And the winner is...Me!

That's right, me. 

 

Two weeks ago I won a random drawing for pretty nice healthy cooking cookbook.  Hey that's cool right, I haven't won any thing in a while. 

 

Then two days later I logged in and found an email from the National Trout Center in Preston, MN informing me that I had won Grand Prize for the 2012 Raffle!  The Grand Prize being a Headwaters Bamboo Company fly rod.  Specifically, a Peerless Santiam 7'0" 5/6 wt, Medium action with two tips and a very nice rod sock and tube.  I confirmed that they address they had was correct and they said they would send it to me via UPS.  Great!  But, it showed up the day after inland trout season closed.  So I'll have to wait a bit before slaying some trout with my newly won prize, but I think it will be worth it. 

 

I did take a peek at the Headwaters website and it would appear that the value of the rod is the $800 range, not bad for spending much less than that on the raffle tickets, unless you count up (and let's not do that) all the raffle tickets over the years trying to win a bamboo rod made by Dave Norling at various Trout Unlimited Raffles.  The Headwaters rod felt very nice and has great looking real seat.  I'll have to take some pictures to post of it when I have some free time later on.

This coming weekend, I'll be fishing for Muskies on Saturday with a friend on our annual trip with Wendy from the Hayward Fly Fishing Company.  As for our 12th wedding anniversary on Sunday, Jen and I will be holding on to our tradition of the past several years, which is that we will be standing in cold water fishing for steelhead in the north woods of Wisconsin taking time to stop from our busy lives to enjoy mother nature, friends, hopefully a fish or two and life in general.

Fall is here...go hunt, go fish, go ride your motorcycle, just go out and enjoy it all whatever it is that gets you going!  Winter will be here before you know it.

 

Our group (Star Chapt 444) that went on the Lienie's fall motorcycle ride.

 

 

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This past weekend, low and clear

Jen and I went up again this past weekend even though the river was still low and clear and still no rain.  What can I say, we are addicts to this game. 

We found Peter a couple of doors down from ours at the motel.  He fished that day and lost his fly box, so there was some flies being tied as we chatted with him.  Which still totally sucks to lose a fly box on the river.  But if anyone finds said fly box, please send to me so that I can see what his secret flies are.

Jen and I went over the Kro-bar for supper where we were joined by Mike, Phil, and David who also just pulled into town for the weekend.  Talk about perfect timing!  And the all you can eat fish fry wasn't too bad either with a side of Leinie's Oktoberfest of course.  If only someone could have tripped over the cord of the horrible karaoke that was taking place on the stage, it would have been so much better.
   
Jen and I had zero luck on Saturday, not even a strike.  We fished till dark with no rewards from the river gods.  Peter had walked by us about mid morning Saturday and reported landing a very nice steelhead just upstream of us.  So we knew they were in river, just not on the end of our lines.  Before going out to dinner as we all gathered at Olie's motel room for a warm-up beer, Jen and found out that we were the only unlucky ones out of our group of eight.  Good for them, but I say Grrrr to our luck.   

The blueberry ribs at Deep Lake Lodge in Iron River, WI is still the best ribs I've ever had and they once again did not disappoint, unlike the Badgers football game that we could hear in the background on TV.  At lease the Packers beat the Vikings the next day.  Poor Bucky Badger.

Sunday, we had a little bit of a late start as we were not in a hurry since there was a 60% chance of rain in the forecast for the day.  But when we opened the door to get going, it was dry and overcast.  Jen and I headed to a spot we knew that fit our latest steelhead theory with a Mountain Dew in one hand, and snickers bar in the other (which by the way is a four-star fisherman's breakfast).  We spent most of our time at one spot insistent that we were right and then we were proved right.  I was lucky enough to catch two steelhead about an hour apart from each other!  WhooHoo!!  Shortly after, we gave up the spot to another gentleman and headed back to the truck just in time for the rain to start.  Lucked out again!  We changed in the parking lot and headed for home happily.

