Never fish for Steelhead! (Wash St report)

[toddro]

Never, ever, ever fish for Steelhead - they will get into your blood and under your skin to the point of deep obsession!  I'm talking sleepless nights, cold sweats, and obsessive 20-hour fishing days! 

I have been up in Washington St. since late July chasing summer runs in several famous "S" rivers.  I am addicted to chasing these things!  My best so far has been a 30"+ steelie along with sea run cutts, native cutts, native rainbows, and 2 salmon (hooked but not landed, dammit!) 
In addition, I have fallen in love with the Dolly Varden/Bull trout.  Some of the most beautiful trout you'll ever catch - they look like a huge brookie with their colors dialed way up.  I've landed several 20"+ and they fight like bulls.  Not big leapers, but they get down low and run, pull, shake, and tug with a ton of drag-pulling fight.  Fun stuff for sure! 

I'm back in town for a few days to run down some business things and then heading back out soon for 2 more weeks before it is back to reality time   

I've been fishing mostly by myself so pics are difficult.  On my first day there I killed a beautiful cutt trying to get a picture of him    so I haven't tried again since cuz I felt so bad - but maybe I can grab a pic of one of these beauties!

Looking forward to some Caney fishing this fall!

Until then,

Todd

[MikeA]

I'm for hire as a photog Todd. I work pretty cheap,,, ok I'll work for free  I hear that's an awesome place. We've got family there so I plan to visit someday. Thanks for the report!

[Steve H]

Todd, good to hear from you bro! We want pictures when you have a chance.

Looks forward to seeing you this Fall.

[David L. Darnell]

Reddog tried to talk me into going out to Dechutes River after Steelies, he gets wild eyed talking about it.

He left yesterday for a 10 day trip to Minipi Labrador, after some hugh Brookies, lets see which direction he wants to travel

[Curtis Martin]

Todd, you suck big time! I have been wanting and wanting to go for too long now. It just isn't going to happen. Chase one down for all of us that have to work for a living

Curtis

[Racer X]

Sounds incredible!!  I've got a friend that's moving out that way this Fall.  I asked about the house he's moving in to and if he had room for me.  He said that he did. 

[toddro]

The next thing I've got to do is get out there for the winter runs sometime - and a pontoon would be great too as I am purely wading.  This is my 3rd year going, and I'm pretty much learning it all on my own (the steelhead / salmon game) - doing tons of reading, internet research, asking dumb flyshop questions, talking to guys on the rivers, and fishing my ass off!  If any of you guys ever head that way though, I'll be glad to share what I can...

I did meet a really nice guy on the water one day, an older gentleman named Paul who has a brother in KY (which is how we got conversation going).  We started talking, and next thing I know he's taking me to different runs, showing my lies, seams, and pockets, watching my drift, giving me pointers, etc.  I kept asking, "Aren't you gonna fish this run?" and he'd just slowly say, "Nahhhh, I'm wantin' to see you catch one."  I went the afternoon with him getting skunked but it was the best memory so far.  He was a genuinely nice man who gave me 4 hours of his day to teach a relative rookie some things he knows after 20+ years steelheading in Washington.  I didn't get a ph# or an email or even a last name, but Paul was THE man!  I do what I can to pay it forward...

Cheers,

[grumpy]

Here's hoping you'll run into Paul again, i'll send ya a bottle of Scotch to give him if needed.

Grumpy

[toddro]

Sure 'nuff, thanks Grumpy!  I think I'll be able to find out who he is (or was).  There's a flyshop nearby that knows who I was talking about when I told them the story, but the guy that would have know his name was not working when I was in there.  I'm leaving tomorrow to go back for some more Steelheading, so I'm gonna drop a little something off at that shop for him - hopefully he'll get it, I'm sure he will...

