Thanksgiving

Seeing that my family went to Chicago for Thanksgiving and I hate travelling around the holidays, I ventured north to spend a couple of days fishing. One of the great things about Thanksgiving and Christmas is that very few people are out fishing as they are spending time with loved ones stuffing their face full of all that holiday goodness. Meantime I fished a number of runs in search of early winter chrome with no one else around. Only downside being everything on the way home was closed for Thanksgiving with the exception of one Safeway where I picked up a sandwich for dinner. Not that great turkey dinner we have all come to love on the last thursday in November, but its hard to pass up a day of early winter fishing with fresh chrome pushing upriver!




JH

Bent Rod of the Week

We all love that feeling!

JH

Rivers Of A Lost Coast out on DVD

With Rivers Of A Lost Coast out on DVD now, those of you who haven't seen it yet, have no excuse. Picked up my copy today and just finished watching it for the ninth time and it still sends chills down my spine. Part of me wishes I was 70 plus years old so I could have experienced some of California's world class salmon and steelhead fishing back in its hay-day. This is one of the best documentaries I have ever seen and is destined to be a classic.

Check it out at www.riversofalostcoast.com

JH

River Etiquette...

Went out to the local river this morning to fish a run that sometimes holds early winters this time of year. Waded out and was working my way down a run when another fly flinger steps in 30 yards below me and started fishing. WTF?

So here's my etiquette rant for the year...

1. In most places if there is someone fishing a run, go somewhere else. Plenty of water even on many small creeks. North Umpqua comes to mind here.
2. Never step in below another angler working down a run, be it a bait chucker, bobber jockey, or spey guy. If your going to at least ask first.
3. If they say yes after you ask, then at least give them some room!
4. Keep moving. Stand in one spot for 10 minutes and I can guarantee my fly will get a little too close to you for comfort.

So much for a good start to my day

Steelhead on a Sea Run Brown Fly?

With relatively tough fishing on the Trinity River this past week, one of my clients Rudd Corwin, a veteran of fishing for sea run browns in Argentina each winter wanted to give one of his sea run brown flies a try. What the hell, steelhead will just about take any fly when in the mood, so lets give it a try. The EMB is certainly not eye catching but has a little flash and movement, certainly making it steelhead worthy. Not more than 20 casts into the run, Rudd hooked and landed a strong buck on a floating line and EMB. Sea run brown flies do work on steelhead!

Fishing with Jeff Bright

I was able to spend a couple of days last week with Jeff Bright on the lower Trinity River. For those of you who don't know Jeff or have not visited his website, Jeff is one of the most passionate steelhead fisherman I have ever met. He hosts trips each year to the Dean River, the Skeena River system, and the Deschutes River. Places many of us only dream of! Jeff has also spent a lot of time on the rivers of California's North Coast, especially the Trinity. It had been a while since Jeff had last fished the Trinity and I was thrilled to get to spend a couple of days with him.

We fished long and hard and managed to land a couple of fish the first day including a brilliant hen going 30" on the tape. The second day started out tough, but ended with a bang. In two runs, Jeff managed to HOOK four steelhead on his shadow hilton, but all four came unbuttoned. Three fish came out of one run and after losing all three, Jeff has a new run named in his honor "Jeff's Silver Sombreo." Something that will not soon be forgotten!

Through the course of two days we managed to fish some amazing water, take some cool photos(at least Jeff did), and talk all things steelhead. To check out some of Jeff's photography and his hosted trips visit his website at www.jeffbright.com

JH