Topic: That time of year - Steelhead on a fly

[sparty]

Guys,

Since the weather has nit been very good for riding I have been engrossed in my other passion - fly fishing.

Took a trip this past weekend to chase the silver bullets.  Here are some pics.

I hooked well over 20 steelhead but because they are so damn strong and fresh out of the lake, they were more than a handful to land.  30 inchs and 12 lbs. with a 6wt. fly rod and 2X florocarbon tippet.  I only landed 8 fish, the rest broke me off.  I could have used a heavier tippet, but I like the challenge.  I'll be chasing 30 lb. salmon in a few weeks.

Art

[azuredesign]

Nice Art! Sorry to hear the weather's been crummy out your way. At least you have something else fun to do besides riding. Where you going for salmon?
Best,
Ben

[sparty]

Nice Art! Sorry to hear the weather's been crummy out your way. At least you have something else fun to do besides riding. Where you going for salmon?
Best,
Ben

Ben,

The Salmon River in N.Y. (Pulaski N.Y.).  Last year I hooked and landed two huge Chinook "King" salmon.  They were 26 and 28 lbs.  I had to run up river 100 yards to stay with those fish, then they made a last effort dash that took me deep into my backing.  They can be a devil to land.

[azuredesign]

Watching " A River Runs Through It" is as close as I've ever gotten to that scenario, but I've pond and stream fished for large mouth bass and trout, and spent many evenings on Boston Harbor and on Cape Cod fishing for Stripers.
Have a great time!

[Sam Green Racing]

Nice Art! Sorry to hear the weather's been crummy out your way. At least you have something else fun to do besides riding. Where you going for salmon?
Best,
Ben

Ben,

The Salmon River in N.Y. (Pulaski N.Y.).  Last year I hooked and landed two huge Chinook "King" salmon.  They were 26 and 28 lbs.  I had to run up river 100 yards to stay with those fish, then they made a last effort dash that took me deep into my backing.  They can be a devil to land.

We put the little ones like that back Art, give them time to grow a bit.

Nice looking fish though, It'll make Scunny jealous. 

Sam.

[scunny]

nice lookin fish sparty, and yes I'm jealous.

[Sam Green Racing]

 

[bucky katt]

do you do catch and release or do you eat what you catch? since i dont and wont eat fish i do all catch and release, unless i'm grouper fishing. THOSE i keep.

[Duke McDukiedook]

I was about to say that looks like a huge rainbow but those are beautiful fish.

Catch and release with trout is usually fatal to trout (unless you use tiny hooks and then you don't catch any) and not good to do- bass and other fish are a little more hearty and will usually just get sore mouth when you release.

[flybox1]

Nice Pig Sparty!
We have a few smaller Eastern WA rivers over here with 50-year record returns of hatchery brats.  most are 2-salts and get down to the 5-8lb range after their several hundred mile and 8 fish ladder journey.
they raised the limit from 2 per day, to 4, and now ALL hatchery fish MUST be retained(to help protect the natives, and prevent x-breeding)
we spent a weekend skating october caddis and muddlers with our 2-handers, and then dredging deeper slots with stoneflies and egg patterns with our 7wts. raising steel to a skated dry cant be beat!
yeah...i love this time of the year for fresh meat on the fly! 
heading over there for another 2 days of tossing string. stoked!

Keep shredding steel!

[sparty]

do you do catch and release or do you eat what you catch? since i dont and wont eat fish i do all catch and release, unless i'm grouper fishing. THOSE i keep.

I usually catch and release - I always release wild fish.  I kept one steelhead this time, it was yummy!

Art

[sparty]

Nice Pig Sparty!
We have a few smaller Eastern WA rivers over here with 50-year record returns of hatchery brats.  most are 2-salts and get down to the 5-8lb range after their several hundred mile and 8 fish ladder journey.
they raised the limit from 2 per day, to 4, and now ALL hatchery fish MUST be retained(to help protect the natives, and prevent x-breeding)
we spent a weekend skating october caddis and muddlers with our 2-handers, and then dredging deeper slots with stoneflies and egg patterns with our 7wts. raising steel to a skated dry cant be beat!
yeah...i love this time of the year for fresh meat on the fly! 
heading over there for another 2 days of tossing string. stoked!

Keep shredding steel!

I love steelhead on a dry fly in the Spring.  Explosive strikes for sure.  Nice fish, looks like nice water also - which stream/river is that?

[flybox1]

the Methow (met-how).  it runs small this time of year.  typically 400cfs. 
but its perfect for my 550gr spey!
10-year average return is about 8000 over the nearest dam.
slowly approaching 34,000 so far for this small river.

we'll fish this till the ice on our guides prevents us