One Step Closer

Well, it finally happened. Closing has come and gone and our house is no longer our house. We will be renting back until July 31st, so we have a bit of time before we are kicked out.

I would imagine if everything goes as planned, we will be moving up to the Portland area sometime in the middle of July. After the dust has settled, I will hopefully get out and find a day to fish. It has been so long, that I've honestly forgotten the last time I went. I'll have to refer to this blog to know for sure. (I knew this thing would come in handy for something!!)

Leaving California is tough. I've been here for more than 20 years and have spent almost my entire adult life either in San Francisco or Los Angeles. There are a lot of great memories here.

When I first moved to Los Angeles from St. Louis, I was in shock. It was a total 180 from what I was comfortable with. But I quickly fell in love with California. Being young and in Los Angeles was an incredible time. It gave me all sorts of stories to tell and experiences to remember. What a crazy time in my life.

When moving to San Francisco, I had even more adjustment problems than when I went to LA. In fact, I hated it up here. It took more than a year to accept it. Eventually it grew on me and became home. Fingers crossed that I'll love Oregon/Washington just as much. This time, I'll have my wife and son with me to make the transition with someone.

Sorry this blog has been such a snooze fest. I hope that things turn around soon and I can get out on the water and share my entirely new experiences with you soon!

Squidro

Haven't been fishing, nor have I tied a fly in eons. However, I did stop by Leland to pick up one of Scott Howell's "Squidro" flies. I wanted one to reverse engineer it- since it looked like a good idea.

The fly is basically an intruder. But, instead of using rhea or ostrich, it uses rubber legs! Easier to tie and more durable. I can't wait to give it a try (both in the river and on the vise). The below picture is from Leland's website and the version I picked up.



It was an expensive fly, $6.50 after tax! I'll mass produce it and variations for my own fly box, so I guess it will be money well spent. :)

Still no fishing

Still haven't made it to the water. However, that time is coming! I can feel it.

I completed all work on the house and it was put on the market one week ago tomorrow. The open house attracted around 150 potential buyers! Crazy. Even in this market, people flooded in all day long. A few days later, we received two offers. After accepting one, that "Open Sunday" sign has changed to a "Sale Pending". Just like that! Not even a week from its first open house and we are on our way to getting this thing sold.

I suddenly felt sick to my stomach after accepting. Reality set in. This house that we have loved for 10 years is about to belong to someone else. Sickening. The buyers agreed to let us rent the house back from them for 2 months, so that we can tie up business loose ends before our move to Oregon. But man, it will be weird living in our house that is no longer our house.

So, we are looking to be in California until July 31st. That will get us moved up to Oregon by early August. Just in time for Summer steelhead season on the North Umpqua. The timing couldn't have been better. There. I feel better now.

Light at the end of the tunnel - Leaving California?

It is already March and I haven't done any fishing, nor have I gone skiing this year. How depressing. Between working non stop on my normal career stuff and fixing up the house to get it on the market, there hasn't been much time for fun stuff.

The good news is that I can see a light at the end of the tunnel. I've managed to do most of the repairs and only have a few rooms left to paint. I should be done sometime this month if nothing interrupts the process.

If all goes as planned, we will sell our house in the not so distant future and get outta here. After nearly 20 years in California, I'm sad to say that we are getting out of dodge. I love the place. At least I love most of it. The beauty is incredible and the people can be great. There is so much to see and do. Unfortunately, the state has gone to hell in a hand basket and I don't see things improving. The cost of living is ridiculous and now that we have a son and hope to have another child, it would be nice to spend less time working and more time doing family things. (The idea that you can get twice the house on twice the amount of land at half the cost is crazy. That equates to less working and more time with family and of course-- fishing.)

My wife and I are lucky enough to have careers that allow us to go elsewhere. We are both self employed and can set roots just about anywhere. It will be sad and very strange to not be living in California anymore.

