jlmelend
04-03-2008, 06:33 PM
I have always enjoyed and appreciated Ryan Miller's steelhead reports on this message board. Ryan works with Keith Kaneko for Angling on the Fly at Kiene's and guides the Lower Sac, Yuba and the American for trout and steelhead. So my fishing buddy Aaron and I asked Ryan to guide us on the LSac below Redding. There were a half dozen other guides near us, but we were the only one's catching fish consistently. Thank god, because this year Aaron and I had some serious skunk on us until we hit the lower Sac with "Killer Miller". Thanks to Ryan we got into some hog bows up there. The hatches weren't huge as it was a bit chilly, but we did witness some small March Brown action. Ryan knew his stuff. He knew what nymphs and flies would work, he would look into a run while he was rowing us around a riffle, then predict when we would hook into some fish...even daring to call double hookups...it was like Michael Jordan calling jump shots in the old commercials! Then he would row back upstream and cover the same zone of water until he was sure there were no fish to be caught. We covered about 18 miles of water in this manner even though he pulled a forearm muscle!
Here are some highlights:
There's Ryan with a fat bow caught by Aaron. Aaron's originally from Nebraska on assignment here until June. We're all going to miss him. I hadn't seen that S*#@%-eating grin on his face since he first arrived in California.
http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z180/jlmelend/December2007043.jpg
Ryan postulated that this one must have been grabbed by an Osprey. The claw mark was on both sides of the fish.
http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z180/jlmelend/December2007047.jpg
I caught this beastie on a caddis pupa.
http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z180/jlmelend/IMG_0277.jpg
Ryan claims he guides for steelhead or native trout almost exclusively. But he neglected to tell us he also guides for the "golden" trout aka California "bonefish".
http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z180/jlmelend/December2007045.jpg
It was quite a day indeed. I'll bet Aaron will never forget fishing in California!
I would advise anyone interested in getting into some serious spring fish to contact Ryan Miller. He really knows these waters and he makes fishing a blast. We were so thrilled that we didn't even stop to eat or piss. Never met a guide who could row 18 miles (several of which were upstream) with a messed up arm to get his clients into some fish. If you need an entertaining day of fishing "commando style" until dark, Ryan is definitely your guide! Thanks for everything Ryan!
Here are some highlights:
There's Ryan with a fat bow caught by Aaron. Aaron's originally from Nebraska on assignment here until June. We're all going to miss him. I hadn't seen that S*#@%-eating grin on his face since he first arrived in California.
http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z180/jlmelend/December2007043.jpg
Ryan postulated that this one must have been grabbed by an Osprey. The claw mark was on both sides of the fish.
http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z180/jlmelend/December2007047.jpg
I caught this beastie on a caddis pupa.
http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z180/jlmelend/IMG_0277.jpg
Ryan claims he guides for steelhead or native trout almost exclusively. But he neglected to tell us he also guides for the "golden" trout aka California "bonefish".
http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z180/jlmelend/December2007045.jpg
It was quite a day indeed. I'll bet Aaron will never forget fishing in California!
I would advise anyone interested in getting into some serious spring fish to contact Ryan Miller. He really knows these waters and he makes fishing a blast. We were so thrilled that we didn't even stop to eat or piss. Never met a guide who could row 18 miles (several of which were upstream) with a messed up arm to get his clients into some fish. If you need an entertaining day of fishing "commando style" until dark, Ryan is definitely your guide! Thanks for everything Ryan!