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A Good fall so far

So the weekend before last Jen and I got our first steelhead fishing weekend under our belt.  That weekend was the annual St Paul Fly Tier's steelhead outing and to keep things manageable for our group we broke up into smaller groups.  Jen and I fished with Louise over the weekend and had a lot of fun.  The best thing about the weekend is that we get to see so many people that we haven't seen in awhile and is a lot like a fun family reunion.  Jen caught a steelhead on Saturday and was in the minority of successful fisherman we found out as everyone shared their stories of the day over an awesome feast that Tony prepared for the club.

On Sunday, the weather was the same as the day before, which was sunny and windy, with a windchill in the low 30's.  Louise had to leave by a certain time to get back home in her final hour before she had to leave the river she landed a 26" chrome steelhead.  She was very excited!  Congrat's Louise!!!

On Monday, I had the day off and had planned to go fishing with Mike and dad for smallmouth.  Dad and I met up with Mike as he was doing final prep work on the boat at the landing.  Everything went pretty well except someone turned the wind machine on HIGH.  We struggled through some pretty heavy wind and it made for a challenging situation.  But the three of us had a great time joking around and we did have a few bites.  Mike landed a few smallie's and I managed to land one, but dad lost a very nice one.  NO, I didn't cut the line on him.  We did get a glimpse of it, and it would have made for a good picture.  Instead, I have put in a nice photo of dad and I with a bass and the lure we caught it on.  The funny thing was he was convinced the white lures were not on the menu for the bass that day and that chartreuse was the ticket...oops!

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Link to Vacation Pictures

Hello all! I know, I know, it's been a while since my last post but here we go.  Jen and I just returned from a week of camping in West Glacier in Glacier National Park in Northwest Montana.  We had a great time taking photos, going on random adventures and hikes.  As our reward, we caught Yellowstone Cutthroats, Brookie's, and even a Bull trout! Saw both black and grizzley bears, columbus ground squirrels, almost got run over by a ram, and enjoyed lots of things made with Huckleberries or bison. 

We took a lot of photos...a LOT of photos!  The place is breath-takingly beautiful, especially if you get off the asphalt and put on the hiking shoes (or waders in some cases). 

So without further delay, here is the link to our photos of the trip, I hope you enjoy them. 

Chris & Jen's Glacier vacation.

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Steelhead (Part 4)

Saturday morning, the Jen and I left home about 4:30am to chase steelhead up north.  It was pretty overcast, and windy, but the rain didn't start until 2pm.  We were on the water fishing by 8am, and generally enjoying the day.  Jen snagged one in the rear pectoral fin and it gave her a pretty good fight.  When it got close enough to net, about the same time that I spotted how it was hooked, the steelhead turned down river into the rapids and broke off. It was gone, with a very upset Jen on the other end!  On the ride up we had mentioned that we need to start landing more of these guys.  Guess we were foiled again.  We messed around on a few other spots throughout the day, and then drove down river to a different stretch of water.  About a half hour in, I hooked into a steelhead and it fought pretty good until it jumped out of the water and spit the egg fly out at me.  Seriously!  We really need to start landing these things!  The only things landed were three smolt I caught, and well....that's not exactly what we were looking for.

The three of us ended the day at the Twin Gables for supper, with a quick stop into the Kro.  But the long day got the best of us and we were sawing logs by 9:30pm, maybe it was 9pm.  Either way, it was way  early by our usual standards.

Sunday:

We arrived to our first choice anglers parking lot, but it was full, so we headed down river a couple spots and found a pretty empty parking lot that I expected to be full. So we wadered up and headed down to the river in the drizzle.  It pretty much rained constantly all day, classic steelhead weather.  We found Peter at the first place we went to.  He insisted Jen and I take a few casts so we of course did.  Peter laid out a bet that we would buy a shot for whoever caught the first steelhead.  Within ten minutes, the Jenorator hooked and lost a steelhead and then landed a very nice and chunky 22" brown trout.  Guess she won the bet!

About mid-day and a few spots later, the three of us were fishing a spot when two guys we saw earlier walked by.  Which meant that their fishing spot was open, so Peter hopped up to try his luck and he did pretty good.  He hooked into two steelhead with in minutes of each other, but wasn't able to land either.  Jen was no longer the only person on the board now.  :)  There was hope for the guys!  Which was nice, cause the spot we had just spent 45 minutes fishing and chatting with guy had ended the convesation with "I've never seen anyone land a steelhead here, and I've been coming up here since the fifties."  It would have been nice of him to mention that earlier, but I guess he liked company.  Anyway, maybe those two fish wouldn't have been there for Peter had we just skipped the steelhead-less hole and not chatted with the nice ol chap.

