Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Late winter Steelhead'n



Fridays fish with Pat

 I Fished the Forks rivers after the 15th. Both the Sol Duc and the Bogi. The Bogi had 6+ ft of visibility with a nice emerald green and the sol Duc was pretty clear with at least 8 + ft. The flows on both were a nice median average.
Both have decent #'s of fish with a pretty even mix of new and seasoned fish. I did see a good number of reds on both rivers. I scaled down the size of my flies and fished flies with stinger hooks, a few of the fish we hooked nipped the fly once or twice before getting stuck on the tip of the nose. Clear water fish that see some pressure tend to do that. On the Bogi I fished from 101 down to the hatchery a couple times. It is a long float but and has some nice fly water. There was quite a few gear boats fishing from the hatchery down and I didn't want to try to compete with them.

I did see 2 springers caught on the Sol Duc on Sunday. One of them suprisingly enough from a fly guy drifting a bead egg. Both were chrome bright. My client Bill got into a nice tail out at th end of the day on sunday that produced 3 hook ups with one to hand. It was slow with one good grab till then.

I have 2 open dates on the Bogachiel/Sol duc due to a cancelation that I am discounting on the 26th and 27th of this month. If your interested please inquire - Mike.

I demoed a 7 wt. Echo Solo spey with a 500 grain skagit line. I was pretty happy with it. I have tried a few lower priced speys in the past and have found them bulky, heavier and sloppy. This one had a nice full flex but also not too soft for throwing heavy sink tips and weighted flies. For the price you can't go wrong. I have the 6 wt. too but haven't tried it yet.

Dennis (dad) is off to the Cowlitz in Early May, about that same time I'll be headed out of town to warmer climates in Florida and then the Bahamas. Time to get some real sun damn it!

Happy Fishing,

Mike & Dennis

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Sun and fun





Here are a few pics from a much appreciated sunny day on the O.P. We only saw one other guy on the river all day. Good times.

Rumor has it that the Skagit and Sauk are showing great returns of steelhead this year. The upper Sauk also had great red counts last year. As much as I like the O.P. I really miss fishing my home waters and i know I'm not alone. Hopefully they will let us do a catch and release season up there next year.

To all the guys that are interested in the amazing fishery that is the Pink salmon run let us know, we are booking now. We will be fishing the skagit, stilly and the skykomish. We are already half booked on the skagit.
For the group trips we are doing them for $150 PP  you can make up your own group or join some groups we make up.

Happy fishing,

Mike and Dennis

Joincca.org









Monday, April 4, 2011

Busy Times:


Steelhead fly fishing is in full swing out on the Queets river right now. Tidewater steelhead and large native fish at that. Perfect.

No rest for the weary: Maybe the biggest secret of the Olympic Peninsula steelheading, is April is THE month. While all the trouties head off right lakes et al, some of the largest finest steelhead are headed for the steelhead junky towards the end of the month.

Flies:
All things big and wiggly are catching fish. Pink, purple, black, white (Cop Car) are flies of choice. Mike and I pretty much keep our steelhead leaders short and fat, in the off colored waters. The key is always the same. Bring it in "low & slow". Set your reels tight, keep your hands off the line, and hang on when they head south.
 P.s. Mike has a guy that needs a partner for april 15th on the O.P. Let us know if your interested.

Spring is springing while the vegetation's are greening up. Looks like we have survived another winter. Won't be long before the Cowlitz river summer steelhead will be headed for home. Guess we will just have to be there to greet them. I will write more on flies and summer steelhead strategies as we get closer. Mike & I are generating a new July summer steelhead school as we speak. Keep you posted.

Don't forget that new fishing licence.

Best of fishing,

Dennis & Mike Dickson