Old guy, new trick

I commissioned Rick to help me out over the past year with some projects around my house. He helps me, I help him. I'm not sure there is a better return on investment that bringing in your first steelhead on the swing.

I thought our opportunity had passed as he fished several promising pools with no grabs. I had a short lived hookup behind him, but that was the only action we'd seen. The last run we fished was too deep for Rick to fish it effectively, or so I thought. Wading tight to the bank and chopping some line out, I was pretty sure it was a lost cause. I was about ready to wrap the night up when Rick stars yelling that he's got one on. I figured it was a trout, but the large splash and roll on the surfact confirmed it was a steelhead. After adjusting his drag and soiling his drawers, Rick worked the fish in and allowed me to tail his first on the two hander!

Now this feels better

I hadn't caught a steelhead since March until last week. I couldn't remember why I liked swinging flies, what the takes felt like, or what it was like to see the backing on a big reel. I now remember.

I squeezed in a session on last week between work and my softball games. We play double headers on Thursday's. To appropriately match the theme, I hooked up and beached two hens. One was a dud and the other was the Ashton Eaton of steelhead. She jumped high, took shorts sprints, long runs, did it all like the Decathlete himself.

Bernie got in on the action this weekend with a couple fish of his own. I can freely admit, he picked my pocket clean on one of them.

Below is a shot of the 5115 CF Burkheimer Bernie has been using. The rod is fun to fish with and handled a 7lb'er just fine.

Back to some fishing

This bird was hit at cruising speed and somehow managed to stick. It is pretty much an accurate description of how I felt all spring.

I haven't posted in forever because I haven't been fishing all that much. With the local rivers running twice their normal flows, a guy is suddenly more motivated to work on the yard and complete those unfinished projects. With my early local steelhead season pretty much blown, the focus was geared toward some quick spring salmon trips.

One feat of note was that I did manage to catch a Ling Cod off a coastal jetty in the morning and a Springer on the Umpqua later that evening. Not sure how often that happens in Oregon?

Small springer

One fish from a pretty decent salmonfly day.

I had an hour to kill after work last night.........