So ive been "Off-Line" here for a week or more...fortunately ive got a good excuse, ive been fishing....for steelhead of course...no sand carp down in the Bahamas...more like the North Umpqua winter game, for those of you who are not familiar with the NU or the "winter game" (or for those of you who think you know what you are doing...I know I did...and now I know I was doing it all wrong..)...The winter game on the NU goes a little like this: Big water, cold as fuck, wetter than if you jumped in the river...just get wet and get it over with...as far as tackle.. Strictly two hander’s lined up with a 500something Skagit short (the pimp shit...) and minimum of 12ft of T-29...then on to the 10ft leader with a fly weighing heavy enough to measure its weight as a 1/4 ounce or something like that...1/8 ounce...whatever...it was fucking heavy alright? (Not complaining...just saying the dudes who do it right up there are some damn gnarly motherfuckers...they play the game harder than most could even muster up on their best day)...if you know what im talking about then you know it was NOT lots of beautiful T&G casts launching my green-butt skunk down & across for that suicidal fresh steelhead to come up and eat it...If that’s your shtick then id head up to BC, to make this a bit more clear to those of you thinking "what the fuck is jack talking about...?"..Well I am talking a out steelhead fishing with a Tight line (swung fly) presentation, now "why is this so hard?" you may be wondering...well when the fish are where they are supposed to be and that there is at least one fish that wants to play "Tug-a-war" with me...so for starters we have to find the fish...well that’s easy, they are 15 feet down under raging rapids...ok so we’ve found the fish...now how do you get that down and across green-butt skunk (with its bead chain eyes) down to those fish...Hmmmmmmm.....well, from what ive gathered from some time with someone who does this kind of shit 300 days a year...first, you say fuck the green butt skunk..Then you grab the heaviest sink tip you can throw (not cast.... throw with the rod...no tight loops here..Were fishing, not casting..Of course yes a good cast is better and I know you need to make every cast count...and I do...but im just trying my best to illustrate to those of you who can cast that when you’ve got this much junk on your rig that your going to get humbled. Bottom line...just go try it...I couldn’t make a 10ft cast the first morning and I thought I was a above average caster...)...tie on a nice long leader of some 30lb maxima down to some lighter stuff and then tie on your 4 inch long ****** (loose lips sink ships...) and throw that shit up stream and mend harder than you’ve ever tried... never once did I make a cast down stream...and out of 4 days fishing from 6am-8pm I got two grabs and a kelt that had half of its face ripped off by a seal (still smoked any other fish ive ever caught when it comes to pure strength and size)..This may sound shitty to some but I can honestly say I felt at home, since I caught my first steelhead I really have not looked back...I fished so hard that I only took one or two random photos with my phone and spent the rest of my time either tying flies or in my sleeping bag trying to stay warm in the un-heated "Guide-Shack" I was staying in...I can’t wait to get back up there, let alone get on any steelhead river. This trip to me was a huge leap in my growth as a steelhead fisherman, not only did I get two fish to smack my massive swung fly but I also learned about as much about how to effectively fish for steelhead with a swung fly as you can without dedicating 20 years of your life to it.... and I can tell you that from here on out I will be putting in "Time", Ive vowed to fish for steelhead at least 30 days from may until august.... and im going to do it...At this point in my life I would rather save the gas money to go fish for trout so that I can hop in my car when the time is right and just go on a serious steelhead bender up north... This was more of a check in, as you can see im still a bit too pumped up to write anything without the chaos of my passion for steelhead fishing running any chances of reaching a semi-normal human being… more coming, with pictures…ive been busy making sure that this blog will have plenty of content (meaning me going fishing more than a few times a week…and taking pictures.)…Ill be up photographing some of the late winter run fish spawning on my local river this week so hopefully ill be able to share some cool inspiring content.