We moved on to another angler's lot,  Jen and I went to one spot, and Peter went to check out another favorite hole he wanted to fish.  I hooked one about a half hour in, but it wasn't able to get a good hook set and I lost it about ten seconds into the fight.  Didn't they get the memo?  We are supposed to be landing these things!  In the last two hours of light, I tried to coax another strike by calling the steelhead "chickenshits" and making various clucking sounds at the river in front of me.  Trying my best to taunt them, the Jenorator just shook her head at me and kept casting her fly.  I guess it didn't work, because I didn't get anymore action before dark.  They were too afraid to battle me I guess.

We hung up the wet waders, soggy clothes and changed into dry cloths, and the three of us met up with Mike, Rob, and Kurt in Iron River.  Mike took us over to Deep Lake Lodge for dinner, and we knew it would be a good place when they had the bartender yelling at the tv.  Yup, the Packer/Viking game was on, the bartender was openly biased.  Jen was happy. The menu was awesome too, if you are in the area, you must stop by and try them out.  The Blueberry ribs were very good, and everyone else's choice looked great as well.  Mike had the hot hand, he landed five of six steelhead!  Way to go Mike! Show off.  ;)

Egg flies still seemed to be what they were hitting on.  The water was clouding up pretty good and slowly rising.  I took a temperature reading of 44 degrees on Sunday.  The rain was much needed as the guy in town said it had been 22 days since the last rain.

Next week, we are going up again, and hopefully landing some steelhead for a change!  I'll keep you posted.

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Fly tiers Steelhead Outing (Oct 16 &18)

We came, we fished, we've had better successes.  The higher numbers of fish that I had hoped for failed to produce for the club outing.  But that didn't stop the gang from having lots of fun on a great fall weekend!

Jen and I went against our normal pattern and after a late night at the Kro, and short night at the hotel, we found ourselves fishing a little after 7am.  Which proved to be a good for both of us, as most of our hookup's for the weekend happened before 10:30am.  Jen lost a nice one after a long battle, I made the choice to touch the leader and snap it to save the steelhead.  It had taken her into a tough spot between two trees into deeper water.  It was that or kill the steelie.  We were majorly disappointed, but soon after we had another strike, then we gave up the spot to a Andy and his friend.  We had our fun, so why not share it.

It wasn't till the five o'clock hour that I had tied into another steelie, but it made short work of me and the line went slack.  Damn it!  Oh well.  What were the taking this weekend you ask.  Pretty much the everything seem to be on yarn flies this time.  Earlier in the afternoon I pulled a bone headed move and walked off the plank bridge at one parking lot as I wasn't paying attention at all to where I was walking.  Now I have a nasty rug burn on my elbow from it as well as both my knees now sore and bruised.  Beautifull, that will match perfectly with the popped blister on my toe and broken eye glasses. 

The evening was crazy with everyone back at the cabin, and with the addition of several visitors, there was a lot of excitement and conversations.  Chef Tony had been working on Supper since noon according to Rick and Rayanne, and it was pretty much the full Thanksgiving spread.  When I went to drop Jen off at the motel before going over to the Kro, I bumped into Peter. We shot the breeze for a bit, and shared the news of our groups general lack of success.  I also gave him some of my "secret" colored yarn for him to tie up some egg flies with, and wished him luck for the next days fishing.

I haven't heard yet how the fishing went for the gang on Sunday, but look forward to hopefully hearing some good news at this weeks club meeting.

Next up, a three day weekend on the river is coming up and hopefully some more stories to share.  Oh, and did I mention that a couple weeks ago that I caught a muskie on a fly rod?  Well, I did!!

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Steelhead on! (Oct. 10th & 11th)

Beep beep beep, whack the snooze button!   Beep beep beep, whack the snooze button!   Two hours later of that, and we got up and raced out the door at 6:30am last Sunday.  We were out the night before celebrating at a friends wedding reception and may have been enjoying ourselves a little bit more then the anticipated 3 hours of sleep could have cured. 

