Its been a few days...

This is what I want to be doing come Monday- Photo: Matt Koles

Id like to say Ive been "Busy" and that's why I have strayed from posting but its actually the opposite. I have had nothing but time on my hands...No work, shitty weather (when the rivers are closed...) and the fact that I completely trashed my knee a week ago has made for days of nothing but hope that I can walk and that the flows will drop into place so I can go on my trip...if there is a higher power out there..HELP!!... I have been planning on heading up to Oregon now for a month or more and I was supposed to be on the road today...after talking to my friend up there its looking like the river is way too high to be on the water tomorrow...Fingers crossed that the flows drop (cue higher power) to fish able levels and I can squeeze a few days on the water with the guru of deeply sunk swung flies.

So you might be asking.."Jack..how did you hurt your knee?"..well because it has to do with a fly rod I will go ahead and tell you...I am going to go ahead and break it down...all the way back to the big bang- So It all started when I drove up from Santa Cruz last Tuesday to check out the Fly Fishing Film Tour (F3T), so I came up and decided that Id just stay until it came time for me to head north...well finally I was less than a week away from my trip and so stoked...Because I was going to have a shot at some days on the water I and had nothing to do here in Marin...I went crazy trying to make sure I was all prepped for the trip...so I started by re-waterproofing a bunch of my shells and jackets with Nik-wax...normally id be doing this outside but it had been raining for the better part of a week and was still raining.. so I was forced to waterproof them in my room, I didn't think about the combination of the wax and the hardwood floor...so I went ahead and waterproofed all my shit and went off to do something else... a few hours later my mom then told me that sage sent me a rod and its in my room... I took off running in excitement to open it up and see what it was, of course I ended up slipping on the waterproofing residue that had gotten on the floor, my knee went into the door hinge with all 170lbs of me behind it...I went down immediately and couldn't move my leg, here I am 4 days away from my trip and Im on the ground in the most physical pain ive ever experienced...FUCK...that's all I could think and say...I knew I fucked my knee up bad and my world collapsed around me quick..so here I am... ive been laid up ever since with an icepack and my computer..if you know me at all, you ll know Im horrible at being injured...all I can do is hope that my leg heals and that I get a phone call Tomorrow morning from Scott saying.. "Jack..its on! Get up here!"...cause this morning I had my car packed and got the call that said "river isn't looking good for Sunday..."...normal people would probably be ok with this...But again my world collapsed around me, like a junkie stuck in jail... I am loosing my mind, I need my fix and Steel head fishing has become my life in a matter of 6 months...it went from "Ill fish for it all" to "Steelhead....steelhead....steelhead.."...for me its steelhead 24/7..

Steelhead Withdrawl...

Its been over two weeks now since my last steelhead and I am starting to feel the withdrawl symptoms...Its an addiction..to say the least, its one of the few things in life that can shut the little voice inside my head up...Its a high, not always a consistent one but its a high...sure its not all butterflies and fairy's when I am on the river....I do get pissed off while I'm fishing, but its the kind of anger that makes you work harder, not the kind that makes you feel hopelessly stuck with time to kill, I guess that's the withdrawl...the feeling of "What the fuck am I doing..." or just waking up with no drive because you know that you cant get to the river that day and even if you could, the chances of running into a fish are slim (at least where I am at the moment). I hate the idea of wasted time and in an effort to build upon my skills as an angler every day in some way, shape or form, with that being said- my recent days have been spent in preparation for my trip to Oregon...and when I break it down in my head (the- what will limit my experience that I have control over at this moment..)I think of presentation and what goes hand in hand with presentation...Casting... The cast is one of the few things you have control over when it comes to fishing...sure bad casts catch fish but so do good casts, You tell me...what feels better..a big loop less pile of line flying through the air to coil on the surface or a precisely timed cast that can send you deep into your running line..so in an effort to battle my withdrawl and steelhead depression I've been spending hours of casting practice on a local lake...perfection is my goal and with that in mind its all hard work and every cast that does no straighten out makes that little voice in my head get louder and louder...while every cast that feels right leaves me with the muted silence of perfection and the feeling of purpose...its a bi-polar experience to say the least..this whole casting practice thing...all I can hope is that is will fill in the gaps and hopefully all of the frustration and anger from a bad cast will motivate me to step back and slow down and examine what just happened....  to figure it all out... everything from the anchor, the tear to the stroke..its all equally important and with any weakness in the package you ll feel it...shit you ll see it laid out in front of you.

