Five Hundred Miles, roughly the distance from Maine to Pulaski or Denver to Salt Lake City, is a distance that takes 3 months to travel when swimming over numerous dams and avoiding various predators. This is where I was for the last week, the final destination for some 10,000 Summer Run Steelhead in Northeast Washington. The Summer Run consists of Wild Native Fish, Wild Hatchery Fish and Hatchery Fish, which you are ordered to kill so they do not reproduce with the Native Steelhead. The plan was to swing dry flies with Spey Rods and try to get a few on the surface. Although we did hook one up top the cooler weather made the fish a little less willing to come up. We would swing a dry through a run first to see if there were any takers then bust out the nymph sticks to see what was on the bottom. Most of our fish came on stoneflies and other big natural nymphs with rubber legs but we did get one on the swing. Screaming runs followed by a series of jumps and head shakes was the scene after a hook up. We did notice that some fish fought harder than others and it was brought to our attention that these were the fish that hadn’t been hooked yet. When we would have one of these tougher battlers on we would yell “never been kissed” hence the title. On our second day we hooked over 20 Steelhead and landed over 15 making it our best Steelhead day ever. This was the day that I was introduced to the TUG, after nymphing a couple fish out of a run I grabbed a 7 weight Spey Rod and started practicing my Snap T. I’ll never forget it, I made a decent cast that landed just in front of this boil and as the fly swung through I got the TUG and was hooked up to my very first Spey Steelhead. It was the loudest that I have yelled in a long time, shouting with excitement down the river. It was a Wild Native that fell for the swing and after releasing it all I could talk about was that TUG. It was an amazing trip that I will certainly make again. A totally different steelhead experience than what I am used to, the high Mountain Desert and sunny weather didn’t feel right. I was looking for snow, rain and cold. But, I could get used to it.
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- Alaska
- Guide & Fisherman
- Guiding: Choosing Your Guide And Choosing Your Customer
- Guiding: Do It Yourself With A Guide
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- Spey: Gear, The Nuts And Bolts
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- Spey: Steelhead, New Traditions & A Modern Movement
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- Striped Bass
- Striped Bass: Fishing Rocky Shorelines
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- Striped Bass: Flatwing Swing
- Striped Bass: Fly Line Options & Choices
- Striped Bass: Gear, The Nuts & Bolts
- Striped Bass: Migration Patterns
- Striped Bass: What They Eat
- The Art Of Escape
- Fly Fishing: A Natural Drug
- Fly Fishing: A Validation Of Freedom
- Fly Fishing: Don’t Fight The Current
- Fly Fishing: It Is What It Is
- Fly Fishing: Socialization For Asocial Individuals
- Fly Fishing: The Allure Of The Fish
- Fly Fishing: The Art Of Escape
- Fly Fishing: The Simplicity Of It All
- Fly Fishing: Time Flies
- Fly Fishing: Times You Remember & Try To Forget
sweeeet! take your pick huh? swung flies, dries and nymphs .. that sounds killer. beautiful looking fish too .. looks really healthy. i’d love to make a trip there someday as i have yet to catch a west coast steelhead … i was under the impression that “big number” days were few and far between out there and that 2 or 3 fish in a week would be considered really good by most standards? sounds like you hit it pretty good, to say the least … lookin’ forward to fishin’ with ya for the east coast steelhead .. or should i say “steelbow rainheads” ..
PS. very nice work on the video .. some killer shots, perspectives and angles.
Nice clip. That country is amazing, and that is a very special and fragile fishery that you got to experience. It is not open every year, and the state is very protective of those native fish. That is why you are not allowed to take them out of the water. Next trip you might consider the amazing fishery going on right now in the Southeast Washington. There are just as many fish and more dramatic scenery.
Joey,
Killer vid. Those are some beautiful fish…
Cool that they make you kill the pellet gulpers.
I like the shot of dragging the boat down the bank, ah memories…
Dries streamers and Nymphs…sounds like Steel Nirvana.
Thanks for sharing…loved it.
Really nice video editing. I love the way you pieced the story together while getting all of the shots. Its not as simple or easy as it looks. Killer trip. Looking forward to some more.
dude joey! i loved the shots in there. they were all super creative and really different from the other fly fishing video’s on the web. you have really taken your film making to a whole new level!
With that said, great fish! i had no idea that you had such an awsome summer run steelhead fishery at your feet! looking forward to seeing many more steelhead fishtales from your neck of the woods, your coming into the season, right?
A town thanks for the comment. The summer run is not right at my feet, I wish, but I had to travel to Wa ad then drive about 4 hours to get to the goods. All worth it though I love how fly fishing can bring you to areas that you would never see otherwise. Are you going to make any steel trips to NY this year?
Joey – looks like an epic trip. 15 fish in a day is definitely a day of a lifetime by west coast standards.
The TUG is something else…nothing quite like it.
If you’re up sometime next spring drop me a line if you’re interested in heading out to try out wild BC chromers. The fish are rare but big and pyschotic when you find them.
Best,
James
Jams — whippa fills me in on all of your finding in over there in british columbia .. are you living in western canada full time now? i guess that means no trips south to the great lakes for steelhead …. so, question … do ya miss the great lakes fisheries and great lakes steelhead at all? whip tells me all about the sweet steel you are finding over there .. just curious what the differences are from your opinion … hope all is well .
What a great video! Short and sweet. Reports like this one will make me day dream at work all week long. I’m not sure if that is a good or bad thing to be doing. Anyway….I can’t wait for the steelhead to be in full swing out here in western, NY.
Wow, that video was amazing, really beautiful work all around the board my friend. Keep them coming brother. cheers Alex