Jen and I headed up North to chase steelhead for two days.  Jen was really antsy to get up there and to cure her steelhead fever, which I found really amusing.  She had the fever bad!

We got our trout pants on and were in the water by 10:30am.  It was warmer then it usually is as was noted by something I normally don’t run into while fishing for steelhead.  MOSQUITO'S!  Anyway, we headed to a spot we knew to try our luck and within two hours, the Jen-orator had hooked a steelhead.  I was one hole down from her chatting with Mother Fieker when we heard yelling through the woods from her direction. We ran up the trail to see what was going on and Jen was in mid fight with her opponent!  She worked it perfectly to the net and it was a NICE 26” Buck with all the dark red colors on the cheek and sides.  It was awesome!  We popped the flask for shot in celebration, and I had a cigar on her behalf, and it was only 12:30p! 

We simmered down and got back to business fishing.  Jen had a heck of day, as she had many more takes and battles, (eight in all) but wasn’t able to get them under control and landed.  I admit that by early evening I was getting green and agitated as I hadn’t had so much as a head-shake while she was getting all that action.  But about 5pm, I had a steelhead strike, I set the hook and it was landed after some serious racing in both directions up and down the river and several acrobatics in the air.  I was just along for the ride and had little control over where it wanted to be.  It was a 22" bright silver steelie.  I was feeling much better after that.  We fished a bit longer then went back to the truck just before dark.  As for what they were biting on, they were hitting nymphs and eggs pretty much equally.  We changed into some dry clothes at the Brule Motel, and then headed over to the "Other Place" bar and grill for supper and cocktails with Mother Fieker.

Sunday was a little different flavor.  Jen caught lots of snags, trees, and frustration.  She hadn't had single hit to add to her frustration.  I missed a couple, and then when fishing one of the tougher spots I know with a lot of snags, I hooked into a Steelhead.  And she like going downstream....Alot! Every time I reeled in the line to get it close, she would shoot down river again.  I ended up wading after it a good ways until I could get it beached.  Another fresh chrome, this one being about 24 inches and heavy. 

I really like fighting these guys!  We fished a bit more then called it half way through.  We had a good weekend and knew we'd be back again in four days with the club thinking the peak of the run is yet to come!  If only thier run lasted the whole year! 

 

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Stinky Pinkys!

The original plan for this past weekend was to go to SE MN and go trout fishing with the club.  But, I was easily talked into going fishing on the North Shore by Jay and Ben as the pink salmon run was on!  

Long story short, we joined up with the Canadian, and Jay's crew (Adam, Jesse, and occasionally Tony) North of Duluth after having a great continental breakfast at the Lander B&B.  

Jen and I caught our first Pink Salmon, adding another species to our fish list.  We caught so many fish our arms were truly tired by the end of the weekend.  We are guessing that between just Jen and I, that we caught around one hundred pinks.  And I am pretty sure we were the slackers of the bunch.  Several times we had five of the six of us with fish on at once.  Total Craziness!

We had dinner Saturday night at the Gun Flint Tavern in Grand Marias with Tony, and then we camped ON the beach of Lake superior, set up tents in the dark, had some beer around the campfire and then woke up to a spectacular vista.  And then, more fishing.  In total, we fished five rivers over two days.

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August Montana Vacation

Jen and I got back late Saturday night from a week on the Bighorn River in Montana.  We had a great time with a nice group of fellow fly fisherman, about 16 or so.  The trip was booked through Scott Struif at The Fly Angler. 

On the way out to the Bighorn, we stopped in Miles City, MT Friday night and I gave Jen the nickle tour of the town starting with a bite to eat at the Chop House, and then the favorite saloons in the area.  Jen got the whole "cowboy bar" experience with tin ceilings, huge wood bars and lots of cowboy hats.  But the streak was broken, it was the first time we hadn't been invited out to someone's ranch to shoot prairie dogs, not that I ever accepted but it always seemed to happen out there.  I am glad we went out because the local road construction crew had decided to use the Motel 6 that we stayed at as their party grounds.  They were whooping it up pretty good all night long. 

