Happy Birthday Dad

Heres the man, fighting the fish of a lifetime

I would not be here writing this if it were not for my amazing dad, hes the guy who taught me to fish and swear...and write...today is his birthday and I wanted to take the time to say Happy Birthday Dad! I Love You! 

The Trip Begins

Goat Fishing, You should try it..

Winter Steelhead hunt begins!...Stay tuned in for updates, Ill be on the river from 6am to 6 pm everyday now until Friday....I am sure I will have some rad photos and stories for your viewing pleasure! Until then, goat fishing should keep your cravings at bay.

Diamond in a piece of rotten bread...

Introducing (drum roll please)- My good friend, Edge Angling team member, Amazing shadow caster (almost as good as brad pitt) and fellow steelhead junkie..His name is Tom Enderlin boys and girls. Tom made a quick visit down to my neck of the woods...here is his story...(Its a love story...I am pretty sure he sleeps with his 3wt)

Big Fish, Small Stick – Tom Enderlin
(Photos courtesy: Monica Quesada and Tom Enderlin)

 He even carries a water bottle on his wading belt!

I bought a 3 weight Scott S4 a little over a year ago as my primary trout stick after losing the majority of my quiver in an airline debacle enroute to WY, and have since moved to Central CA for work reasons. Being that the majority of my fly rods are for saltwater applications, double handed, or ultra light, I didn’t have the right rod to fish a local coastal stream after the season’s first big rain… and so I grabbed the 3 weight knowing that it’s fast action and serious backbone would get the job done swinging streamers to the ‘half-pounder’ steelhead I’d likely encounter. in fact, I had tested it extensively while still living in Newport, RI, catching†schoolie striped bass†up to 35″ in the harbor under the cover of darkness on the warm summer nights they chased sand-eels into the shallows; so I knew I was ready. The river I was fishing was typical of most coastal rivers, draining a large swath of†redwood forest and flushing hard through a steep gorge. It’s characteristics certainly didn’t make for a welcoming environment to survive as a fry or adult steelhead, but the local fly guys told me the genetic strain that used to inhabit this particular river was considered amongst the largest to have ever existed in California But I didn’t expect to encounter anything like what I actually did… and when I got grabbed on a swung streamer the half-pounder turned into a serious wild buck!

Introducing the Hawg Wrangler; T.E

Due to the soft nature of the rod, the fish didn’t initially make the pool explode, rip 100 feet of backing off my screaming reel, or otherwise do what wild steelhead are known to do. And so I side pressured and found a good fighting/beaching position to get the little guy in. Suddenly, as if coming to see what this disturbance of its courting a hen was all about, the beast writhed hard on the surface, and at the sight of its wide shovel tail, broad shoulders and massive kipe my knees got weak and I started to curse the airline anew for losing my 5 and 6 weights!  I fought the fish for well over 20 minutes, and the S4 allowed for some serious bend to turn his head repeatedly out of the current and keep him from running down or up stream.To add insult to the injury already taking place, the state doesn’t allow landing nets on this particular stream, so after managing to beach him once and botching the tail grab I had to do it all over again after the fish found new will to escape. It sounded like a tuna, and wouldn’t give an inch. A couple of anglers, as well as my nervous girlfriend, had all started to form a crowd behind me. A few mumbles and some snide remarks about the size of my rod highlighted the crowd’s desire for a view of the goliath, but I still couldn’t seem to move him off the bottom. It was a stalemate of the finest kind. With slow angles and patience I was finally able to turn his head once more out of the current, and as he tried to swim back into his deep resting position I used unorthodox top pressure to turn his head downwards, and with deep bends into the butt section of the rod I was able to front flip the beautiful fish in a small stream version of a death circle. After a few such rod breaking maneuvers, advantage was once again on my side, and the disoriented buck finally swam into the shallows where I managed to get hold of his bass-like tail, snap a few pictures, and release him quickly to avoid any damage to this valuable endangered relic of ancient genetics. He was as wild as the river itself and fresh from the sea, with an intact adipose fin, majestic color on his cheek and flank, and dappled dark spots across his back. A fine specimen…It was a wild experience to say the least, and one that broke my Central CA teeth in a most unusual way. A special kudos is due to Scott’s talented rod builders for the excellent quality of this monster slaying piece of art!

