No Pics, no fish

Last weekend, I had the opportunity to fish the Sandy. I've fished it for Silvers a few times, but not Winter Steelhead. The coastal rivers were blown out, so it was my best option in Portland.

I headed out around 9am and dropped by the local starbucks. I was detoured by running into my former next door neighbor. After a good chat, I made it out to the river. A few cars in the lot, I strung up the spey with 10ft of T14, and walked down the path.

I fished several nice looking runs with no success. The Sandy is an incredibly beautiful river. I had a great time just casting and swinging. I ended up heading back to the car and down to Oxbow park. With limited time left I started above the boat launch and found some water. I eventually ran into the gear guys at the launch. No fish for them to speak of.

On Monday, I headed over towards the coast and hit a few smaller rivers. I took the single hander and indicator. I felt dirty, but had a lot of fun. Of course, no fish were hooked other than a 14 inch cutty.

Learning to Tie

All the essentials.......Gatorade, Coke, and 2 types of Seasonal Micro's.

I've found it pretty lame to be on the river so much without fishing my own flies. Store bought flies are easy and creations by friends are even better, but there is something to be said for fishing your own work. Fly fisherman tackle challenges throughout their careers and for me the next step was fly tying.

I bought a used vise and enrolled at the Caddis Fly for their fly tying class. After tying the standard Woolly Bugger in class, I decided it was time to do some homework. I coerced Chad "Dec" Potter to met me at the fly shop at lunch and help me pick out the essentials for tying steelhead traditionals. After all, let's get down to it, steelhead traditionals are the creme de la creme of fly tying. Fishing trads on a floating line in the summer is what its all about.

So tonight, in true Dec Potter form, I poured a glass of wine and went to work on the vise. My first pattern was ridiculous. I was embarrassed and I wanted to quit fly tying immediately! I pushed on and layed out 3 more flies that ACTUALLY might catch a fish.

More to come later.....................