We arrived at Cottonwood camp on Saturday and settled in for the week.  I talked to Thor and gathered a little intel on what the current fishing conditions had been, what was working and what we thought would work the next day.  The predominant hatches were hoppers, black caddis and tan mottled caddis as we had expected before coming out there.  

The week was a hot one, we had two days out there that broke the 100 degree mark, but the evenings cooled down enough so that everyone could spend time outside the "Condo" sharing stories and hanging out.  A number of former Berger Brothers employees and Alaskan guides were in our group, so we learned a bit about the interesting times they had and people they had met back in the day.  I bumped into Jim and Sharon who were out for a few days of fishing and was able to do a little catching up with them since I had last seen them.  And if you are reading this ANDERSON, Jim says he is into oil now and is becoming an "Oil Magnate."  Jen, Peter and I did spend one evening at the River Run Dining Room attached to the Bighorn Trout Shop, a fine dining establishment that served us a wonderful meal, and met a very nice guest that had also been fishing the river for the week.  It was his 27th year doing so! 

The hopper action turned up on the second half of the week, while the dry fly fishing was slow.  Big Morrish hoppers and the green or tan Rainys Hopper patterns proved to be very effective.  Indicator nymph fishing turned out to be the most productive for the week with the Tan or Grey Ray Charles #18 being the most consistent producer, along with the hothead tan sowbug.  This was the first time I had been in MT where the size of the fish caught didn't live up to their billing.  We averaged 14-16" fish, while on past trips I've caught plenty in the 20s".

One day during the week we were invited to join a small group led by one of the former Alaskan guides, Kelly, to drive out to the Tongue river to fish for cutthroats and that made for a nice break in the week as well as adding another species of fish caught to my fish list; bringing me to a total of 42 different species I've caught.  Though the drive was longer than expected (with more road construction), it offered the opportunity for us to add WY to the list of states we've fished in this year. 

The place we went to was very scenic and had plenty of fish to be caught.  It was a crazy sensory overload for me! There were elk, moose, cows, high valley's cold stream water, and lots of different hatches all going on at once.  It was your classic advertisement out of some glossy outdoors magazine that makes you day dream.  I caught mostly cuts and rainbows, Jen also caught a cutbow on top of that.  Peter pulled out the Tongue Grand Slam, catching cuts, rainbows, cutbow, and a brookie! I hope to go back to that river again someday.  

Jen and I finished up the week on the Bighorn with numbers of fish caught significantly better then the first half.  On the down side, Kelly's truck broke down, and had "forced" some of the boys to extend there vacation until parts came in on Monday for it to be fixed.  I bet they are coping with the situation pretty well. 

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Jen does it again!

Last weekend Jen and I headed up to Peter's cabin to meet up with boys.  The boys being the same ones I went fly fishing in Mexico with a couple years back (Peter, Mike, and David).  With some planning and working around everyone's schedule we were able to get everyone together for a mid summer bass weekend.

 Everyone arrived Friday evening and we were all energized and had some catching up to do.  It was great to see everyone together.  Some beverages and stories were exchanged and few hours later we had a "game plan" formulated for the next day and then we headed off to bed.

 Saturday we loaded up the canoe and removed the motor from the john boat after breakfast, then headed over to our launch on the Chippewa river.  Jen, Mike and David started down river in the John boat, while Peter and I got our lines wet just up river for a few minutes before drifting down.  We floated for a couple of hours, had a break for lunch and then resumed fishing.  The flavor of the day seemed to be poppers of whatever color, except for Jen.  She caught, landed and released her first smallie on a rabbit strip lead eyed streamer.  The smile in her picture says it all!  This was her first time fishing for them and her first time floating down a river.  So it was a pretty fun day for her.  

At the end of the float we had a few sprinkles and just as we got every thing packed up, the rain started up for the rest of the evening.  Great timing on our part!  

We headed on back to the cabin.  When the rain subsided, we grabbed the fly rods and fished the lake for a couple of hours.  After sunset, we had a great spaghetti dinner and shared some fun stories.

Sunday, the boys headed out after some great blueberry pancakes to the lake to fish for some pike and bass, while Jen and I stayed in.  I ended up injuring my back the day before while rushing to get the canoe on top of the Yukon and was dealing with the consequences.  They had some luck, and after a good power nap was ready for the drive home.

