Rain, snow, hail, rain, sleet, ice pellets, more rain, and more snow – and then repeat every 30 minutes. Toss in a 20 minute break every other hour or so and that was pretty much the weather pattern. The river held though, and with a warm jacket, dry socks, gloves, and steelhead green water the fishing was great! Read the rest of this entry

I went back up to my hometown for the holiday weekend and squeezed a day and a half away to check in on one of my favorite rivers with Brandon. It is definitely considered the “off season” but neither one of us were concerned with that and were just anxious to have a look, poke around, and swing some flies. The possibility of a hatchery brat steelhead was there but that would have been icing on the cake. Read the rest of this entry

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After fishing a couple of seasons with Jose Silva I’ve learned quite a few things. Aside from new angles on holding water, fish behavior, tidal influence, and an ancient recipe used by the Peruvians to prepare a fine carp for the dinner table, the one thing that’s been drilled home time and time again, through experience, is this: Out-fishing the guy is simply impossible.

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It is a long and sometimes painful search, and sometimes it goes on in vain until there is no chance in finding a fish in the river. It is a succession of long and fruitless hours spent in the rhythmic motions of cast and retrieve…

The reward for all this effort sometimes never comes, because steelhead fishing with a fly is difficult indeed. But when and if it comes, it is dramatic and suddenRead the rest of this entry

After too long of a break the opportunity finally presented itself to take my smallest spey rod out to search for some early return summer/fall run steelhead on my ‘Tamanawis’. I had one day and 2 halves to revisit some runs from the past, search out a few new ones, and with some luck, hopefully find a steelhead. Much to my suprise, I found two! Read the rest of this entry

Dave made a long weekend out of the 4th of July holiday and took a sight seeing trip up to my home state to see some country he’d never been to. Though fishing was not the purpose of the trip, he did manage to get in a day and a half with a guide to swing a fly through some beautiful water, and guess what? He nailed one!

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It’s Sunday morning and I’m sitting here at the airport gazing out the window as I wait to board my return flight home. A temporary break through the low, grey ceiling is revealing a brief glimpse of the eastern slope of a magnificent mountain range lit up in the late morning’s sun. My previous 3 days were spent on the opposite slope of those impressive peaks picking through limited fishable water in search of the North West’s finest… Native Winter Steelhead. Read the rest of this entry

The Pacific North West had it’s fair share of wet weather recently causing record flooding in the North West. When I got the email from Brandon a few days before our trip stating that the river we’d hoped to hit on the way was 10 feet above flood stage it was clear Read the rest of this entry

Dave returns from his annual Atlantic Salmon trip to the Gaspe Penninsula with reason to smile!
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