Tight lines,

[MikeA]

From the Drake.
http://www.drakemag.com/back_issue_content/2007_fall_issue/the_pull.html

How did I get here? I’m lying on my back in a sticky, soaking, sagging, zero-degree, goose-down mummy bag, shivering like a dog shitting a peach pit. The canvas ceiling above our heads has reached total saturation while the frame creaks and sways through 40mph winds. The canvas shell flaps and pops, billows and collapses, each gust knocking the moisture free in a shower of 42-degree water. Then drops start to form again, build in size and cling for a moment before the tent swells and slams back into place. Another shower. There’s nowhere to go.

 I’m four weeks into a steelheading bender somewhere in the northernmost reaches of British Columbia. Yesterday I was in a jet sled. A man backed his drift boat into the run I was fishing, dropped the oars for a moment, stood from his rowing seat and pointed two fingers at me in the shape of a pistol. He mimicked one recoil from a shot, blew on his fingers, tucked the imaginary weapon into an imaginary holster, sat down and continued to row down river.

This kind of shit gets you thinking. Waiting for another shower in my mummy bag, I’m wondering why anyone gives the rest of their life away to the consequences of this passion? Where and how we fish are lifestyle choices; a fold in the timeline of life and part of a natural selection process that we’re not aware of until it’s too late—that being the moment one finds oneself sitting at home on a Friday night at age 28 under a single desk lamp tying string leeches, anticipating a two-week stint on a steelhead stream some six months away. You are out of the breeding pool while perpetuating your own demise. Your friends are out getting laid and you’re a pathetic dork covered in bunny fuzz, threading Berkley Firewire through a quarter-inch strip of animal skin. This I pondered until the storm passed and I could jot these thoughts down on a dry surface…

Wild steelhead are our icons of purity. To our little subculture of flyfishing kooks, they represent more that just another salmonid to conquer. They are the last frontier of freshwater flyfishing. Holding a bucking spey rod bent to the corks while a silver fish leaps across the run is the best way we know to stay connected to wildness. The fly line is our conduit and the rod our amplifier. It begins with the pull we feel at our fingertips when the fish takes the fly on the swing. The pull. I blame it all on the pull. —Jeff Mishler

[Steve H]

Very cool read.

[toddro]

Yum!    I can relate...

[toddro]

Final report:

I just returned from 16 more days of fishing in Washington State.  The lugs on the soles of my wading boots are completely worn down, my waders leak, my fly boxes are a mess, my knees ache, feet ache, and my back is in need of extended chiropractic care - but it was all worth it for some incredible fishing.  I ended up fishing the Skykomish (main, n.fork and s.fork), the Snoqualmie, the Snohomish, the Stillaguamish (main, n. fork and s.fork), the Sultan, Wallace River, Money Creek, the Sauk (main, n. fork and s.fork), the Skagit, the Cascade River, Bacon Creek, Grandy Creek, the Chewuch, the Methow, Black Pine Lake, and Grandy Lake - whew!  I caught steelhead, rainbows, cutthroat, dolly varden, and whitefish.  I could not connect with the salmon  - they were very elusive!  The best shot I had was in a river where it was 2 days before it would be legal to target them.  The ethical fisherman in me refused to cast to them, but I stumbled into the midst of an amazing run of silvers on Aug. 30, 2 days before their Sept. 1 opening      I went back on the 1st and they were nowhere to be seen, plus rain had stained the water a bit and pushed the level up a foot or so.  I've made a lot of notes about places I'd like to target on my next trip, spots to revisit, burrito joints to eat at again, and awesome espresso...

Looking forward to some fall browns on the Caney - I've been missing those guys!  Hope to see ya'll soon!

[MikeA]

Damn that sounds like a blast. Not only some of the most awesome scenery in the world but world calss fishing as well. I'm jealous now. Come on out to the gathering if you get a chance.

[toddro]

yeah - scenery was awesome, and the color of the water out there (esp. the rivers with the glacial till) is just awesome.

I wish I could make the gathering, but I have a lot of work to catch up on and it looks like I have to meet some clients this weekend in order to meet one of those deadlines 

Thanks Mike,