What have I learned from this withdrawl...what do we as anglers have control over in like (the young guys like me who have no family to take care of and no job to be at.)..we have the ability to move, to change our surroundings to better suit what we do..this is a big reason that I am moving at the end of the summer...so I can fish every day...and hopefully where I am going in OR is just that, sure I'm fine with spending many fish-less days challenged to the brink of insanity..that beats boredom and not fishing....Ive done my time working hard to get to my fish, now I'm ready to live on the river...to challenge myself in new ways..Ill drive...Ill hike..even if its for a small trout, as long as the possibility is out there..that's enough to keep the serotonin in my head flowing.

Circus left town- with a major mess

Well folks, party’s over...season ended last Wednesday on my local river down here in Santa Cruz. If you read any of the local reports down here you’ll hear about a bullshit season or "This year was a bust"...well, if you’ve got any brains at all you’ll get out there and see for yourself...This season in my opinion was good, fish were caught...big fish at that...and many days were spent on the water trying to figure out what the hell was going on, what fly…color..water is too low…river is blown...fish are up-stream..downstream…who gives a shit. I was fishing, swinging flies and having a blast, not to mention I learned more this year about steelhead than any other year of my life…sure I got up north and got out to the coast (even though my local river is about a 30 minute drive from the ocean at its head waters)...and when I look back and re-cap the season I find that my favorite days were the ones spent on the little river behind my house…some of those days I spent looking for fish…not to cast to...but just to watch. I had a blast and I have to say I am a little sad I won’t be around next season to expand on my knowledge down here...I will be up on a river somewhere in northern CA or southern OR. The season here was fun but its short and crowded, I don’t think I will ever experience the challenge and frustration that I did down in Santa Cruz, as a fly fisherman you are outnumbered 10-1…not with lure guys but with bait guys, bouncing roe…these guys seem to have so little respect for the animal they are hunting…I have now counted 10 fish that I have found dead due to poor handling (witnessed 5 of those), on a river that gets a run of no more than 300 adult fish you’d think the government would intervene and make it a fly only or at least Single barbless Artificial lures only…sure its barbless hooks but I only saw DFG on the last day of the season (way to do your job douchebags)...I called cal-tip to inform them that fish were being killed and laws were being broken but it seems as if steelhead have few friends down here...and its the Anglers who have the choice to make a difference...sure fly fishing is expensive but where is the fun and challenge in suspending scented bait under a bobber, maybe I am an arrogant fly fisherman but shit...Id rather drink a few beers and watch the fish than have one swallow my hook and die...enough of my "Hating", all I ask is if you are going to fish for endangered fish…educate yourself and bring a net or handle them properly, every fish counts. So the last day ended with a skunk, and a zoo of bait guys. My girlfriend and I went down to the river yesterday with some garbage bags to clean up after the pigs and maybe get a chance to see some spawning fish (that were not getting slammed with bait)...we did clean up alot of hooks, mono, roe sacks, Styrofoam eggs and general litter...fresh litter…fisherman kind of litter...Not only did we go and fill our bags, pockets and backpacks with garbage but we also found some dead fish. I wish I had my camera because one of those fish had a treble hook stuck in its gills...and this was a trophy hen, a fish that could have reared many more...the line was not broken but cut cleanly with about 8 feet of line left hanging off the hook...A sad sight…and a very big message, one that I don’t feel personally comfortable talking about in my blog…Ive got enough opinions. We went out and cleaned up, I wish that I could do more to help the fish...and to a point even my barbless small gape hooked flies are definitely not HELPING the fish. These fish need friends and I’ll be down on the river for the next couple weeks just cleaning up after the circus...too bad I wont be around next year because this river has taught me more than any other, the fish need more friends...something needs to happen, I am not sure what the "Santa Cruz Fly Fisherman Club" does but they sure as shit don't take care of their watersheds.....




Im sorry for the rant...I had to get it out. Not all gear guys are bad, we are all in this together and it sucks when you feel like there is no we down here...just a bunch of lazy workers killing wild fish. Ive seen it first hand, and ive done shit about it. All I ask is if any of you out there fish the San Lorenzo...please, take care of her...if you do that, she will pay you back with more than you could ever ask for. 

This one hit the spot..

