Summer Steelhead on the Umpqua River July 20-29th
Every summer my wife Jerri and I make a short annual pilgrimage to the Umpqua River from our home in the shadow of Shasta to search for summer run steelhead. The Umpqua has one of the few remaining runs of wild summer fish in the lower 48 states that supports angling. The fish are also surface oriented and getting one to tip up from a deep emerald pool for a skated fly can be one of most magical moments in our sport.
This season, our longtime friend Ed Filice, owner of La Filice Winery joined us for a week of perfect weather, great food, phenomenal wine, ideal water conditions and outstanding fishing. Ed is an outstanding wine maker, fly tier (check out his flies @ http://dragginflys.com/), tournament spey caster, and a delightful guy to spend a day on the water with. He started off the trip in stylish fashion, hooking and landing a bright buck on his sixth cast! Ed caught the fish on a fly he tied specifically for the trip, a beautiful Birrell's "Soft Water Sedge." It is a sparse waking/wet fly muddler style that attracted interest from some other fish during the week as well.
Most mornings started off quite cool, and though not a morning person, I was encouraged by Ed and Jerri to make some early starts to fish the more popular runs before other rods had been through. Evenings were warm and we wore shirtsleeves until it was too dark to fish. Steelhead seemed to be scattered throughout the river from Deadline all the way through the Camp Water and above.
One afternoon we visited Lee Spencer on Steamboat Creek where he serves as interpreter and "fish guardian." Lee confirmed the fish were not concentrated in the Camp Water as the creek had been running high and many fished had moved up into the creek where they are protected. The hole where he is stationed to guard them was holding about 500 wild steelhead, an amazing site to see!
After raising eight fish in the first four days, I finally landed one while Ed and I were on a guided day with Rich Zellman. Rich is one of the finest guides we have had the pleasure to fish with. Catch rates on the Umpqua are low on average, so it can be a challenging venue to please highly expectant anglers. Rich does an outstanding job of providing anglers of every experience level some opportunities at fish while advancing their knowledge and skills. To see Rich in action skating flies on his home water check out a video on our website. We also have a few pics and a link to an interview with Lee Spencer.
It looks to be a good season on the Umpqua, hope to see you up there soon!
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flashed a few web pics of the water, forest and general green. We're in Reno, she's from the OP Washington so it was a quick sell. I'd never been and timing seemed right. So I started tying and called Scott Howell (booked of course) who bumped me to 
We went on a mile or two, past what I could only imagine from the sound of the rushing water, split off the trail at what seemed a random unidentifiable point, sat on some bank rocks and chatted until light came. Relaxing but I was still a little itchy.
By the end of the week, it reached 100° in the canyon and it took a bit of a toll, even wet wading. Fished the popper whole time, maybe not the most prime water at all times, but still managed to raise two more fish. No hookups, but there's weren't any more trout sets either. I think some of those misses can be attributed to my popping skill. It was pretty erratic, big inconsistent movements that plain pulled the fly away from where the steelies thought it was going to be. Certainly something to work on. It was a great trip!
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