Hoh River Washington Steelhead Trip

Hoh River Steelhead Trip

Hoh River Steelhead Trip

This spring I decided to take a trip to the Olympic Peninsula and scout around the Forks, WA area (Steelhead Capital of the World) and see if I could swing up a steelhead.  After checking out many of the local rivers, I was impressed with the accessibility and the many runs on the Hoh River.  Although this is not ground breaking news to anyone, coming from the Midwest it validated everything that I read and researched and was struck by the beauty of the river.

The weather held up during my trip which afforded me 4 days of relentless casting using my Sage Method 7126-4 and my Sage 4210 reel.  The equipment is fantastic and drew rave reviews from several of the local anglers that I shared the river with and cannot be blamed for my "work-in-progress" Skagit casting skills.

As many people know this river is not a numbers game but my hopes for a 20 pounder (or over 15 pounds) keep me entertained.  On the third day I was fishing a run with an older gentleman when a slight tick at the end of my line turned into 10 minutes of silver fury as the fish at the end of my line literally owned me. I have hooked at lot of large fish (including steelhead) but this was complete different and borderline out of control.  When the fish came unbuttoned and I sank to my knees, the older gentleman came up at noted "Yep!, that was your 20 pounder!"

So, successful trip? Yes!  Will I be back? Yes!

Klickitat River, WA October 2013

My first trip to the Klickitat River in SW Washington October 29th - Nov 2nd.  Fished two days without a guide swinging with my new Sage Method 7 wgt. 12'6" spey rod.  Landed a total of 4 fish although still struggling with my casting.  Fished another 2 days with Jason Osborn from Portland's Northwest Fly Fishing Outfitters.   Jason did a great job guiding both myself, Jim Hale one day and Bob Younghans the next.  We primarily fished with one-handed rods from the boat drifting beads and as you can guess the success ratio was considerably higher than with the spey rod.  Great river, great access, enough fish to keep me happy, I will be back.

I was one of three featured guides in the May edition of the Southwest Metro Magazine.

Check out the link:

http://southwestmetromag.com/article/fishing/waconia-chaska-fishing-guides?page=0,1

Oregon Steelhead Trip February 2012.

Brule River Steelhead head trip Oct. 19-21

Was able to get away for a quick steelhead trip to the Brule on Oct. 19-21.  The water conditions were clear and dropping with a few fish moving upstream on their annual fall pilgrimage.