Winter on its way

Fall steelheading is drawing to a close and while there are still some late fall fish pushing in, early winters are right on their heels. Last week saw our first encounter with a bright early winter as well as some halfpounders and a few chunky summer/fall steelhead in the mix. Water temps have dropped and the rivers continue to rise and drop making fishing a little hit and miss. We have pretty much switched over to tips and some larger than usual patterns seem to be doing the trick. I have a handful of days left on the mid-lower Trinity and then switching modes to winter steelhead. With plenty of rain, snow, and wind the last week I am ready for some early winter chrome to push into many of our North Coast rivers. Happy Thanksgiving!

Tying the Crippler

I know its the end of the season but I still have a one last rendezvous up north for late winter steelhead. Thought I would take everyone through the steps of tying the Crippler which kicked ass this year on the coast. This is a slight variation to my pattern that was featured in the February issue of California Fly Fisher. This fly is designed to be fishes in "soft" water, i.e. tailouts, glides, and slow inside seams.

First off, this fly can be tied on either a shank or a tube, with or without weight. I prefer to tie these on tubes both with and without weight. This allows for fishing in a variety of conditions.

1 1/2" plastic tube.

After attaching thread, create a large dubbing ball near the rear of the tube and tie in a collar of Arctic fox tail in front of dub ball. Easier to take tow small chunks and tie them in one at a time to evenly spread around dubbing ball.


Tie in a schlappen feather and hackle 4-6 turns closely through a dubbed body(I like Ice Dubbing).


Tie in a long thin stemmed marabou feather and make 4-6 turns, picking out and combing back marabou with each turn.


Take anywhere from 12-18 ostrich herls and clump them together. From here, wet them and then using a black sharpie color 6-8 bars to give the ostrich a barred look. Using 3-4 herls at a time tie them in and around the fly, evenly spreading out the herl.


Add some flash to the top of the fly. I prefer flashabou, krinkle flash, or krystal flash. All look good, another personal preference.

Tie in a golden pheasant tippet to create a collar. Schlappen can work as well but I really like the golden pheasant tippets because they are naturally barred and give the collar a unique look. Finish the head, burn the end of the tube and finished!


A few of the reasons the Crippler is so effective is the large profile created by the arctic fox and hackled schlappen. This allows the marabou to breath and keep a big profile in the current without collapsing. The other thing to notice is how the ass end of the fly with the dubbing ball/arctic fox glows in the light(see pic below).

Rob Elam photo

Another pic of a big profile in the water...the sink test!

2010 Winter Season comes to a close

Our 2010 California Winter steelhead season has all but come to a close. While many of our rivers are still open till March 31st, fishing has slowed and very few bright fish are showing. It's hard to believe how fast our winter season went by. While we had some good fishing, this years water conditions made fishable days on some of my favorite rivers few and far between. If we could have had an extra 8-12 days of good weather during "prime time," I hate to think how many bright natives we could have hooked. That's winter steelheading though, we rarely get ideal conditions. The following are a few pics from the 09-10' winter season. More pics can be seen on the website in the next few days...

Brief Coast Report

We were able to get one day on the river in this week. With off and on rain showers and the river forecasts predicted to drop, things were looking good. Rain and showers on monday night and tuesday certainly did not help things. While the river was a nice steelhead green, the flows were just too high. We floated a 6 mile stretch of river that only allowed us to swing 3 runs due to the flows just being too high and fast. All things considered we did manage one good grab that didn't stick in one of the three runs fished. Looks like another big storm is moving in for the next few days and the rivers are predicted to jump big. Looks like it will be at least another week till something drops in.


The other downer of the day happened after we finished our float, we decided to walk into one last run before dark. Upon returning to the rig, I noticed someone had slashed my raft in two different places. In all my years fishing the coast, I have not had many run-ins till now. I have a pretty good idea of who might have done it, as the idiot was watching and heckling us most of the day throughout the float. Rest assured that if I see him again, things will not be pretty!

California Coast Report

This last week saw some good fishing conditions on a few of our California North Coast rivers. On and off rain helped stabilize water levels and keep the rivers that nice steelhead green color we all like. While fishing was not red hot, it was what you would expect for swinging for coastal winter steelhead. Hard fighting, chrome fish! I will let a few of the pictures do the talking...