You know when your having one of those day's....the kinda day where you can't go fishing..the kinda day you wake up and worry about the fish (yeah...I care that much)...I have always been a big believer in protecting or preserving nature and the magical animals that inhabit the land, the species we have yet to drive to the point of extinction. Steelhead and Salmon are pretty damn close to extinction down here on the central coast...they have very few friends & unfortunately most of those friends are not the people who fish for them...one memory in particular haunts me... it was an early morning on the Russian river and a friend and I stopped at a popular put-in to check out the water conditions...it was not much of a surprise that there was a line of boats waiting to put in (as bad as the generation before us f***ed up the river..there are still some fish). As we walked past some of the guys rigging up in their boats we made a point to see what everyone was throwing (I always do this...out of habit)...not to my surprise..most were gear anglers rigged up with mostly egg sacks and the occasional spoon... as we sat and watched the floatilla enter the water I made eye contact with one guide..he was a nice guy, greeted us with a "You ready to go kill some stealhead!!"..we smiled and walked away (inside I was ready to sock him in the face..wouldn't be the first time ive gotten confrontational about killing these fish illegally..someone has to protect them)..anyways, we got skunked that day, did alot of driving and discovered every hole had at least 10 guys chugging spoons or watching bobbers (fishing is fishing...not trying to hate here, just stating my observations and the obvious- and that is that bait and spoons will catch fish much more efficiently than a swung fly, especially when the fish are not days out of the ocean and low water conditions has them deep and stationary....again not trying to hate...whatever gets you off). Anyways, since the season ended Ive been spending my days cleaning up the garbage up on the river and just mind fishing, looking for fish and making observations...Well today it started raining (Finally!)..so Ive been sitting inside and I discovered this video..and it really hit it home for me, check it out for yourself. A Passion Called Salmon. Killer message with some epic footie. Lets hope this rain lets some fish move up into the tribs so they can get'r-dun.

Steelhead Junkie Profile- Rich Culver

Rich Culver is the Owner & Founder of FlyWater Adventures, This guy is pretty much the man when is comes to dedicating your life to chasing steelhead. He has fished alongside legend's and made quite a name for himself, he is a father and a great mentor. Here are some photos of a day in the life of Rich.  He has been published in most fly fishing magazines and has fished more rivers than you have ever heard of.. Rich has been nice enough to invite me on a few trips of his...you ll hear all about them soon..most involve ferries, bush planes, jet boats and extremely remote tide water camps...and oh...cold beer and big fresh steelhead!

Photo: Rich Culver

Photo: Rich Culver

Photo: Rich Culver

If you'd like to book a trip with Rich you can visit www.flywateradventures.com and see what he's offering, the guy travels the world and can do it all..not to mention he is such a nice dude that even if you have a couple questions he wont give you the tight lipped asshole response you ll get from most steelhead guys. He is a true steelhead junkie and I am so stoked to have him as a fishing mentor/friend.

Thanks Rich for the conversations and advice, Looking forward to some epic journeys and cold beers

- jack

Here comes the rain..finally..

Rain is on its way!!! bummer we cant fish anymore down here.. but these fish need a break...Spawn away steelies. and all you Kelt's and spent fish...get back to the ocean before mayonnaise starts growing on your head.

On another note...I am headed up to Oregon here in a few weeks to hang out with Scott Howell, we are going to fish hard and tie up some big wild flies...and I cannot wait. Not to mention I will be checking out some spots for the big move (yep, moving to the state of Jefferson..southern OR, year round steelhead and WAY less people, my kinda place, more to make you jealous on that later).. In the mean time this rain should bring the last of our very late winter fish into all of the north coast systems..and help the Kelt's ( I know...these are steelhead not Atlantic Salmon but get over it..if your that bent out of shape we can call them spent fish) make their way out. I know ill be on the water as soon as it drops to fish-able levels. Let's have the Northern CA coastal season go out with some more tugs...

Hawg Johnson

 Sometimes when I am fishing a nice bucket ill talk to myself (no...im not crazy...well..never mind)..you know, shit like "C'mon Hawg Johnson" or pull a Lani Waller and talk to the fish like were dating or something...either way every fish I catch is amazing, even the little ones are some of natures finest creations. Here are some more shots of a fish I caught about a week ago now. This was the hardest fighting fish ive had to this day...he bent my 7 weight all the way over, I honestly though it was going to break...