Where are we going? Will there be any blog posts in the future? I somehow convinced my wife to move to the Portland, Oregon area. The heart of steelhead country! She actually has friends there, so it wasn't as hard as it would of been otherwise. Whatever the case, I'm so excited to have this opportunity. There are dozens of great and famous steelhead rivers within a short drive. Even the North Umpqua is not too far away. It will be incredible. And I plan to continue with this blog- reporting on those rivers.

Some of you may recall myself going to Oregon to fish the Umpqua and then going up to Portland. That was actually a top-secret reconnaissance mission to scope out the area and find potential neighborhoods to live in.

For my friends in California that I've met through this blog, it will be sad not fishing with you. However, I'd gladly show any of you around the Oregon/Washington rivers I become familiar with down the line. Just give me a bit to figure things out, unless of course you want to figure it out with me. Everyone is invited.


Seeya in Oregon! (Due to the current market, selling the house may take more time than I'd like. So, I'll be doing plenty of fishing here in the Sunshine state before we have moved. And of course the reports will start up again at that time.)

Still no fishing

This blog has crawled to an absolute stand still. My apologies. I just haven't had an opportunity to do any fishing. Further, I haven't even tied a fly.

What the heck is going on? Well, I'm doing my normal job from 6am to noon each day and then the rest of the day is spent working on the house. Painting and repairs. We are putting our house on the market soon and there is work to be done! And lots of it.

After it goes up and things settle down a bit, I hope to get on the water and get a few days in. It won't be too long now. Fingers crossed.

New skagit master 2 teaser

Skagit Master, Volume 2 is still not released. However, you can go and see another teaser on Youtube (or below). I'm pumped to get this video. I'm also pumped to go fishing again soon. Man, when will that happen??! Probably, sadly enough, not until Spring. However, if the planets align, when Spring does come, I'll be fishing more often and have more reports.



I like how the first thing said in the teaser, "Making this DVD, I knew we were going to piss some people off." Pretty funny, considering when I was on the North Umpqua, and saw them filming a segment for this video, they were indeed pissing off some people who were waiting for them to leave the most popular spot on the river. I didn't really care, I thought it was fun to watch. But, some locals weren't so pleased.

Lotso fish

After digging through the old hard drive, I remembered that I digitized some footage of my short time up Steamboat Creek with Lee. You know, the guy who protects the steelhead sitting in a pool waiting for the right water conditions to continue upstream?

It was early morning when I arrived. Terrible time to be trying to shoot video into the water (Best light is around 1pm in July/August if you plan to go and want to get the best view). You can see a bunch of fish here, what you cannot see are hundreds of other fish that were lurking below. With polarized glasses, you could see a good deal of 'em down there. More than what the video shows. But you still can't see all of them that early in the day. Lee told me that there were more than 500 in the pool at that time. And yes, he does count them.

Taking a drive up the creek and sitting with Lee is something everyone should do. He has a lot of knowledge of steelhead to keep your attention. As a fisherman himself, he can offer some presentation tips based on what he has learned of the years.

He is the first one to tell me, that he thought that steelhead most likely jump out of the water... Not to eat, not to chase something, but to look around, above the water line. He talked about how steelhead would often do this before navigating up water falls. Or if they think a predator is near (bear). He demonstrated it by walking away and coming back. Some fish reacted by jumping up to see what was going on! After having this discussion, it really made sense. Several times on the Umpqua. I waded quietly in the water, swinging a fly. And right where my fly was swinging, an enormous steelhead would jump a foot or three out of the water. I thought to myself, "a steelhead that may be interested in eating!" Wrong, he was probably seeing if some dumb fisherman was swinging a fly and if he should continue to ignore the strange item floating by.

Click for higher res version..

