Sunday, October 16, 2011

Post G.R. 2011


Tony's Wild Steelhead


I recently got back from a few weeks of fishing on the Grande Ronde. The season was bitter sweet.
Dad ran a few trips on the lower Ronde before I got there and gave me good reports of nice numbers of wild fish they were catching. They were mostly fishing dries too.
I was pretty stoked to fish one of my favorite rivers and hit some fish. Even though the water was low when I arrived there where fish around. My first few trips went great. On my second and third trip in we had a little push of rain and hit a nice pulse of fish with quite a few hook ups.
Shortly after that I got a flu bug that took the wind out of my sail. Being booked every day I had to nut up and run the trips. There were quite a few other guides and patrons that got sick too. That time of year I guess,
Then Bill Vail, the Owner of Boggans Oasis restaurant had a serious stroke. Bill and his wife Farrell make all the lunches for the guides, host most of the client lodging, and are the heart and soul of the upper Washington stretch of the Grande Ronde.
It’s was pretty amazing to see the local community give its support. Guides, friends and local ranchers were even stopping by to lend a hand when they could. I haven’t heard the latest on Bills status but I know he will have months of rehab and wish him and Farrell the best. Even though we got another pulse of rain this last week over there the fishing was slower. I expected another nice shot of fish with the 2nd higher water but it never came. We had to work for them.

I will be fishing locally for Coho,  chum salmon and dollys in between trips to the Methow River for steelies. I do have availability for some of these trips if interested. I have a guy looking for a partner for Nov. 19th on the skagit for Chums/silvers/dollys.

For new anglers we are running 5 hour schools and casting classes multiple times a month with availability. I did a casting class on the Stilly yesterday and saw a few salmon rolling around at Blue Stilly Park.

I am also starting to book for the winter/spring steelhead season on the Olympic Peninsula and locally (when available). It would be nice if we could get our local wild steelhead runs back up in fishable numbers for a catch and release season. Last year a buddy of mine fished the Sauk right before it closed and hooked 4 fish.

In the 2012 season also look for a multiple day trout camp on the Methow next summer.

Happy fishing,

Mike and Dennis Dickson





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