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.