(watch for the jumping fish, almost caught on camera! :)
Nice and shiny bright

After this day, I paid more attention to the jumping steelhead I saw on other trips. I did feel like fish were checking me out. Perhaps Lee is crazy, and now I'm crazy too, but it does make sense. He shared some interesting stories of jumping steelhead and how he came to his conclusions. Ask him if you ever visit.

He also validated my beliefs that steelhead are very curious and will grab something just to see what it is. Especially if it is new to them. Either by its look or how it moves. This guy actually keeps a log of what falls in the water and what the fish do with it (ignore it, mouth it, chase it, etc). More interesting tidbits of information to ponder. My sudden craze of chugging skaters or even pulsing a wet fly makes more sense than ever. Trout/steelhead are curious and will go after something different.

p.s. Lee also believes that Steelhead do not shy away from direct sun in the hot part of the day. He thinks it is a mistake to avoid water because it isn't shaded. What steelhead don't like, is change. So if it is sunny and the light is falling and the shadow line is crossing the river, they avoid that line. Staying either in full shade or sun.

Feather Report

Due to time constraints, you are about to get another lame fishing report.

Went to the Feather a few weeks ago. The weather was cloudy with comfortable temps. Lined my two hander with a compact scandi and an intermediate tip in the morning and a floating tip in the afternoon.

Stayed in the Low Flow section, and actually stayed in just two runs the whole day. Saw a ton of salmon. Also got a glimpse of a few large steelhead that jumped out of the water to take a look at me.

Caught several smaller half pounders under 20 inches. Got one big tug near the end of the day. I was picking up my fly for another cast and WHAM! I wasn't prepared and the fly came right out. Lousy timing. That would of surely been the biggest fish of the day.

Fished a multitude of flies of various sizes. The smaller steelhead patterns in 6-8 seemed to get the most attention. Even caught a couple of fish chugging some skaters in some dead spots in the middle of the river.

Things are going to be busy with me until Spring of next year. Maybe even longer. I don't know how much fishing I'll be able to do. Wish I had time for more.

With this slow spell comes some exciting fishing news. I'll share later on what that is.

Screw it...

Sorry, but I don't think I'm going to get around to an official report for the Lower Stan or Klamath rivers. I've been swamped with stuff around the house and work.

Basically, on the Klamath, I caught a bunch of fish. :) Yeah, they weren't huge, but they were in there. And I caught them on skaters. Seems the North Umpqua isn't the only river where the steelhead like these flies. It is also worth noting that I had very little luck with swinging wet flies. But, as soon as I put the skaters on, fish were slashing left and right.

On the Lower Stan, I caught 20+ fish. And while they were trout (technically, California claims them to be steelhead, but I would disagree in this instance), they love skaters too. My theory about showing fish something they don't normally see is paying off dividends. Whether it be pulsing a wet fly on the swing or even pulsing a skater. These are curious animals and they've seen people dead drift flies over and over and over again. Never mind the fact that doing so is B.O.R.I.N.G!!

This whole idea of fishing in unusual ways has worked in the past. Putah Creek comes to mind. While everyone else is dead drifting size 22 and smaller flies. Just cause "that's what the trout eat over there." Pffft. You can do pretty well, even on Putah, with big flowing size 4 spey flies. You just gotta try it. Match the hatch my ass. :)

Umpqua Video

It may be more than a month and a half later, but I finally digitized in the video from my camera and edited something together. Although I took about 10 minutes of video, it really gets boring quickly.

North Umpqua

No one was fishing that day, or I would of taken some shots of people standing out in the river, so you could get a better idea of where you have to position yourself to fish Camp Water. For those of you not familiar with the NU, it may be a wide river, but the slots you want to fish are rather narrow. You just have to wade out (not as easy as it sounds) to a position where you can access the good water.

Along with my writeup from the talk with Lee on Steamboat Creek, I'll have some more video. You'll see some actual steelhead this time. Hundreds of them in the pool while I was there.

