Shad are rad, so are steelhead

It's been a while since I posted an update, so I combined a few outings into 1. I had made several attempts at catching some steelhead in the last few weeks with no luck. The water levels had been steadily dropping and I had only gotten a couple of grabs.

We went out last week for an evening drift. I let Simon out of the boat and he proceeded to hook 3 fish in 25 minutes. The first fish managed to wrap him around a rock, the second jumped and spit the hook, and the third managed to find its way onto the BBQ. It was a pretty cool event to watch and not something you often see on a valley river.


Of course, I went out the next morning before work and got skunked. I have been facing a little string on bad luck lately, which finally ended on Monday night. I managed to get a hot little buck to take the purple egg sucker.

In between the steelhead trips I had a chance to go to the Umpqua with a friend who knows the river pretty well. We fished single hand 6 wts with sinking lines and managed to find some Shad. There were no takers on strictly the swing, but once you put a few strips into, the bite was on. I managed a few good ones close in the 3-4lb range, but nothing huge. These fish fight really well and ended up being a good break from the steelhead thing.