One from here and one from there...........

Happy Halloween Children!!!

Today was a slow day but it was sure better than a skunk. I started on the medium sized trib where the water still had good flow but was clear in the area I was fishing. I threw on a bead and on my walk back up to the truck I landed a nice male.

 I spent about an hour there before I made a quick pit stop and decided to challenge myself on the big trib which was still moving about 650 cfs. She was still brown but she had a little green starting to mix in to her color. I changed over to 10 grams, long leads and double bagged it for a while then switched over to a jig made with UV yarn. I land one smaller fish there and saw one nice fish caught that took the fisherman down 30 yards with the faster current.

I left after a few hours as the waders are developing slow leaks in the seam at the heel on each foot. The socks get damp but not soaked. It may be time for another purchase.

Until later............

skunked wtf..............

No pictures,no smiles, no accounts of steelhead victory.

I put work in today.

On the water at sun up.

26 degrees and busted out the Stanley's on the guides to keep things going.

One light hit down low but it was a ghost town the rest of the time.

Then I hit a few more "go to" spots and put in a lot of walking a little farther upstream.

Nothing,zero,zilch, nadda....

I  threw everything at them: beads,roe, plastic worms, and jigs.

Quite peculiar to have a dropping green steelhead stream that should be jacked with a fresh run produce nothing. There were quite a few people out and I saw no one do nothing except for one guy dragging one on a stringer.

I have nothing but speculation and contrived tales  by others.

Lamprey predations

reduced stocking in the tribs on the down low by the state.

Yet other Great Lakes are on fire this year.

I have some thinking to do............

Well he does kind of look like a bear....a grizzly bear.

 I cancelled a morning outing today as my responsible side dragged me into the office for a few hours to take care of a few pending issues. Big Ed called me at the office wondering what the water looked like and we decided to go out for an afternoon of leisurely fishing.

 Big Ed and I go way back and it is always is great to get out with him and reminisce about the old days. He is a big man in stature. A lumbering bear of man who is on his own clock as to when he gets to the river and at what speed he navigates the terrain. And I may add he is one hell of a fisherman too.

 He rocks it old school Pacific Steelheader style. Lets just say he has this baby broken in since he bought it original when they first hit the market. He is also in posession of its identical twin which I sold to him years ago.

 I on the other had am currently an Imperial type of guy.

 We touched a few fish

 Enjoyed the afternoon as we were the second shift onto the water and there was little pressure to boot.

 The pools and runs turned a hint of green and were clearing as the hours passed.

 This fish fought so well................

I wanted to show it twice. She was a feisty bull when hooked.


A relaxing time but the big guy might think differently. I put him through a little bit of march this afternoon but we both survived with a few rest breaks on some fallen trees.

Until later..................

Murky Monday..................

                                  ONE FROM THE PREMIER WITH HEALING LAMPREY SCAR

Well this was going to be the day of days. The water had been up and was dropping nicely with the
expectation of green this morning. Bill and Frank met me at first light with hopes of hitting it just right.
The water was more murky than green and while the fish were not there in the number we were expecting, the fisherman were. I guess we were not the only ones with the idea that fish would be there on the drop coupled with the expected rain tonight and tomorrow.

We caught a few fish but didn't encounter any pods settling in after the high water.

I will still take the day off as a gift. The weather wasn't too bad an d the company was good.

After Bill and Frank made their way home. I hit one more spot and caught a nice female then called it a morning.

Patience and perseverance grasshopper....the fish will come on their own time table not mine.

Until later..................

A sacrifice to the steelhead gods..................

                                               The Commander doing his thing.

                                                    Straight from the lake.

                                                   A sacrificial altar to the steelhead gods.

                                           The old ugly Chinook face!!!

Well yesterday was a morning affair at the Dirty B with about 160 of my closest friends. I got there at first light and secured my spot. the water was up and brown but fished pretty well. I hooked into some browns and a Chinook. At 10 am things died down and I had enough of the people.

The older I get the more I am motivated to do what ever it takes to put some distance between me and my steelhead competitors. But considering my water was high and unfishable I didn't have many options.

This morning after  saying a few prayers to the steelhead gods and asking for some green water, the commander and I did some small trib fishing hoping for some fresh silver fish to get into.

The first trib which I scouted late yesterday afternoon dropped and cleared significantly. We fished first light there and the Commander had a fresh one on on a pinkie but that was it. The were no other signs of life on this stretch just more fisherman showing up every ten minutes.

We went to our other planned locations  but they were occupied already so we kept heading down the milk run. We finally found a quiet stretch with some fresh fish around who had a penchant for head shakes ,head flips, and escapes off the line.

As the day went on the warm sun made the morning a pleasant experience.

Now Commander put all those new jigs to use!!!

Until later...........

Give me shelter...........

Well my end of town  has been hit by rain and high winds up to 50 mph over the weekend. My usual milk run of streams were up and brown which left me searching for alternatives.