Trout like skaters too

Why do people worry so much about dead drifting a fly? Trout love em skittering across the surface under tension. At least the 20+ that I caught did. :)

I'm behind in my fishing reports. One more North Umpqua, a Klamath, and now a Lower Stanislaus on its way.

North Umpqua: Day 3

Since the previous two days of fishing covered a wide stretch of water, I pretty much knew where I wanted to go on this third and final day. The morning started out at Station, which to my surprise was once again empty. I tried both chugging dries and swinging wets. One solid tug sent my heart racing. But, after many attempts to get that fish to grab again, it didn't happen. I like to pretend that the tug was enough. But, I really wanted to see what grabbed hold of that fly! It felt like a biggie.

Eventually, I moved off Station and worked the maze of rock downstream to Upper/Lower Boat. I caught several smaller fish in the mid teens (inches), but nothing more.

Before I forget, let's skip ahead to late afternoon. I hit the Boat runs (and Station) from the road side. It provided limited casting space, but also gave me a different angle at the water. It was probably the hottest part of the day and no fish showed any attention to my offerings. However, next time, I'll give the road side another chance. Especially on Boat. I felt like the swing and dangle were moving through some good spots.

Spent some time in Upper Kitchen with a grab or two, but couldn't get anything more. I'm not sure how big these fish were. It can be deceiving with the faster water here. I waded through some more tricky floor structure to Lower Kitchen. Or maybe it was "The Fighting Hole" or even "Upper Mott". As someone not quite familiar enough with the water, the runs aren't absolutely clear to me. Whatever, the case, it was some pretty tight water with some very narrow slots. The fish were super grabby here. I was chugging dries and getting attention on almost every grab. Mostly small fish I'm sure. Got a few to hand, they were no bigger than 12 inches.

As the sun was just hitting the water, I decided to take another stroll downstream- just as I had on day 1. This time, I knew where to stop. My first destination provided a tough casting angle, but I could get my fly out there for a short swing. I saw a few flashes, but after spending some time switching out flies and presentations, nothing ever grabbed on. Occasionally, a large steelhead would come completely out of the water not more than 30 feet from me. It was startling at times.

I promised pictures and video for this post. But I just haven't had time to digitize them into the computer. I'll be doing that before long and will probably put them in their own blog post.

A bit further down, I found this great slot outside of the main current that had more small fish. But the water was so nice looking, I couldn't resist seeing what was in there. To reach this one particular spot, I had to crawl up on a boulder, I was now about 10 or more feet above the water. Casting my dry and letting it skate almost directly below me. This was a cool vantage point. I could see deep into the water. Must of been 10 or more feet deep. It was neat to see the fly directly below me and the deep water backdrop. Imagine a glassy surface and this fly skating across the top with the dark green water below.

Smaller fish were slashing at the fly constantly. Yet, I didn't give up. I felt like something was down there. So, I kept at it and from out of no where, I see a flash. A fish came from down deep and grabbed the fly in his mouth and immediately turned back down. It surprised me so much that I immediately yanked my rod. Luckily, the hook stuck and I didn't pull it right out of his mouth. The fish went berserk.

He made a short run downstream, then back up. Took a direct route across to some more boulders. I couldn't do much about it. I was 10 feet up (and my rod tip was another 10 feet higher) trying to figure out how to get down to the water without losing this guy. It was challenging.

After a few minutes, I managed to climb down from my perch without losing the fish, I got to the water and put my hand underneath. He wasn't all that big. Maybe 20 or 21 inches. But, he was a good looker. After taking the hook out and giving him a moment to rest, he swam off into the deep.

For me, this was an unusual angle to see the fish come from the depths and get the fly. I won't forget it for a while.

After scooting along more boulders, I finally made it about 50 feet to the main river slot. It only took about 30 minutes. Argh! After walking about a half mile downstream, I sat for a lunch. I was now where I caught a decent sized fish on the first day.