With a good sized storm approaching and the predicted river levels significantly rising, we should see another good push of fish and good fishing once the rivers drop again. The season has just begun and we still have some great fishing ahead of us. Mid January through February are prime time on California's North Coast rivers. I still have some dates available and will continue to email those on the call/email list when I have open dates and fishable conditions. For more information or to sign up for the call/email list, email me at speybum@gmail.com

JH

Earthquake Hits California's North Coast

As I was driving home last night I get a call from two friends who were fishing different rivers asking if I felt that. Felt what? A 6.5 earthquake hit about 20 miles off the coast of Eureka. Damn! I leave an hour early to try and get home a little earlier, and I miss it! Kind of wished that I had stayed until dark. One of my friends who was wading his last run of the evening said his feet sunk inches into he ground as the ground and everything around him shook for a while. A few seconds later a huge piece of clay/rock slide into the rivers causing the river from there down to blow out. No big suprise there, as I know of a couple of other slides that took place as well. Eureka lost power but it doesnt sound like anyone was hurt which is a good thing. Just have to wait and see what happens to a couple of the rivers now for the next couple of days.

JH

California North Coast Winter Steelhead

With our fall fishing complete, we can now look forward to winter steelheading on the rivers of California's North Coast. Last week brought a big batch of rain to the north coast and raised water levels considerably. The flows are fluctuating a bit with off and on rain but we should see fishable conditions here soon. I anticipate a very good season this year on the coast and we have already hooked a few fish over there in the last few weeks. Our trips will be focusing on the Eel, S.F. Eel, Van Duzen, and Smith Rivers. This year I will be running a guided trip "SPECIAL". To find out more information sign up for our newsletter at the bottom of our homepage www.steelheadonthespey.com or email me at speybum@gmail.com

A little teaser from the last few weeks

JH

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

Finally some rain! It seems as though it has been months since we had seen our last rain, but it has finally arrived! While the forecast is not calling for a huge storm, every little bit will help. Lets just hope the rivers rise a bit and put in a little color without them blowing out.

In the last few weeks we have seen extremely low clear water conditions causing many rivers to close because of low flows. What few rivers remain open have seen some pretty decent fishing for the few that have been out. Last week we spent four days on a well known North Coast river and had some beautiful chrome bright steelhead come to the swung fly. While fishing was not red hot, we averaged 1 steelhead each day which is great for winter steelheading. With a little rain the forecast, I anticipate fishing to pick up in the next week and many new fish to pour into many of our North Coast rivers.



I was fortunate to spend some time last week with Jeff Bright. For those of you that don't know Jeff, he is an accomplished steelheader, photographer, and graphic designer. Jeff has spent a lot of time fishing for steelhead throughout the Pacific Northwest and hosts trips to both Blackwell's Lodge and Nicholas Dean Lodge in B.C. He has also spends a lot of time working with the Wild Steelhead Coalition and other various conservation oraganizations to help protect wild salmon and steelhead. When you get a chance, check out his website. www.jeffbright.com

California Winter Steelhead Update

Sorry it's been so long since my last report. In the last couple of weeks we have seen no rain and our coastal rivers that have been dropping and clearing extremely fast. That being said, most of our North Coast rivers had a few days of ideal flows and water conditions in the past two weeks. We have not seen big pushes of fish yet but the ones we have connected with have been chrome bright and full of piss and vinegar. If we could get some rain here in the next week or so, I anticipate bigger pushes of fish to move in and fishing to be great in February.

Fishing Report

Sorry for the lack of reports the last few weeks. The season is winding down on the Trinity with very few fresh fish showing which has made for some tough fishing. Last week Rob Elam was able to hook three adults landing two in two days of fishing along with a few half pounders. Rain might help the fishing a bit but it looks like just an average year for steelhead on the Trinity. The good news is that we are still seeing good numbers of wild fish which bodes well for the future of the Trinity River. If we get a good push of fresh fish on the Trinity in the next week or two I will keep you posted.

On the other hand, I have spent a considerable amount of time on the Klamath in the last few weeks. The fishing has been pretty good with most days seeing one or two adults to hand along with some nice half pounders. Most fish have been caught on floating lines and small wet flies but with the air and water temps cooling I would look at fishing a sink tip from now on. The upper Klamath near Iron Gate is seeing good numbers of steelhead in the 16-22" range and are very aggressive towards a swung fly. For those looking to get a late fall fix, this is the place to be until mid December.

Next on tap is coastal winter steelhead. My favorite time of year! As soon as we get some more rain we will see fresh steelhead enter our North Coast rivers. These early season fish are extremely aggressive and are a blast on the swing. For those interested in winter steelhead trips please send me an email so I can put you on the winter steelheading list of those interested in trips when the rivers drop into shape. I will send an email out to those interested about the details of those trips around the first of December. Until then, Go for the grab!

Jason Hartwick