Lean and Mean

I always laugh when I look at my "DIY" fish shots

Expectations & The Mind = The Experience

This is what we all want to see after a long day on the river

I am a pretty "passionate" guy, some might call it intense...regardless I will spend 12 hours on the water with no breaks just trying to figure out a run or riffle (normally it really does not take me that long but I actually have done that)...that second day of my last trip I ended up getting skunked again( you've probably already read that...get over it), I put an indicator on for about an hour and got so pissed off and bored with staring at that thing that I said fuck it and put on the heaviest sink tip I had and the biggest baddest fly and started fishing every piece of water I could…I got so into it I was more entertained watching my fly in the water than staring at that damn bobber...sure indicator fishing is extremely effective, especially when you’ve got a bunch of stale fish that have been watching flies go over their head for the last 5 months…but is it really about just catching a ton of fish? To some it is. Some folks would be pissed to have driven 5 hours to a river to not catch a fish for two days...but me, I’ve gotten over that. As a Steelhead fisherman you shouldn’t focus on catching fish, you focus on how you fish...by that I mean: what your fly is doing, reading water and putting your fly down where the fish are (if a fish wants to eat your fly it will...but it can’t/won’t eat it if you don’t make it look appealing or even put it in front of the fish), making a nice cast and best of all fishing water that challenges you. The best steelhead fisherman I have met are the ones who challenge themselves...and to some this could be as simple as waking up at 5 am and freezing your ass off to be on the water at first light or fishing from areas that are tough to fish from.. like the banks that most folks can’t cast from or fish the water that requires some thought and set up to present your fly properly to the fish..’dont get stuck in the "Down and Across" mentality. Sure there is water that you can fish that way but you are going to limit yourself and miss out on a ton of sweet little tanks that could have a big fresh hog waiting to woof down your fur and feathers... with the traditional wet fly swing (down and across) technique you can also enjoy the scenery and just kinda wait and see what happens but what’s that going to teach you? OR you work for the fish and try new techniques. Even the most seasoned Steelhead anglers still draw a blank when it comes to Steelhead behavior. The fish are like humans...they are all unique and to generalize and put them all in one big box is to limit yourself as a person and as an angler. Try things for yourself. There is a lot of bullshit out there these days and its up to you to test it for yourself and find out what’s true for you.  And as a hunter, if your not hunting for those fish then you might as well go to the SF casting ponds and go "fish" there... if you can’t go a day without hooking a fish (or a week for that matter) than winter Steelheading isn’t for you...especially in California. If you need instant gratification then you should book a trip up to Alaska (don't get me wrong...Alaska is bad ass, Big fish...and depending on where you go getting skunked is ALWAYS a possibility)..But im talking about the folks who make one trip a year and catch 30 fish a day..sure thats epic, who wouldn't want to do that...but what do you learn, and can you tie a plastic bead?...didn't think so.... I personally enjoy the skunk. Sure it frustrates me but that frustration turns into curiosity and that curiosity then pushes me to seek out answers or solutions, and when I do finally break that skunk and figure it out…well those are the moments that I live for. 


Disclaimer- Not trying to talk shit on fishing with beads- just putting my experience in perspective, when the fish in AK are mowing on eggs then all you can do is match the hatch, and sometimes that means a bead. I am never trying to put anyone down- just share my own thoughts and feelings as a central CA steelhead angler.

And im driving back home...

Big Old Hawg from far away.

