Sunfish

April 12 & 13, Seep Lakes, WA.
The 'gills crowded the shallow coves and took small poppers with abandon.
I fished for bass too, catching most of them on a bunny worm and - late in the day - two more on a deer hair bug.

"Drake magazine, you numba ten!"

Ten years ago me and my Buster pals got together and invented The Drake the worlds best fly fishing magazine. Now after ten years...
What?
Oh, right. It was actually Tom Bie who invented The Drake while he was sending out letter bombs from a small, remote cabin somewhere in the wilds of Montana. er,something like that.
But we did invent The Drake's message board, sorta.
The truth is that the tenth anniversary issue of The Drake is out now. Be sure to check out the Jessica Alba centerfold, woot woot!

Bull!

3/13/08
Sauk River: two bull trout, zero steelhead.

3/15/08
Yakima River: Three li'l pigs, all 'bows, each of 'em on a stimmy.

Ho-hum & Yawn

Ho-hum, Yakima River Saturday, March 8.



South Fork Toutle Monday, March 3. Yawn

February 16th, 08

Last seen at the end of fairly well executed double spey.

You Gotta Start 'em Early

A man should tie his own flies.

The other day a relative says to me something like, "There's a fly fishing store by my office and I thought of buying a Christmas present for you there. But what the hell am I gonna get for you; the angler that has everything?"
Two words for you Cousin Earl, two simple words. Bass Bugs.
Most times I do tie my own flies. Even if it means driving to three or four different fly shops to get the right materials for a particular pattern, gas prices be damned. In the long run it's cheaper though sometimes it seems like I'll have to tie flies for a long time yet to realize the cost benefit.
When it comes to bass flies, the big poppers, sliders and divers, I opt for the store bought variety. Too much work; spinning, stacking then shaping all that deer hair. A professionally tied deer hair bass bug goes for something like four or five dollars a piece. It would take me at least an hour to turn out a Dahlberg Diver or Messinger's Frog that looked half as good as the original. Hell even my boss thinks my time is worth five bucks an hour.
So....thanks Mom, I finally used that Bass Pro Shops Gift card you got me last year. Pass the word around, maybe Cousin Earl will catch on.

Gettin' The Spey Out

Spent a few hours practicing with the double hander this morn. Things are beginning to make sense and I've almost got a couple casts figured out. I actually even fished a fly through some holding water. Didn't catch anything but that's only 'cause there weren't any fish around. If I had caught a steelhead you can be sure that this post would be about something far more interesting than learning to cast the long rod.
Anyhoo, since I'm slowly turning into a spey nerd I've added a link to Spey Pages to the link column on the right. It's under "Forums, Bulletin Boards and News"
So there ya have it, now I'm off to the tool shed to color code my Delta Spey [line] with a sharpie.
Have good fishing,
Wally

Edit: I went out again Sunday (1/20) morning. The river was running low and clear at ~ 600 CFS, just low enough for me to cross. Lots of casting, no fish, added a third cast to my repertoire. At the end of the day, and back on the river left side I was shooting lots of line with a single spey. Good times, good times.