Moving forward and a report

The other day after some rain Sam and I headed to the river in hopes it had gone up, I say in hopes because it is hard to gauge water levels on this stream. we decided to hit the best producing spots on the lower/middle sections  with nothing to show for it  except for some tangles and my rod tip almost taking a plunge to the depths so we went up to the deadline and hiked a very remote and un fished section,...cougar and elk tracks were fresh everywhere and spruce trees lined the river. It was quite the beautiful area and the river was small with lots of pocket water and walking speed 3-7ft deep runs, perfect steelhead water, but super low and clear.

     One particular run we had a very aggressive chrome fish boil on Sam’s indicator as he was bring his rig back in, both of us look up in disbelief and start to chat about the fish and what it may have been. This river does have Coho into January, and Coho are known to be aggressive, at the beginning of the month about 3 miles downriver from this spot I had a dark Coho grab my indicator in a similar fashion, but now it is the end of the month, and the fish was further upriver, and chrome as can be, I am reluctant to say it was a steelhead because winter steelhead are not known for being that active. After the fish attacked Sam’s indicator I had the same fish grab my fly twice, but I was not able to make the hook stick. On the second take down I had a good hook set that didn't stick and the fish took off before I could get another shot at it. I usually overlook days that are low and clear but now I know to be confident even when things don't look good.

      On the plus side a fish reacted to our flies, and we explored a very nice piece of water for when the rain brings the river up. Sam has been working really hard on some awesome footage for an upcoming "masterpiece" showcasing the ultimate prize in northwest fly fishing, but I won’t spoil it any more than that. In other news to expand I have made a Facebook account for Pacific northwest fly fishing, for those who love Facebook, so make sure to check the page out and like it, there is a link below. The page is still in its baby stages and will be updated as often as I can work on it as well as this blog; I have some new things coming up in the next few months, so stay tuned!

http://www.facebook.com/PacificNorthwestFlyFishing

Here are some pictures from yesterday's trip 

first of the season

With a small spike in river levels and no more rain and sight we took a chance and hi the river while it was fishable a short amount of time.The river was barely in shape and starting to clear,but as usual the "money hole" was a deep green and held a fish,after a short minute fight a snakey colored buck hatchery steelhead of about 5lbs comes to hand,i knew there was a possibility of stray hatchery fish in this un stocked wild steelhead stream,but this fish flat out looks like an old summer steelhead,this stream does not get returns of summer steelhead,however a few strays are caught every fall during salmon season,but it is the middle of january on an oregon coastal stream,msot floods have flushed out any nasty salmon and what very very small trace of stray summers are present,i firmly believe this fish is an old summer,who had not spawned yet despite he skinny appearance.TO prevent this fish from spawning with natives,and since i like smoked steelhead i did the stream and myself a favor by keeping the fish to smoke.All and all it was a decent day out,time to take a break until it rains again

snake-like male hatchery summer steelhead caught while winter steelheading