After eating, I stood up while my foot was flat on the feature-less slanted rock. The cleats made an awful scraping sound and I went down hard on my knuckle and then on my side. Initially, I thought I broke something in my hand, but luckily I only had some bleeding and a sore hand. Even when you aren't in the water, the rocks are slick around here. All it takes is one second of not paying attention. Man, the NU has really beaten me up the last couple of days. But, all of the slips were just moments of not thinking clearly. You need to always watch your step.

After sitting for a few, making sure everything was okay (including my rod that banged the rock), I went further downstream and couldn't find any decent water. Ready to head back to Camp Water, I spent about 20 minutes trying to find a path up the thick brush to the trail that was somewhere up there. It wasn't easy, but eventually I made it.

Exhausted, I walked the mile or so back to my car for a 2 or 3 mile drive upstream. Found some great looking water. And one run in particular was filled with more aggressive fish. Unfortunately, they were small guys too. I moved on and back to the Mott parking lot.

Walking upstream above the bridge, I took this incredibly steep -what I thought was a- trail to the river. Turns out it wasn't a trail and I was now practically crawling down a very steep slope covered with slick leaves. Standing completely upright, I could hit the ground with my elbow, if that gives you any idea how steep it was. Grabbing onto anything I could grab onto, I made it down to the water without as much as a slip. For all that effort? More small fish! Argh.

There was no way I was going to climb back up where I came down. So, I waded my way downstream to an easier exit. Went back to Mott bridge and looked over the side to see a dozen or two really big steelhead relaxing in the current. I decided to give it a try. After getting to the water, I cast out my line, but it was nearly impossible to get down to where the fish were. Certainly not without a weighted fly. And I wasn't about to put on a sink tip. I left the fish alone and went back downstream towards Sawtooth.

Looking past Sawtooth and on down to Station, I could see Scott Howell again with his camera crew. As I wiggled my way through the runs down to the bend at Station, they seemed to be doing more casting for the camera than actual fishing. Shame. While I wasn't all that interested in going out there, others may of been. I moved past them and to Boat. A couple of large steelhead were now jumping, but I couldn't get any to take interest.

My final hours on the river took me through Lower Boat and to Kitchen. I caught some more fish, all under 18". But no adult steelhead. No worries. It was an incredible three days on an absolutely beautiful river. When I go again, I'll do some more exploring. There are miles of accessible runs to keep one busy.

Stay tuned for the video/picture posting, and Day 4, which isn't a fishing report, but sharing what I learned from Lee on Steamboat Creek.

Sorry for the delay

My apologies for being so slow about getting the Umpqua reports out. I'm finishing up a project and I've been working way too many hours. Including this whole weekend, Labor Day too. :(

As things lighten up next week, I hope to pump out Day 3 and 4 for the NU and another for the Klamath.


Maybe I'll even get a day of fishing in - within a week or two. If anyone is interested in hooking up for the Lower Stan, let me know. I'm interested in pulling a single hander out of storage. :)

North Umpqua: Day 2

The second day had a completely different feel than the first. More or less, I knew the layout of the area and where I wanted to start my day. The goal was to wade out to Station. This is one of, if not the prime steelhead runs on the NU. Or so I'm told. The fish sit here waiting for conditions to be right before heading up Steamboat Creek. The major spawning ground of the river. This spot is pretty popular, so I had no idea if I'd have a chance at it. Especially early in the morning.

I lucked out. No one was here yet. I had an opportunity to try it out. Getting to the rock in the middle of the river that will serve as your casting position is a little tricky. At least it was for me, and my first time out there early in the morning without being able to see into the water. Finding the right way to weave your way through takes a moment or two if no one is there to show you. Before long, I found myself standing in waist deep water that was flowing very fast. It was slightly sketchy with the slick floor beneath my feet. Luckily, it was only a seven or eight foot struggle to dry rock. I probably didn't pick the right line. Whether it was the best way out or not, I took mental note of where I came in so I could pick my way back when it comes time.

