JasonB
10-01-2012, 11:01 AM
As requested, I'll share a tad from our very recent Rogue adventure. It was with great anticipation that my wife and I headed up to one of our very favorite rivers anywhere. The excitement was multi layered; for one this would be a chance at hopefully hooking up with some steelhead (a new found addiction) and trying our luck at some new styles of fishing for us, on a deeper level this trip would be celebrating our 10th anniversary (where the hell did THAT time go :eek: )!
We scored a late cancellation permit for just the two of us (and our trusty dogs), made some plans, tied up countless flies, loaded up the car with a seemingly endless mountain of gear boxes, cooler, raft, food, camping stuff, and of course fishing stuff.... basically one hell of a lot of STUFF. I secretly wondered if my lil ol pickup would even make it all the way up there and back... particularly when I noticed the odometer reading as we left Mt Shasta early Monday morning http://www.kiene.com/forums/images/attach/jpg.gif
http://www.kiene.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=5090&stc=1&d=1349112085
We made it up to Galice just fine and picked up our permit, and began the process of unloading that mountain of stuff into the raft, our new home for the next 5 days!
http://www.kiene.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=5094&stc=1&d=1349113323
In terms of fishing, lets just say that it was pretty tough; whoever said that steelhead are the fish of a thousand casts was clearly a much better angler than my wife or myself (and probably had far better casts as well). I started to count how many casts I did, just for fun, but I lost count very early on... still I'm fairly certain that we both did a lot more than our fair share. Couldn't feel too bad, as most other anglers that we met weren't exactly doing great either; even a couple of the guides mentioned that things had been a bit on the slower side.
I think in the end we averaged out to about 1 hookup per day, with another grab or two on the better days. I shouldn't complain too much, but it's hard not to have higher hopes. The hookups we had were mostly smallish half pounders who really had the "jump high and spit the hook" routine down solid. Only landed 1 each the whole trip.
On a more positive note fishing wise; we caught PLENTY of fiesty pike minnow, who seemed pretty eager to eat anything that came in their way. While they certainly were no replacement for steelhead, at least they helped to not loose focus and forget that there are fish to be caught if you pay attention. The highlight for me was catching this chinook, my first on a fly!
http://www.kiene.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=5091&stc=1&d=1349112770
Also just spending some time to adjust to a whole new style of fishing made my time between grabs enjoyable and entertaining. With each new tid bit that I'd come to understand a little more it is becoming clearer and clearer just how much more I have to learn still... kind of like "real life" too. I will say that I find swinging flies to be a very fun and engaging way to fish, probably more so than any other style I've tried yet.
(more in part 2)
We scored a late cancellation permit for just the two of us (and our trusty dogs), made some plans, tied up countless flies, loaded up the car with a seemingly endless mountain of gear boxes, cooler, raft, food, camping stuff, and of course fishing stuff.... basically one hell of a lot of STUFF. I secretly wondered if my lil ol pickup would even make it all the way up there and back... particularly when I noticed the odometer reading as we left Mt Shasta early Monday morning http://www.kiene.com/forums/images/attach/jpg.gif
http://www.kiene.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=5090&stc=1&d=1349112085
We made it up to Galice just fine and picked up our permit, and began the process of unloading that mountain of stuff into the raft, our new home for the next 5 days!
http://www.kiene.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=5094&stc=1&d=1349113323
In terms of fishing, lets just say that it was pretty tough; whoever said that steelhead are the fish of a thousand casts was clearly a much better angler than my wife or myself (and probably had far better casts as well). I started to count how many casts I did, just for fun, but I lost count very early on... still I'm fairly certain that we both did a lot more than our fair share. Couldn't feel too bad, as most other anglers that we met weren't exactly doing great either; even a couple of the guides mentioned that things had been a bit on the slower side.
I think in the end we averaged out to about 1 hookup per day, with another grab or two on the better days. I shouldn't complain too much, but it's hard not to have higher hopes. The hookups we had were mostly smallish half pounders who really had the "jump high and spit the hook" routine down solid. Only landed 1 each the whole trip.
On a more positive note fishing wise; we caught PLENTY of fiesty pike minnow, who seemed pretty eager to eat anything that came in their way. While they certainly were no replacement for steelhead, at least they helped to not loose focus and forget that there are fish to be caught if you pay attention. The highlight for me was catching this chinook, my first on a fly!
http://www.kiene.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=5091&stc=1&d=1349112770
Also just spending some time to adjust to a whole new style of fishing made my time between grabs enjoyable and entertaining. With each new tid bit that I'd come to understand a little more it is becoming clearer and clearer just how much more I have to learn still... kind of like "real life" too. I will say that I find swinging flies to be a very fun and engaging way to fish, probably more so than any other style I've tried yet.
(more in part 2)