T.E

For more info on Toms story & more pictures from his adventure visit- http://www.edgeangling.com/blog/880/big-fish-small-stick-tom-enderlin/

Chrome Road-Trip

On The Road

Some time in early February I realized that the winter steelhead season (my favorite) is coming to an end…I realized that I had not yet made it up to a few famed steelhead rivers on the CA/OR border. I have been hearing stories about massive winter run fish that will take a swung fly like a dog eats a milk bone…I immediately opened my calendar to find that my work season was starting to pick up again (a good thing considering I’m in deep shit as far as money goes)…I found a week where I had no classes to teach and began planning my trip, although as I planned I thought about the nature of winter run steelhead….I thought about this year’s weather and decided it would be best to just pack my spey rod, sink tips, a couple single hand 6wt’s and a whole bunch of warm clothes and fly tying shit and just get in the car and drive…I’m going to go where the fish are for a change…especially the biggest baddest winter run fish I can find. I am going to start on the trinity, cut my teeth on some heavily pressured fish and then drive northwest from there…I’ll be updating the bloooooooooggggg daily so that those of you who find this shit interesting can tune in and waste some time while you’re at work….or don’t! Either way I will be sticking fish on some river in northern California! More updates on the trip over the next week…

Hard work pays off..

So down here in central Cal the steelhead runs are absolutely nothing compared to up north. Catching a big adult down here (on a fly, you can catch anything with bait) is the holy grail for any steelhead angler. I caught a fish from my back yard, she was the “One” for me (at least for my season down here)...taped out at 31inches, she was silver & days out of the salt… sea lice and all. 

The "One"- Being alone does not provide the best Photo Op

This was no average fish for me…this was more than 100 hours on the river paying off. I have spent ALL season down here trying to get an adult on a swung fly….Two weeks before the season is over (6 days of fishing left) and 3 days before I leave on my steelhead expedition (more on that in the next post) and I finally hook up on my first 10lb + fish from the SL, and the funny part is the second I took Lani Waller’s advice and started to just relax, look around me and take in the sunrise (it was 7 am and I’de been on the water for an hour already)...all of the sudden, the loop in my hand went tight and all mayhem broke loose. At first I thought it was a smaller fish…18-25 inches and I was stoked but I put the wood to it and wanted to get it out of the pool so it wouldn’t spook the rest of the fish...and then I saw it…and I looked at my 4wt (it’s a very small river)..and I got the shakes, the fish shakes. That fish ripped a ton of line off my reel and was doing doughnuts around the pool like a hot rod in the cvs parking lot…I did land the fish and I am stoked to say the least.  Catching that fish may have been luck to some but I can tell you that I swung at least 3 different patterns before the take and I had swung at least 400 casts through this hole over the course of the season…not to mention I have been putting in serious time for that fish, walking out to the river in the dark and spending a minimum of 5 hours on the water…working for this fish was so rewarding…rather than a first time to the hole, this looks good, dumb luck kind of situation. I had put my livelihood into this river, checking the flows and keeping a very detailed journal with water temperature and all the other shit you can observe and write down. You may be wondering what fueled this crazy pursuit….well, it all started with some pictures from 2001 and a buddy who (on his fist time ever fishing the river) hooked a monster out of the same hole…I’m talking MONSTER (ill post his story later)…after that I knew the fish were there and what the possibilities were. I started to clock serious hours…never letting myself rest until I caught a monster. I was 100% fishing 100% of the time (still am) ...I tied flies, did research and spent hours battling bait bouncers and it paid off. That fish was more than just a fish caught for me…it was a goal that I worked hard for. That fish represents everything I love about steelheading…

