1/03-05 New Year's Resolution - Whip 'em well

[Tim P]

Went north with jon to chase the last of the 2008 NorCal rain downslope, in hopes of meeting a few silver ghost fish running uphill.

600 miles and 9 hours driving, a little mud



and a little ice in the guides



gives way to some connected fish



and smiles in the snow and rain.



Sometimes the fish would show themselves during bright sun, and give a mere wiggle



and sometimes in the falling light of twilight, they would explode into cartwheels and tail-walking explosions of white water.



Jon gets a new species



Awesome fish - the amazing gauntlets they run in their cycle of life demands our respect.








Water Temps: 39 - 43 F
Air Temps: 19 - 43 F
A little rain, a little snow, and "clear and bitter cold" too.
In three days of bank angling, 7 steelhead hooked, 5 to the bank (the two heartbreaks were spit or pulled hooks - no bustoffs). One brown trout as a bonus.

That's steelhead fishing!

All fish tailed by hand in-stream (no nets), and returned after a quick photo session.

i think Jon has some more good pics - i hope we get to see some of them!



tim

[Richard Cullip]

Sweet! What a great trip you guys had. That must have been a blast.

[gary bulla]

Nice! You did very well for a quick trip into the north country. So what kind of liquor did you guys use to keep your hands and noses warm? And, more important, what kind of flies moved those great fish in that cold water? Great report from the A-team!

[Tim P]

For the most part, fish were taking golden stonefly imitators, although my largest fish was on a #14 red Copper John (previously recommended to us for low-light fishing - and that's exactly when i got an eat on it), and i think one fish that spit me was on a #14 rubberleg black Copper John.

Here's an interesting one recommended to us in a local shop - sort of like a hybrid of a copper john and a more classic golden stone (size 10, i think):



sort of a cool trick to create a contrasting rib effect - use two colors of wire.

Mostly, the brews of choice were from Deschutes Brewery - primarily during apres-fishing, though; it's tough to work up a desire for an ice-cold beer in sub-freezing weather.

tim

[bill]

Very nice fish and they look healthy at that. Great photos. I see jon has his fishing colors on ( to cold for red shorts?).

bill

[Shane Chung]

Originally posted by Tim P
For the most part, fish were taking golden stonefly imitators, although my largest fish was on a #14 red Copper John (previously recommended to us for low-light fishing - and that's exactly when i got an eat on it), and i think one fish that spit me was on a #14 rubberleg black Copper John.

Here's an interesting one recommended to us in a local shop - sort of like a hybrid of a copper john and a more classic golden stone (size 10, i think):




sort of a cool trick to create a contrasting rib effect - use two colors of wire.

Mostly, the brews of choice were from Deschutes Brewery - primarily during apres-fishing, though; it's tough to work up a desire for an ice-cold beer in sub-freezing weather.

tim

Tim,

Nice way for John and you to start up the year. I've seen that copper john / stone fly before. It was recommended to me at the ACE Hardware / Fly store in Truckee for the big Truckee last year. It is amazing the number of permutations the copper john has now.

Shane

[hiptothat]

Good times living in a van down by the river...



Great trip Tim!



Yup we almost got stuck and I pulled a Lucy in the mud. As I pushed forward the truck moved but my feet didn't.



G9 vs Optio W-30 Tim's shadow box is way cooler then mine with his home made polarizer



Flybox the fish were keying on the yellow Stones and various Copper Johns



The hot local fly a Stone copper hybrid





Tim bendo on a fish that spent half the battle out of the water. It's pretty amazing you can stay connected on a big cartwheeling fish using a size 14 barbless hook.





Stone and wood getting carved.



How do you know if you have good solid fishing friends. They let you borrow their brand new G-loomis spey rod with an Abel reel.


Special thanks to Paul C / Tim B for their help and Steelie wisdom. jon

[Dave from SB]

Hey Tim,

Looks like a fun trip. Seeing the guides iced brought back some unpleasant memories of the Trinity. Seeing the fish makes me want to go back!

Dave from SB

[nmkrbk]

I sure miss fishing that river. I remember your first trip Jon, sleping in the back of Ron's truck, nightime float through the canyon and salmon on the Feather. It must have been damn cold in that van. Good times seem to usually be accompanied by rat hole accomodations, cockroaches or snow and beer.

Randy

[D.J.L.]

Great report/photos !!!

You guys COULD smile a little more , though .........

David

P.S. - Bloody cold canyon , that one ..... not quite as bad as the upper Klamath , though ......

[gary bulla]

I did see the smile in Tim's eyes on that hip photo. He couldn't hide it on a fish like that!

[Barret]

Sweet! Nice job guys. Glad this outing proved more fruitful.

Gonna have to tie up some of those Copper Stones for next time.

Tim - How do you like the 2 hander?

- Barret

[WTPDOSA]

What an outing!
Way to start off the New Year with some awesome fishing.
Thanks for sharing the great pics guys.

[Tim P]

Originally posted by Barret
Tim - How do you like the 2 hander?

Technically, not a 2 hander - just a single hand rod with a 3-inch butt added to it. (Rich Hall lent me his irreplaceable G.Loomis IMX 2-pc rod) Allows the lower hand to move just a little bit away from the reel - quite helpful for "bumping" an indicator just a little further across stream, as well as tossing line upstream at the start of a new drift.

i used the same rod on the Rogue last year - that little extension butt is very helpful for performing spey presentations on a single hand rod, so long as you are using a long-belly line. You can do the same thing with a standard single-hander, but getting your lower hand just a little bit away from the reel makes it a lot more comfortable to do that.

( Now that i re-read your post, maybe you were asking about the newer G.Loomis Spey rod - i only practice casted it overhead, but not on the river. Sort of needed a floating line - i tried a couple of spey casts, but couldn't get the anchor right; it had a full intermediate line on it. Seemed to have a nice action, and definitely could chuck a lot of line overhead )

tim

[Barret]

Tim,

Yeah, I was referring to the "new" Loomis rod. I recognized Rich's rod as the one you had from the last trip.

I'll be building either a switch, or proper 2 hander this year. Been wanting to for a while.

- Barret