The run itself is pretty narrow. You don't need much line out to cover the water. I don't doubt the fish were in there, but after an hour or so of casting various flies, on several times through, nothing happened. Being the courteous fellow that I am, I looked over my shoulder often to see if someone else was eyeing the water. I would of given it up if anyone showed interest. I never saw a single person anywhere. That is how empty the river was. Even the most sought after piece of water didn't have any other interested parties.

After more time out on Station, I looked down river and saw someone I met the day before. A nice man from California. He shared some information with me the day before, and since we crossed paths a half dozen or more times, I waved him over. I went back to shore and let him have it to himself. It was still morning and he had plenty of time to give it a shot.

I went further downstream and fished Upper and Lower Boat, and then to Upper/Lower Kitchen. On Lower Kitchen, I started getting grabs and caught more fish in the 15-18 inch range. They were small, but feisty. At some point, I was mucking around. Going from a dry rock to a submerged-super-slippery-boulder. For the most part, my carbide studded boots were gripping well. However, on one step, I came down flat footed on an angled rock that was smooth as glass. By the time I recovered my footing, water had gone over the top of my wader. I cursed myself for being so stupid. The was the second dunking I've had in the last couple of months. I was mad at myself. I didn't bother sticking around to fish much longer. After I finished Kitchen, I went back to the car to change.

Since I pretty much covered Camp and the trail side of the river the day before, I decided that today would be the road side. Considering I was back at my car putting new clothes on, I decided now was the time. All in all, I drove 20 miles down river and a few miles above the bridge, stopping anywhere that looked fishy. There were some great spots. Some easy to get to, others required some aggressive climbing to from the road. The one pictured below was especially nice looking. I left my camera in the car, so I'm pilfering this one from Emerald Water Anglers.



While at the spot pictured above. It was windy. Well, actually, it was windy all three days. But this particular time, it was whipping. Had to be 30-40mph gusts. Casting across the river was all but impossible. I had to stick to whatever was near me. However, I have to say that it looked like an awesome place to fish if conditions allowed for it. Nothing here. Not even a tug.

The rest of the day was about the same. Fought the wind for nothing more than small fish less than 18". As it was getting late afternoon, I decided to head back to camp water and try my luck there.

I started upriver of the bridge and caught more fish. As the day wore on, big fish were jumping. But, they ignored my fly. Occasionally, a fish would leave the water and sound like a cannon ball as it re-entered. Quite impressive.

Fishing all the way down through Sawtooth to Sweetheart, I could see that Station was occupied. Upon further investigation, a little bit later, I could see it was guide Scott Howell. With him was a camera crew. They were no doubt shooting last minute footage for Skagit Master 2. I sat and watched for a bit as other fisherman walked by, mumbling this or that. While I wasn't really that interested in wading out to Station, I could see that others were bothered that he seemed to be standing out there casting, but not fishing. Taking up the prime water and barely getting the fly to swing. Several people mumbled under their breath and a couple of others weren't so quiet about it.

I didn't care so much. I was actually interested in watching to see if he would catch anything. If he'd ever started swinging a fly that is. Eventually he started chugging a dry for the camera. But, no fish. As soon as he left the rock, someone replaced him and didn't have any better luck, from what I could tell anyway.

I ended the evening in Lower Boat. As the sun set, I caught a fish that was in the low 20 inch range. She put on quite the aerial display. But, didn't pull any line of my reel. I carefully kneeled down, trying not to slip into the water -getting an evening bath, and scooped up the fish for a quick hook removal. She was promptly put back in the water and swam away.

I didn't wait until dark to get down from my perch. But, I did wait too long. Depth perception was hard to come by looking into the water. And the NU is the last place you should be feeling your way around while wading. Luckily, I stayed dry this time.

Day three coming soon. And yes, this one will have pictures and video.