Chrome is where you make it…

Over Exposed Half-Pound love on the SL

I know...sounds pretty lame...but it’s true. A steelhead river (or creek) is what you make of it. I have been lucky enough (or downright unlucky enough) to be living in a great coastal town south of San Francisco...sure when I moved down here all I could think about was getting barreled at the ave' and hot chicks… now all I think about are Wednesdays and weekends...why you ask? Well...those are the days I can go fish the San Lorenzo River...you know the once famed epic steelhead salmon river now a disgustingly contaminated semi destroyed river behind my house... its covered in mud snails, leeches and 

 garbage (occasionally an oil slick or a bottle of bleach)…its gross. You can only imagine how gnarley a steelhead is to swim up that river, and they still do… anyways, I have been spending a ton of time on the SL this season…I’m about as broke as you can be without being on the streets, no money = not many fishing trips up north. Sure I’ve made a few week-long trips up to the Trinity and in only two days I’ll be leaving on a solo road trip to catch a 40-inch ghost run winter fish…I know…sounds like a lot of casting…but the fact of the matter is I’ve been stuck at home way too much. The San Lorenzo (the SL or Little Lorenzini as we call it) has become my refuge…I can go there to fight with gear fisherman (and the hybrid flyreel and mono bait guys who call themselves fly fisherman but don’t use flies and don’t cast a fly line…) and kick around garbage while wondering if there are even any fish in the hole I am fishing. Oddly enough this river has become a place I look forward to visiting, I enjoy how goddamn rugged the place is…I’m pretty sure you have to be a rock climber to fish a large portion of the river. My point is, it’s not all about the glorified trips to beautiful rivers in BC with massive wild fish and 2 people every 10 miles (I wish I lived in BC, or could even afford to go there… April Vokey…if you are reading this…I want to come fish with you and learn everything you know about steelhead, same offer goes out to Bob Clay) but it’s the places close to home that will leave a unique mark on you as a fisherman/woman.

Chrome shots

We have had a dry year down here in central CA and to be honest, the steelhead season has S-U-C-K-E-D.... Here are some fish from the past month, all were released unharmed...i know some of you are frowning looking at a steelhead on the rocks.. get over it...I was alone with no net and tailed the fish...then gently laid the fish down and took a very quick shot and let them go..I treat these fish like family and I DO care if they are harmed....

Educate Yourself

If you like fishing for Steelhead & Salmon as much as I do....you'll watch this video and share it with as many people as you can...This is one of many rivers that are all facing the same problems, If the fish cant spawn they will be gone Forever.  

Check it out- The Greatest Migration

The Hook Set

Here we go…the first post!. The indo went down and I just set the hook ...The virginity of my naive web blog is now gone!

I started this blog with the idea of keeping a journal…a fishing journal, one that I could share with others and look back on too (when I haven’t hooked a fish in weeks). You know: the moral booster that pretty much only showcases the ups in your life – that one long fish induced high. But that was a few months ago. I started with a commitment to write in it all the time, so I guess it’s not much of a surprise that here I am two months later deleting and re-writing the same bullshit, all with reader satisfaction in mind.

Let’s face it…there are more blogs out here in cyberspace than fish in the San Lorenzo river (the dirty fucked up river behind my current residence, I go there to contaminate my wading gear with mudsnails and didymo, practice casting and battle the crusty old guys that still fish out there despite the fact THEY are the ones who fucked it up in the first place. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing, but at least they can't kill the fish out of the water. Instead they can leave that up to their large barbed treble hooks and Redd stomping ignorance). This blog is just another notch in the net for me, another way to keep my mind 100% fish focused all the time. I am not a writer, nor do I consider myself a very artistic or creative guy in the traditional sense. I have flintknapped hundreds of arrowheads, I make my own bows and arrows from scratch, I have tanned hides, built snares and done just about everything that has anything to do with primitive living. I suppose that all requires some modicum of creativity, just not of the Pulitzer Prize winning sort. These days my focus is on fishing…more specifically fly fishing and everything possibly related to fly fishing. I spend 99/9% of my time either fishing, reading about fishing, thinking about fishing, dreaming about fishing or driving to go fishing…the other 1% is devoted to my dog, Boo. He too will love fishing when he is old enough to stop swimming out after me.

So this blog is a way to document my serious fly fishing obsession, From here on out I’ll be writing about all of my adventures and days spent on or off the water, as well as the occasional video post, blog review, gear review, book review and rants on those days I’m so fucking frustrated with the world and how badly we’ve fucked it all up and continue to fuck it harder than she can be safely fucked. (I was going to try my best to keep this bad boy G rated, but I guess it’s a lot harder than it seems. We’ll see!).

Welcome to my world, where your core score goes down every time you buy a fly that you can tie..