Week in Review….More Like Day In Review

So I went fishing yesterday,  Delivered some Fly Fishing Film Tour Posters.  You will be able to start picking up your tickets shortly.  You can pick them up at The Tailwater Lodge in Altmar, NY, Malindas Fly Shop in Altmar, NY, All Season’s Sports in Pulaski, Oak Orchard Fly Shop in Williamsville, NY (Buffalo Area) and Tight Lines Fly Shop, Parsipanny NJ.  They should all have tickets available by early next week.

Then I hit the river.  One thing I always forget is, how warm the March sun can be.  -1 degree at start, 10am and I actually was sweating alittle in my gear.  I am sure it doesn’t hurt that I was a small fortune worth of foul weather gear to begin with but I was definately overdressed.  Since it was so cold, the river had a tremendous amount of slush making swinging flies impossible below

the tressle area.  So that meant heading up to Altmar to find fishable water…it also meant fishing with everybody else.  I don’t consider it really steelheading, fishing for steelhead maybe, but steelheading?  No.  If you know what I mean, then you do.  If you don’t get what I just meant then that’s fine to.  I spend so much time on the Salmon over the year staying away from people, that I often forget just how many steelhead pack up into the upper river in the winter.  I must have seen 3 fish being fought in my brief walk downriver to find a spot.  Of coarse by 10 am, there had been at least 10 boats, 5 bottom bouncers, 2 pinners fishing through the run so I was really just casting for fun waiting for the lower river to clear of the slush.  It was fine though, I was casually casting into the riffle, minding my own business watching a switch rod fisherman bounce nymphs through the head of the run and watching the boat float bobbers in the bucket when the bottom bouncer leap frogged the boat into the tailout.  This allowed me to swing through the top of the run.

I was using an olive and copper Dee I have aptly name Sudden Impact.  And that’s what happened.  It was a solid bump from the fish.  A bit more spiritted than your typical winter take and the fish had a nice little fight in him.  In the low water, I had him in relatively quickly.  Here was a fish that had seen egg sacks, nymphs and who knows what else floated by him day after day, minute after minute and he chose to wack a swung fly.

I was later hanging out in the local fly shop.  I walked right into a conversation about what’s the best way to hook steelhead, nymphing or swinging.  To me it’s a non-issue but I really felt bad for the guy who nymphed.  He was being publically bullied into swinging flies.  Then they turned to me.  This is my response.  “I’ve been fishing up here for 20 years.  I’ve hooked steelhead every way imagionable.   There was a time when you could point out the fish and I’d hook it…not so much legally, but in the mouth, everytime.  And it’s all fun.  Nobody likes to hook fish more than me…but in that 20 years, I’ve hooked a ton of steelhead and salmon, more than anybody probably should be allowed to hook…There is one thing I’ve learned.  Steelhead are easy to hook.  Anybody using anything can probably catch steelhead.  When you think about it, their just big rainbows, and rainbows are pretty easy to catch as a rule, probably second to the brook trout.  But steelhead have one characteristic that make them steelhead.  It’s probably why their steelhead…curiosity.  They are curious by nature…sure you can hook them on something that they are eating, but steelhead will chase something totally foreign to them.  They are like a cat chasing a ribbon.  Who doesn’t like to dangle ribbons for cats.  It’s wildly entertaining.  Steelhead are like cats, and when they’re curious, and chasing ribbons, their fun, and wildly entertaining.  The rest is exactly the same as any other way you hook them,  They fight the same if you hook them on the bottom, with a bobber, or on the swing.  Then only thing that’s ever different is the grab.  And every grab is different.  Jiggles, slow pulls, yanks, the one I call “The 3 Bounces” and best of all the drag singer…They’re all different.  There are curious grabs, angry grabs, nips, territorial death grabs.  What’s not to love!”  That’s why I only swing flies.  I’ve seen steelhead, lots of steelhead.  It’s the grab that intriques me.  I’ve read about the guy on the North Umpqua that fishes without a hook.  I’m not there yet but I know where he’s coming from.

Week In Review 2/28/13

This weeks Spey Nation Week ion review!

1:  We have ordered the Fly Fishing Film Tour tickets and posters.  We are beyond siked about this.  Soon you will be able to add into your spring steelhead trip, a trip to one of our pick-up places, The Tailwater Lodge, Malindas Fly Shop, The Oak Orchard Fly Shop, or All Season’s Sports.

2:  Robin has a review of what happened last Wednesday and Thursday on the Salmon.

3:  We have started to update our list of presentators for June’s Spey Nation Gathering.  We think it’s pretty good.  Some new faces and some returning faces that haven’t been around in a while.

4:  It turned cold again this week.  Seems fishing pressure has been off.  This doesn’t mean the March doldrums have begun, I think that wiser heads are prevailing.  Some fish are still being caught in the DSR.  This is right around the time of year when those first dropbacks begin to show.  It may be early though this year.

5:  I shared this post because I thought it was right on

6:  We have our twitter page active.  You should see it. We have like a million followers

7:  Like Minded Mofo