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Duluth couples weekend

I know it's been a while since I've posted anything, and I apologize for that. Since my last post I've been out to Montana and fished the DuPuy's Spring Creek as well as the Big Horn River for a two week vacation.  Jen and I have been out fly fishing a couple of times chasing bass and pan fish.  We both acquired a bicycle and fly rod each.  Mine is still be built as of this post.  We've also had a lot of weekends with family for both good and not so good circumstances.

On our latest adventure, we booked a weekend with Chad and Sarah in Duluth, MN and had a lot of fun.  Friday we packed up our stuff in our new 2005 Toyota Highlander that we bought on Monday after too many repair bills on the Tahoe with no end in sight, and headed up to Duluth.  A quick two hours later, we jumped out of our SUV, and into Chad's with his boat ready to go.  We stopped for gas and then launched for nice evening cruise on VERY calm waters.  The view from the lake was spectacular.  You couldn't have planned better weather then what we had for the ride.

Saturday morning the four of us headed over to the Brule River Canoe Rental for a bit of kayaking on the Brule river.  And boy were they busy, as a couple of large groups had showed up on thier doorsteps pretty much wiping out all their canoes and kayaks.  Luckily Chad had reserved our kayaks the day before.  It had been a few years since I've last kayaked, but got back into the swing of things pretty quickly.  The scenery was nice, and again the weather was very cooperative.  We were greeted, or rather scowled at by a couple of eagles in the trees above.  And then we had some close-up contact with a couple of does.  I think the black flies must have driven them out as they really didn't care that we were only a couple of paddle lengths away from them. 

Further down stream we floated by an odd scene of five women doing yoga on their riverside dock.  And along the way was a C.O. that scared the crap out of me sitting on a rock stream side.  I think he was counting canoes and kayaks.  At least that would explain why he had a table in his hand that he was looking at as we passed by.  The girls ended up ahead of us and that worked out okay for us to just chat and catch up with each other.  The trip was supposed to be 4 hours, but we finished in 3.5 hours, even with the flow of the river being low.

To reward ourselves we headed back to Fitgers Brewery and dived into some great wild rice burgers smothered in mushrooms & cheese, sweet potato fries, and frosty mugs of Big Boat Oatmeal Stout beer (of which I ended up buying a growler of to take home with me).  I love that beer!  We wrapped up the day with a few other activities and then checked the weather for the next day before going to bed.

Sunday we slept in a bit.  Jen and I hadn't slept well in like five days, but the spare bed in Chad and Sarah's house fixed that both nights.  We slept very well and it was hard to tell ourselves to get up and not sleep the day away.  Eventually, we did get up and get going.  Today's agenda was to add a couple of miles to the bicycles on the Munger Trail.  Which, coincidentally, ended right at the house.  The rain had stopped, the sun came out along with a light breeze.  Another perfect day for our plans.   I recommend taking a ride/hike/run/walk or what ever on the Munger trail.  It was very nicely groomed, and if like looking at scenic views or going through what feels like old woods without too much effort, this is a must do.  The very curvy drive up to our drop off spot was fun scenic too. 

Over all it was a very relaxing time, which Jen and I really needed.

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Official News Report..........

My wife's life is about to change.  Tonight, after a bad day of work, she bought a new fly rod (Sage Flight 5wt) and a reel (Ross CLA 2) and Scientific Anglers Mastery GPX fly line (WF-Floating) from The Fly Angler.  Guess the house will never look the same as she will be out on the river with me...for the most part.  She already has  found a substitute for me as she has set up a tentative fishing date with a friend while I am out on vacation fishing in Montana.  I know Right!  Good by old life, goodbye semi-clean house, helllllllloooooo FISHies!!!  I'm so proud.  Unless of course she makes a habit out of catching trophies.  Then we may have to have a little chat for my ego's sake.  ;) 

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Jen catches her first trout of the season.

About a month back, Jen and I made plans to go fishing with a friend of ours, Mister Hinz.  It's been years since we'd gone out fishing together, but we were determined to fix that.  And we did.  Last weekend, everything went as planned and Friday after work, we were on the road to another adventure. 