After moping about the conditions on Saturday and Sunday, I summoned up enough motivation this morning and headed north for a day at the zoo. My plan was to find a place protected by today's high winds with the hopes of hooking up with a roe wagon  to replenish my supply.

This morning at daylight I took my traditional spot among more gentlemanly anglers and away from what happens  near the dam. Everybody was well mannered and friendly today. There was acceptable current flowing through the run with no sign of the murk or mud I left behind.

Though I did not hook up with any willing roe wagons, I did catch some decent browns which made the trip worth while. There was not much around as far as  steelhead yet. I saw just a few caught today.

Today was worth trip.

Until later..............

Keep it in your pants.............

Keep it your pants!!!


 No not that..... your keys!!!

Well today I met up with Bill and the Premier for a morning outing of friendship,fishing, and frivolity.

We agreed to start at two different spots to increase our odds of finding fish and then would meet up at the better of the two spots.

I met up with the gentlemen after about an hour of fishing with limited success. As I pulled up the Premier was putting on a relative clinic. Bill didn't do too bad either.

After that we head upstream  before the heat set in. The results were less that spectacular so we ended the day.

Oh the keys.....Well our Kingpin Representative was upstream of  the Premier and I and left to his own devices. For some odd reason he was going through his vest and waders and decided to leave his keys and eye glass case on a rock as he fished. He didn't realize the mysterious disappearance until he was back at his truck. After a thorough review of every nook and cranny of his fishing attire he decided to march back down to the water and retrace his tracks. He luckily found them on the rock where he left them and not in the hands of any of the mischievous local teenagers that were out and about today.

Good times today........

Until later.....................

A day off.................

Today was a needed day off from fishing,from working, and hopefully a respite from whatever allergies are knocking the crap out of me. It's tough hiking up and down a stream with your sinus cavity blowing up, a constant dry cough, and some type of upper respiratory thing going on.

I took a drive to some of the lesser tributaries this morning to soak up some morning sunshine like a snake on a rock. They lesser flows are woefully low and at mid-summer levels. A good rain fall would go far in bringing up water through out the region and thus distributing both fish and fisherman.

Until later......................

I smell like fish.....................

I was twisting and turning in my sleep trying to figure out where I would start this morning.

There are fish around but you need to pick the right section on the right today to get in to them.

I got out  well before dawn and high tailed my way to where I wanted to start. My God a holiday weekend and I got there first. Who would have thought.

 The sun slowly rose over the horizon leaving a yellow halo in the distance and it was time to gett rolling.

As I waited for sun up I could here a few splashes which filled me with some anticipation.

My prized run produced zero for me. I guess they are either there or they are not.

As dumb luck would have it, I was fishing my way back down to the truck while  most others were just starting their fishing day and working their way up in the other direction.

I hit a  couple of  spots and in some B grade water I had a surprise flurry of action in about 15 minutes time.

The day was saved by a few very acrobatic fish that made my legs shake not for their size but for their intense energy including airborne cartwheels and runs.

Until later..................

Only fished 7 to 10 am this morning. I think I out smarted myself today by not following my gut and going with my adled brain. Fished a few areas with just one small fish as a result. All the fish I saw caught this morning were dink skippers.

After the first few of early daylight, the sun shined brightly and things died down.

It may be just too nice this weekend as far as the weather goes. It was 67 degrees by 10am so I decided to end it early as I wasn't feeling the mojo today.

Get out and enjoy the wonderful weather....does it meet the requirements for Indian Summer?

I still have three more days to lay the hammer to the chrome if God, my mojo, the weather and the steelhead gods permit.


Until Later

You get the picture.................

44 degress and light rain...................

A misty rainy day found me alone on a muddy dirt road to no where.

The Commander didn't make it out today. A text from Bill and Frank found them aborting  a trip down after an exhaustive meteorological survey of precipitation models for the area.

Not a lot of people out today. Rain makes people melt I guess or on second thought maybe they were the smarter human beings as I dragged myself home wet,soaked, and my sinus cavity blowing up.

The water surprisingly greened up a little more from yesterday and I found a couple of feisty fish  to play with. It was one of those "first hour of the day" days. Things slowly died down after that but it was a wet soggy beautiful walk.

It's raining pretty steady now. I'd be surprised if the green holds.

Sure feels like November out there.

Until later..................

Blah..................

I made it out at first light in hopes of some fish. I walked out to the lake in the darkness and rigged up only to be pounded into submission by high winds . Hooked up with a smaller fish on the third cast and that was it. The relentless winds firing off the lake murked up the water  and that was the sign to move on.

 There was not a lot of competition out there today except for this mobile steelhead unit camped out in the parking lot.

I switched up tribs and found some greener water. On my walk I wandered into two willing dance partners but that was all folks. Not too verbose today maybe I need a little nap.

Until later....................