by boat was all new to Shaun and TJ. I felt so abundantly blessed as we drifted the river and fished our way to the takeout. I don't get to spend a lot of time with TJ and I realized that acquiring this boat was an avenue for us to get out together more often. TJ had only been out fly fishing with me a couple times before and I was amazed that his fly casting came back to him quickly and with some brief tips from me, he was throwing some pretty loops. TJ was jazzed about continuing to do more fly fishing in the future and I was glad to hear that since TJ wasn't one who took to fishing as a child.
I'm hoping that today's memorable float is just the first of many to come. For some reason today's fishing was unremarkable even in what seemed to be perfect fall fishing weather. TJ got a small rainbow, Shaun got a small cutthroat and a tug that may have been steel. As for me, I just continue with skunkitis. I had a couple nice trout go after my skater but steelhead ignored me completely. Great company in my new boat more than made up for the slow fishing with TJ's renewed enthusiasm for fly fishing a great bonus.
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