We got into town and checked in at the motel, where I got a quick run down on the fishing reports of the day (which were promising), and got the room number of where Mister Hinz was staying for the weekend.  The three of us hooked up in the parking lot, and Mister Hinz had told us that he had already hit a spot and caught a couple of trout before we got there. 

Excited to hear more, we headed off to the local burger joint for supper and to hear more about the local waters of the area.  Typical of rural trout country, the establishment was adorned with local taxidermy of fish, furry things, and fowl.  This was just what the doctor ordered!

Saturday morning after breakfast we headed to our first stop, changed into waders for the day, and grabbed our 4wt rods.  I had brought with me my new bamboo rod that I bought the weekend before at a very good price that I couldn't pass up.  A 2 piece, 7' 4wt, with two tips made by Steve Pennington.  We set Jen up in a nice area that had some fish occasionally breaking the surface here and there, but nothing  too consistent.  She fished for awhile and then we had her switch to a rod that was set up a little differently.  It didn't take long and she was getting some action.  After a few "practice" sets thanks to the playful trout, Jen caught her first brown trout of the season.  It was a blast to watch, as she was really excited while she was trying to land him.  Her smile was huge, and now she could relax a little about the rest of the season.  Mister Hinz popped a beer and I lit a cigar in celebration of her victory.  We have confidence that eventually Jen will develop her own sinful victory dance, but until then we've got her covered. 

She caught a couple more, and then finally I couldn't refrain from trying my hand at a trout I had been watching downstream of her this whole time.  I tried my best sight fishing for the one nice sized trout, but after many last second refusals and several different flies, we moved on to another spot. 

Contrary to all the grim weather reports of rain and wind, it was a blue bird day with very comfortable temps.  In fact the whole weekend had great weather, we really lucked out.  We jumped from spot to spot, occasionally getting in the truck and moving to other sections to try out.  As our streak would have it, there were once again lots of various mayflies popping throughout the day, and the trout would have very little to do with taking them off the surface.  They were keyed in on emergers, and thus most of the fish caught were on nymphs and midges in the size range of 18 to 22.  I was really excited to catch several browns on one of my newer variations of the old zebra midge.  This one had a little flare and an additional twist to it.  I'll keep that pattern a secret for just a while longer. 

When the day was done, we had all caught several trout, and they all were scrappy fighters.  We had a lot of fun.  We also tried something new that I heard about and never done before, which was we did a rotation so that only one person was fishing at a time.  And we stuck to that most of the time.  It made it fun by keeping us close together and we all felt that we were a part of each take, miss, and landed fish.

We ended the day back at the same burger place were visited the night before to crush the well deserved appetite. Then went back to the hotel where Mister Hinz and I had a few refreshments and looked at a lot of fish porn that was on his digital camera from his past several trips of the year. 

It was a great April Easter weekend and I am pumped to get back out on the river for more fun.

A good weekend

Friday night Jen and I had a dinner date with Ben and Amy at a little Russian Restaurant called Moscow on the Hill.  It was pretty fun, the foods were good, the staff was fast, and several vodka shots tastings were had.  They had more choices of vodkas and specialty drinks then there are pine needles on a tree.  My main entree was a pork dish with apples and almonds inside it, and it was very flavorful.  Jen ordered a salmon fillet with dumplings on the side.  She raved about the dumplings.  I tasted the salmon and thought it was the best I'd ever had in the Midwest.  The appetizer was very good as well, it was a smorgasbord of things, and surprisingly, we all were digging the beat salad the most.  I' would definitely do it again.

Saturday morning Jen and I ran around picking up the house a little, wrapping presents, and last minute shopping.  Ben stopped over after his shopping was done for the day, and we set up to tie flies around the kitchen table for the next four hours.  We did take a brief break with a quick visit to the Fly Angler down the road, as I needed some more hooks and beads for the pattern I was tying.  We just plain enjoyed the day, a couple of cocktails (our friends bourbon, spiced rum, and crown paid us a visit), tied a few flies, had Christmas music on in the background.  Later on in the evening I did some consolidating of my many random post it notes listing flies to tie and made a consolidated list that was more manageable to read then my various chicken scratches on yellow squares.  Overall, I'd call that a good day.