North Umpqua: Day 1

This is Part 1 of Part 4 of my North Umpqua trip. Come back soon for the other entries. One from each day.

The drive to the North Umpqua takes around 10 hours from home. Leaving about 2pm on a Saturday, I arrived before midnight. Just enough time to pull into the Camp Water parking lot and take a snooze.

Sunday was originally to be a half day of scouting and checking out Steamboat Creek. However, at the last minute I changed my plans. I quickly packed my things and left earlier on Saturday to get there for a full day of fishing.

Who was I kidding? I wouldn't be able to just walk around scouting for even a half day. Seeing others fishing and knowing I was right there, with my gear would be too much pressure. I made the right decision to fish a full three days (the fourth day was spent with Lee on Steamboat Creek). Who needed a day of scouting when I could simply scout it out with rod in hand?

In the morning, I really had no idea where to go. I mean, I was in the Camp Water and I knew pretty much every section of water had potential. Other than that, I wasn't sure which run/pool to visit first. So, I just wandered down to the water as the sun was rising. As the path reached the river, I went out and got my feet wet.

Access	Camp Water and 15 miles surrounding
Air Temp	Low 48, High 90's
Water Temp/Visibility	~50 F / 15+ feet
Weather	Morning Clouds, Sunny otherwise
Flow	unknown
Time in/out	5:00am, 8pm
Leaders/Lines	Compact Scandi
	15ft floating leader	All day

If you take more than five minutes to read up on the NU, or ask anyone about it, one of the first things out of their mouth is in regards to the wading. It is known to be a really slick river. On top of that you can be wading in ankle deep water and the next step is a 20 foot drop off. While I won't argue the popular perceptions. It wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. I felt no need for a wading staff, and as long as I was careful, I stayed upright. With that said, the wading is definitely more tricky and you must be more tactful in your moves than the average gravel bottom river.

Navigating a run was mostly an act of finding the best way to wade out to a point and start casting. Fan out your casts to cover as much water as possible. When your done, slowly step down off your perch and move to the next. You have to carefully move up and down the very uneven floor, finding your way through a maze of boulders, ledges, and long slender, almost featureless peaks and valleys of rock that may or may not lead you to a good casting station. The best advice I can give you is to always plan an exit route. You could easily wade out to a position and half a heck of a time getting back if your only way out is upstream, against the current on a slippery ledge. You'll most surely slip and dunk yourself in a situation like this.



After an hour or so, I decided to move down river from Sawtooth. Although I didn't know it at the time, I moved past Station, Upper and Lower Boat, Upper Kitchen, and finally to Lower Kitchen. Again, I wiggled my way out to mid river where the main current was. The water was deep here. Casting a size 4 generic hair wing, I wasn't getting anything. Not that I expected some monster to come out and hook itself within the first couple of hours of being here. Or even over the course of my three days. However, I do like to see signs of fish lurking about. Whether they jump or I catch a glimpse of them below. Neither of of those things had happened. Not yet anyway.

Even though I had my 12' 6" two hander. There was no need for it. This river is pretty big, but it is divided up into narrow slots that can easily accommodate a single hander. Next time, I'll take my 7wt 9foot rod. There is plenty of casting room for overhead. And the few places that wouldn't allow for it, you could simply perform a roll cast or single hand spey cast.

After some time in Lower Kitchen, I decided to get out of the water and go further downstream. I was interested in exploring. In fact, I walked more than 2 miles down the North Umpqua trail, which is on the opposite side of the river from the road. Stopping at various pools and runs, there were a lot of very cool stretches to cast into. The scenery was beautiful and the river was technically challenging. Getting your flies to the right spot was difficult at times. Especially when the (10-20 mph) winds kicked up. It kept things interesting.

As the sun came out, it started to warm. It actually got very hot during the day. I started to seek out the shade to better my chances at catching fish. However, this thought process turns out to be flawed. As I'll relate some things I learned from Lee up in Steamboat creek. Fishing in the sun for steelhead is not such a bad idea.