Well...I definitely didn’t update this bad boy daily while on my trip...that had to do with a lack of internet and very long days spent on the water which = me unable to move. The trip was Epic, I didn’t catch fish every day but I learned a ton and had the whole river to myself (a rarity on the Trinity). Originally I had planned on hitting a couple of different rivers. First stop was the Trinity and due to the weather and the fact that I was staying with my friends at Indian Creek Lodge, it was hard for me to really want to get out and do any further driving (not to mention gas is almost $5 a gallon, and I am about as broke as you can get). The weather forecast looked good and Indian Creek is one of the raddest most low key angler-friendly spots you could stay in up on the Trin. The place kicks ass...and so do the guys who run it. Anyways, I realized after fishing on Sunday and not seeing another soul that I was the only angler on the entire river (the week before when I was up there it was shoulder-to-shoulder gear guys and indicator fishing wait in line to try and snag a spent hawg that’s been in the bucket for weeks kinda deal)...so after my first day on the water I decided that I was going to stay. The weather forecast called for snow and freezing temperatures and I hate crowds so I figured I’d hang in there and get some alone time on a river where I’ve normally had issues with disrespectful assholes. So, I fished hard and by hard I mean I was on the water in the dark until it got dark again, no breaks. The only break I did take was on my second morning after my am fish…I went to visit my friends over at Trinity Fly Shop. Now this is THE coolest fly shop I have ever been in and the couple that own it (and started it about 30 years ago) are some of the most old school/ down to earth (and badass fisherman/woman) around. I can go in there and feel like I am at home...just how a fly shop should be. We talked about the conditions and some of their cool new spey patterns…eventually I coughed up a few bucks for some cool traditional flys (that they tie up there in the shop) for me to fish that day. Normally I tie up all my own stuff but all I had in my box was flash, color and more flash...and with the bright sunny conditions and fish that had seen about every fly in the book... I wanted to go a little more natural, so I bought some old burlap patterns. After leaving the shop I went straight back to the river, fished hard all day and had a blast! I checked out a bunch of new water and pushed my casting a bit. I didn’t catch any fish but I saw some fish. The next morning I awoke to snow, before 10 am I ended up hooking 4 fish and landing two, all on the swing...I was stoked, and really felt like I saw a big difference in fish behavior with the major change in weather. That afternoon I hooked the biggest fish I’ve ever seen out of a riffle I would have never touched had it not been for the low and clear fishing conditions enabling me to see the fish out in the open. After hooking the hog I promptly got my ego slammed after practically getting spooled and broken off before I could get after him…but I was cool with that...I was psyched that I even got to see the bastard! I ended up hooking this same fish two more times over the next 5 days and got smoked every time...although he straightened out my hook on the last attempt so...whatever, that’s cool with me. I left with a mission to get that fish. All in all the trip was great. I got to fish every tank I had always wanted to fish and caught a bunch of nice fish out of places I hadn’t fished before. Most were pretty colored up and had been in the system for a long time. I did catch my fish of the season though...(for the number guys -35inch by 20 inch girth) big wild male that was tagged by DFG in 2004..meaning this bro was at least 8 years old and a repeat spawner (I actually did have a little tri-pod and timer on my camera so I got a pic with him)…I was so stoked, I had fished really hard and finally got one of those "this is what its all about" moments. But the fish were only a small part of the trip, wildlife activity was off the hook! With nobody around I got to see more animals up close than I’d seen all year... I was constantly running into a family of hunting otters , in one tank in particular they pulled out a Steelhead that I would guess was about 17lbs...they then proceeded to eat the thing on a log next to me while I was fishing...the funny part is I actually hooked a nice fish out of the same tank after they had been hunting in it! I would have thought the fish would be buried under a log but they were just doing whatever they do and hanging out in friendly water where I could get at them. Each morning I was waking up to a couple inches of snow so I got to see a ton of tracks, bears, bobcats, mountain-lion, weasel...and the biggest river bum of all- the raccoon. The trip was an epic learning experience. I got to see some crazy surface feeding (Yes, steelhead do eat off the surface...especially during a massive blanket hatch of the biggest mayflys I’ve ever seen). It was a classic winter steelhead trip. I’ve been back now for 4 days and I can’t wait to get on the SL this Wednesday for the last day of the season. I am also planning a trip up to southern Oregon to go fish but also to take a look at some homes (more on the move in another post).

Chrome Trip- Day two

The Feisty Hen- She gave it hell till the end

Well I’ve clocked about 30 hours of water time in the last 3 days…it was shitty up until today...the weather up here on the Trinity has been way too sunny for the Steelhead and when you combine that with crystal clear water you get spooky chrome-plates that are hanging out as deep as they can to stay out of the Bald Eagles talon’s reach...not very good for swinging flies, which by the way I was doing up until this morning when I realized that the only thing I hate more than fishing for Steelhead under and indo is not catching Steelhead,  soooo I said fuck this and threw on some training wheels…next thing you know I’m hooked up, turns out to be a sea run brown and one of the weirder looking ones at that...It was only about 4 lbs so I let him go without the do it yourself camera/ timer countdown shot, although about an hour or so after the brown I was hooked up again, and this fish was big…at least 15 pounds, the hawg almost spooled me and then broke me off before I could even climb up over the cliff I was fishing below (I almost cried but decided it would be a better use of time and energy to continue fishing) so I took a quick break,  Watched a pair of otters eat a massive Steelhead on a log, changed flies and got back to it...only to hook up on another fish, this time I was prepared and put the heat on her so fast I’m pretty sure I landed her extremely prematurely because she was a feisty one. All in all, it’s been a good trip...first couple of days put winter Steelhead fishing back into perspective (first time I’ve ever gone 0 for 2 on the Trinity) and finally catching a fish felt like a bonus. I had gotten into the mindstate that I should just enjoy my surroundings and live in the moment and when your doing that it’s hard not to have fun. More to come, I’ve got two more full days left on this river and I’m sure something interesting will happen.