Sunday we didn't leave the house.  I made a hearty breakfast, we paid some bills, spent some time  on both the wisflyboard and then on the Flytyingforum websites, opened our stocking stuffer gifts to each other, and then I was back to the fly tying bench with football on in the background and VH1's top 40 videos of the year.  Inspired by a fly pattern I saw online today and by the theme of the flies I'd been tying the past week or so, I came up with a neat pattern.

Hook:  TMC 3761 #12
Thread: 8/0 Olive Uni-Thread
Tail/shuck: 2 strands of pearl accent flashabou
Body: Ultra-wire green (size brassie) and Ultra-wire copper (size medium)
Thorax: Black UV Ice Dubbing
Hackle: Hen English soft hackle

28.5" Steelhead

Well this past weekend was steelhead weekend number three for the fall.  And coincidentally Jens 3rd weekend of steelhead fishing in total. 

We did the usual Friday night run up to the cabin we rented.  The drive seemed long as we drove though  rain, then sleet, and then snow.  We moved our gear from the truck to the cabin and settled in for the night.  Everyone else that we knew were coming up for the weekend would be pulling in later or the next day. 

Saturday we woke, had a hearty breakfast, and hoped we see my buddy Ben from the club soon.  He arrived just as we had fished getting dressed and rigging our fly rods for the day.  The plan...to go to a spot where the parking lot wasn't packed. 

Ben and Jen hopped in the truck and on our first parking lot of choice, there was amazingly only one other vehicle there.  Rare for this spot, especially since it was 10:30am.  Guess this is where we were going fishing!  We made the slippery trek down the trail and could see that the river had definitely changed over the past couple of days.  It was up, it was faster, and it was no longer clear.

We knew a particular spot that I was fond of and it could accommodate three of us fishing it at the same time.  We got into position, Ben at the head of the pool, Jen in the middle, and me at the tail.  I tried to make my first cast and caught a tree, just as three old timers across the stream came by.  So I pretended to ignore my situation while we chatted with them for a bit.  They said they this spot to hold few but big steelhead.  I smiled, and kept what I knew of this spot to myself. 

They headed down the trail and Jen made a noise.  She said she missed a fish.  I thought, "whatever" it was only her first cast, and went about undoing my mess from the tree.  Jen again made a noise and claimed to missed it again.  I broke off my line as it was a hopeless feet to try to save my rig, and again Jen said she missed a fish.  Ben and I advised she change how she set the hook and do a strip set instead of a rod set.  I went back to tying on a new fly and this time, Jen got excited and when I looked up she had a steelhead on.  In less then five casts she was fighting a steelhead.  I tossed my rod onto shore and worked my way up to her.  Ben also started to move down to assist as well.

We gave some direction as to what she should do and how to handle the fish and she was executing well.  And then the point came that I got excited, I saw the steelhead come by and realized my net was not big enough to land this one.  After two attempts, I hollered up to Ben that he needed to come down with his net.  Ben was able to get down by me pretty quickly and I stepped back out of their way, all this time Ben and I giving advice and shouting instructions to Jen.  It made several runs downstream and to the opposite bank and then found a spot just feet in front of us but past the deep edge where we couldn't wade over too.  It parked itself there.  Now time usually seems skewed when I get into these situations, but we were at a point where this battle was getting close to being abut 5 minutes long, and the three of us were looking at each other and looking at where the line was going into the muddy water and wondering what to do.  I then thought, the time is now or its going to be refreshed and take another run and we will lose it.  I advised to Jen that she angle and tilt her rod towards the bank and apply a little more pressure.  It worked, and the steelhead began to move.  After about a eight or nine attempts now, Ben netted the fish, and it was NICE.  Jen was sooooo excited and I started taking pictures in case it escaped the net, or fell out of someone's hands.  We did measure it before we took it out of the net for the grip and grin pictures and it measured 28.5" from kipe to tail.  We had great fortune of a great fight, Jen handling herself well for her first encounter with fighting a steelhead, and not screwing up in the unhooking and picture taking.

Jen was able to tell her story later to Mike and Phil over supper and we were all celebrating in her success.  Then we continued celebrating back at the cabin for bit a longer and sharing in other fishing stories.  I'm so proud of her!