During this two mile hike downriver, I was catching smaller fish. Most of them were in the 15-18 inch range. Actually, I was catching a lot of fish. I lost count somewhere north of 20. It was starting to get annoying. The idea was to catch a larger steelhead, not these little guys. I started putting on bigger and bigger flies. And then at some point, in mid afternoon, I decided to put on a waking fly.

The NU fish are known to take waking or chugged flies. While I've never caught a decent fish with these methods, I figured this was the best place to try it. So, I put on a size 4 I tied a while back. It was big and pushed a lot of water. The presentation was easy. Cast it out and start disturbing the water to try and attract fish. After having the fly on for about 2 casts, I noticed that it was getting attention!

At first, I saw mostly smaller fish coming up from the depths (we are talking 10-20 foot depths in this particular pool) to check out the fly. They'd mostly turn at the last second. But, I'll tell you, this was exciting to see. The water was so clear, I could see them coming from pretty deep down. I caught myself laughing out loud a few times as these guys slashed at the fly.

I was slowly working out the line on each cast. With not more than 20 foot of line out, I cast again. As it swung downstream to the same ledge I was standing on, I saw this flash of silver. A jerk on my line, then it went limp. My arms were shaking. I couldn't tell how big the fish was, but my mind was racing.

I carefully tried to recreate that same exact cast, and here he comes again! This time he took the fly under. I clinched my teeth as I held my rod still, waited for some weight, then yanked back. I got him! He fought hard and when I landed him, he wasn't really that big. But it was my first decent sized fish on a waking/chugging fly. It was only appropriate that it happened on the NU, and my first decent sized fish of the three day trip. He measured approximately 23 inches. I quickly removed the hook and placed him in the water. Holding him until he powered off at an amazing speed back into the depths.

I was pretty shaky after that. I decided to just sit on a rock and chill out before heading back to shore. After all, I was perched out on a precarious ledge that I didn't really want to slip off of into the deep/fast water because my rubbery legs couldn't support my body.

I continued down river further. Fishing anything that looked like holding water. One thing I learned about the NU. The holding water here is not exactly the same type of holding water you may see on other steelhead rivers. The river structure is so unique, that the fish tend to be in very deep water. Not necessarily at the bottom, but against large boulders or against ledges. I can't tell you how many times I saw large fish holding a foot or two down, but in 20 foot deep water. And of course, on other occasions, I did see fish quite deep. Mostly likely stressed for one reason or another.

During my walk down stream, I often questioned exactly where I was. It wasn't until a day later, driving in the car on the opposite side of the water that I realized I was about two miles down stream from the Steamboat Inn. The walk back would take a while.



After finally getting back, I took more time to figure out what run in Camp was what. I asked a very nice local guy where Station was, and he pointed it out and a couple of other runs too. He and everyone else I had talked to were not having much luck. Over the course of three days, no one admitted to catching a fish over 20 inches. The amount of hookups and tugs were low too. However, I did witness one other person catch a good sized fish on the third day.

I started to question if there were that many big steelhead in the river. However, in the evening, large fish were jumping. And large fish could be seen from Mott bridge. And, as I'll comment more on in my day 4 entry, the steelhead return is an average count. These fish just seemed to have lock jaw.

After a trip to the car for some food and water, I wandered upstream of the bridge. There was some good water here too. I could actually see a few large fish clinging to the side of a ledge within casting reach. I first tried a few wet flies. Then a skating fly, then chugged it. The fish didn't seem to react at all. So I stepped down and caught a few more smaller fish off this same ledge. These guys were very active. I could see them come up from some really deep water to take a fly on or near the surface.

The sun was setting, and I ended my day in Upper Kitchen. Had a really big tug, and caught a few 15-18" fish. I was exhausted and went back to the car for some sleep.

Day two through four coming soon (with pictures and video)!