Orange

I had a small window of time after work to go try and raise a steelhead. I went up top with a waker for the first two runs and was shown no love. I decided to fish a tailout that I normally just pass on by. I was rewarded for my efforts. Orange has been killing it for the past few weeks.

I think I might get addicted

I've been shy about fishing a waker. Like a lot of people, I'll say to myself: "Well, once I hook a few fish, I'll put one on." We all know how that goes. No matter how many fish you hook, its hard to pull away from a tactic that is having success.

The last few times out fishing, I decided to commit to fishing it. The local skamania fish seemed to be aggressive and it was no or never. I rose 2 fish yesterday and loved every minute of it.

After the storm blew through yesterday, I strung up the rod and gave it another go. I started in shallow water and had the leader plus about 10 feet of line out when it happened. A fish swirled on the surface and my fly was gone. For a second I though it was a trout until line peeled off my Hardy Salmon 1 faster than I'd ever imagined it could. The confimed steelhead jumped twice as it tore downstream. The line came off my reel so fast that I had to compete with some serious backlash. My reel was stuck and I played the fish to hand using the strip and chase technique.

I'm not ready to go to dry flies all the time, but I sure understand guys who do!

Be local, get steel

Simon and shoved off early Saturday in hopes to avoid the rain and find some steelhead. Well, we managed to do both. We had multiple hook ups and I rose 2 fish to a dry. The conditions held and we got off the water and were back home by noon. Thank you God for the local steelhead!


Bernie with a nice fish

First light and complete with an adipose fin. It could be a missed clip, but the dorsal appears in tact. Who knows?

Game Day Steel

Bright Sun, straight to my backing, duck victory: Great Day

Part II

The fishing was slow, the scenery was awesome, and the experience was worth it.


Check out the mirror

Sunset

Camp for bad asses only

Fishing Big Water

Hatchery nook boot

Sheeps

Uh, no, not gonna run that.

Rugged

Waker on the Willy

Went out for an hour or so after work on Wednesday. Todd came with me fully equipped with his usual dry fly set up. I got to the run first and made my way through with a wet. I had a brief encounter with a fish on the strip, but that was it. Todd set up behind me and 20 minutes in, he hooked up. The guy picked my pocket with a waker! He is the man!

Local Brats

At least some of the local fish are willing to grab on.

More Bad Timing

I suck at scheduling fishing trips this year. First the Rogue, now the Deschutes. We put in on a Tuesday. The flows from the Dam spiked on Monday. No worries we thought, we'll have good fishing by late Wednesday. Try again. The White River blew on Wednesday, just as we got to our desired camp water. The river was gone by Thursday. Floated out and enjoyed the weekend. I'm giving it one more try in a week or so.



The sheep(one standing on the cliff, others bedded down) were the highlight of the trip.

The blowness