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Winter Steelhead – Back Up North
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…
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The Delta, A Half Day
Another tricky case of jet lag had me wide awake and bug-eyed at 3AM this morning, despite going to bed at midnight. My flight had departed at 2pm and landed 11 hours later at 8am the same day; yeah, try and figure that one out.
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The Delta, Fall 2008, Day1
Finally got out on the the Delta for the first trip of the season. With all the steelhead fishing lately I’ve got to say that 9′ 9wt felt awfully short and took some getting used to. The first spot I hit was empty as well as the 2nd spot, but the 3rd stop paid off…
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Surf Perch, Back to Monterey
The tide didn’t look any good but I was in a desperate need of soaking a fly, somewhere. When I got the word from Gabriel that he’d recently “gotten into them” off one of the Monterey beaches I had all I needed. The tide was basically flat until 11am so Jeff, Mrs. Jeff, and I…
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What the… Koi?
I didn’t expect this when I lazily showed up at the sludge this afternoon anticipating another routine skunking. Carp were everywhere, tailing, daisy-chaining, cruising, and rooting; big ones, little ones, gold ones, and for the first time, a BLAZE-ORANGE little guy!
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A Crabby Day In The Surf
This week’s tides were some of the biggest of the year, with flood highs and minus lows. Jeff & I headed over the hill at o-dark thirty to catch the last few hours of the early morning outgoing and see the beach at the lowest tide we’d witnessed yet. We weren’t sure what to expect…
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The Bow River, Calgary Alberta
The Rainbows and Brown trout reach 29 & 30 inches! Their average size is said to be ~19 inches, and their “Blue-Ribbon†distribution throughout the watershed is estimated at 3000 fish per mile! Just doing a quick google image search for Bow River fly fishing will make anyone worth their trendiest over-priced Simms costume drool.
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Surf Perch, slow morning, but not fishless!
Hit the surf with Jeff for a few hours one morning this weekend. The holes were really gaining definition compared to weeks past, but the barred little buggers were scarce. Other than one little guy that took a pattern Jose had given me during the grey-light hours and a really nice one that grabbed in…
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Steelhead in the Surf
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…
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California Delta with Dad
My dad was in town on business and had managed to schedule in an extra day to fish the delta with me for his first time. With the cold & dirty water typical of this time of year, our expectations weren’t high and I unnecessarily did what I could to emphasize that any fish caught…
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Delta, Cold Water Stripers II
The weather keeps getting nastier and the water colder. A break between winter storms finally opened a window for Jeff & I to make the first trip of the new year to check in on The Delta. The recent storms had successfully left the dreaded, gin-clear water of the fall behind us, but not without…
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Delta, Cold Water Stripers I
It was late Saturday morning when I lazily rolled out of bed, poured a hot cup of coffee, and hopped online to check the weekend weather forecast for The Delta. The water temperatures had been down into the 40’s and the reports I’d been hearing weren’t good. I had half a dozen new flies I’d…
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Baja 2007
Baja 2007, our 6th trip south of the border, and despite the fact that the days of having a reasonable stretch of beach to ourselves to stalk big unmolested roosters is most likely a thing of the past (RDTM no doubt), and the increase in barb wire and “propiedad privada†signs that keep popping up…
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Steelhead, November 2006
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
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Steelhead, March 2006
Rampaging, crashing, silent, sparkling Impatient, benevolent, by turns. Treacherous or teasing Inviting, gentle, giving – then a crashing torrent of vengeance. Never apologizing. Never explaining. Jeff Bright’s Found in a River