Sunny Day on the Clack

I was in Portland for the weekend and got a chance to float the Clackamas with Casey and Mike. We floated a nice stretch of river and had a good time casting. That's a nice way of saying we didn't hook up once between the three of us. Casey had a solid grab early and I had one late, but nothing stuck, and we went home sad.

The sun was out all day and the water was really clear and measuring 46 degrees. It was fun to get out with Mike and watch him boom line out like a pro. I think he has more spey gear than anyone in Montana. It's a classic scenario: A trout guide with an addiction to steelhead fishing.

The silver lining to the trip was that I followed up the skunking with a nice dinner at El Gaucho with my wife. The New York Peppercorn steak, mashed potatoes, tableside caesar salad, and bananas foster was a great ending to a beautiful day.




Here's Mike testing out my 7133 CF Burkheimer. Also, he really hates my miracle braid running line.

Last run of the day. Mike is fishing what we later found to be 2 foot of water. The speck at the top of the tree is actually a bald eagle.

Making Days off Count

I was able to sneak out of the office on Thursday to go chase some chrome. Casey and Mike the Michagander were originally schedule to both appear, but Domino the dog got in the way. He decided to eat some salmon from the banks of the Clackamas which made him very sick. With Mike at the Vet, Casey and I headed out with the old 4:30am departure.

The river was a little low, but still in good enough shape for fishing. We put the boat in and hit up the first run. Usually this run produces, so hopes were high. Casey briefly hooked up, but it didn't stick and the fish came free. I swung through without a grab. Up above the pool, there was a nice redd where about 5-6 steelhead were doing their thing. Always cool to see wild fish making more wild fish.

We moved down to the next run. I took the top, Casey took the bottom. In a 30 yard stretch, I had 4 grabs. The last one took my loop and about 2 feet of line before there was slack. Of course, Casey stepped in above and stuck a fish. The wild hen put up a great fight.

The fishing kind of slowed after that. Some of the runs that don't fish high, fish great at the lower level. Things remained quiet until around 3 in the afternoon. I was fishing a flat soft strech lined with boulder when my line kind of just stopped. I remained calm and told myself its either a fish or a rock. My loop went out and the reel started screaming. The fish took about 20yards of line and boiled on the surface where I was able to get a look at his chrome sides. After the boil, he ripped on another 20 yards of line and stopped in his tracks. The hook came free and I was left with steelhead blue balls.

No other action for the rest of the day except for the local named Jim that motioned us over to fish the run with him. He was drift fishing clown eggs and was really interested in our spey rods. He shared a couple local secrets with us and threatened to "take a nut from each of ya" if he found out we were telling others!

Pocket picked again................

Pink and Chrome

It was only fitting that on Valentine's Day I got my pocket picked by a pink fly. Casey enticed the hen(of course) despite a rising river and decreasing visibility.

Here's to you Mr. Hamms

When you see a broken logging yarder and sky cart in the middle of town, you know you are in Winter Steelhead country. Also with that town comes a cast of characters. Some are locals, some come from neighboring towns, all converging on the possibility of taking some meat home. Some of these characters are very skilled fisherman. They drift fish, side drift, pull plugs, plunk, you name it, if it catches fish, they do it.

I think I recently met my favorite character. I've seen him 2 weeks in a row now. We talked last week at the boat ramp and this week again. Both times, he finished his day with 2-4 cold Hamms beers and a cheek full of Redman. Not only is that likeable, but so is a little incident I saw while I was at the boat ramp yesterday. I looked upstream and one of his passengers hooked a fish in the tailout above a little rapid and fast water. The other passenger quickly netted the fish and kept it in the water until they were through the quick stuff. As soon as he could, Mr. Hamms dropped anchor, and went to work. He saw that the fish was wild so he bit the leader off, used his pliers to remove the hook, and had the fish ready for revival in about 10 seconds. He took time to keep the fish in the water to let it recover. Mr. Hamms supported the fish with both hands under water and revived the wild steelhead until it was ready to go.

For this, I salute you Mr. Hamms. It was great to watch you have fun, take some fish home, and take care of our wild fish too.


My buddy Bernie with his first winter steelhead!

I love my bucks

We headed out early on Saturday for chance to tie into some winter chrome. After a lengthy drive and some AM/PM doughnuts, Casey and I dumped the boat in got fishing.

The first run looked nice and I walked upstream to hit the top while Casey started in the middle. The water looked fishy but as usual, touched nothing. Casey was around the corner still fishing the run when I started going over the water he had already worked. I felt the smallest tick on my line. Let the shock loop go and the line stopped swinging. Lifted the rod and felt bottom, or so I thought. A couple of headshakes later I knew I actually had a fish!

The fish took a couple of nice blistering runs, a couple of jumps, and was quickly tailed. It was nice wild buck of about 30 inches. We didn't take any pics and just set it back on its course. It's always great to get off the schnide early.

The rest of the day was awesome. We each got grabbed multiple times but couldn't manage any other fish to the beach.

Sorry, no pics, my cropping skills suck.

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.....................