Steelhead on the Fly

HOW TO CATCH GREY GHOSTS

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Aaron Shook is an expert Steelhead fisherman. He spends spring and summer in Yakutat Alaska guiding for the Yakutat Lodge and winter and fall in the Pacific Northwest(Oregon). If the fish are in the river you will find him there.
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The opinions expressed herein are my own personal opinions and do not represent my employer's view in anyway.

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This is way to fun!!!!!!

   Well today was another great day on the creek. I met up today with a fisherman from Utah. You may remember him from the December posting, when we went up for the late summer fish. He was in town again for business, and had the day to hit the creek. I have noticed this year in particular, that the fisherman I have seen, are making their way down the creek at such a high rate of speed, that there is no way they are fishing, or seeing the fish in all the slots and holes along the way. When fishing this creek, you have to take your time and look hard into all the little slots and riffles. When you think you see a slot that is to small to hold a fish, just remember, I will be behind you to get those fish. If a fish is 3 feet long, and 6 inches wide, don’t you think that he can fit into any slot on the creek, “I think so”!.  So with that, I followed Matt down the river, and got into several fish that he left behind. Matt was able to hook up with 3 fish, but they schooled him and live to see me tomorrow. I was able to hook up with 7 fish before I saw Matt, and land 3 of them. After I caught up to Matt, I hooked 2 and landed one real nice hen, of about 12-14 pounds. Around 12:30 I said my goodbyes to Matt and headed back up river to retrieve the one fish I retained earlier. When I got back to the log hole, it was full of fish. I hooked and landed another real nice female, and lost 3 more in that hole. While I was fishing this spot, a fisherman on the other side of the creek wondered down to see what I was doing to get into all these fish. I described the best I could over the sound of the creek, that he needed to shallow up his presentation, and switch to orange, or chartreuse. Five minutes later, up stream, I saw him fighting his very first Steelhead. “That was great to see”. So for all you fish porn addicts, here are the pics from the day.   Good luck out there. Flymstr;

Categories: Creeks | Fish | Fly Fishing | Steelhead
Posted by flymstr on Tuesday, March 03, 2009 8:09 PM
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One more day

Ok I am going on the trek down the river today. We will see if we find anything.   Flymstr;

Categories: Creeks | logs | Steelhead
Posted by admin on Friday, February 13, 2009 12:49 AM
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Going in Tomorrow

Ok Matt and I are going in tomorrow to look for the log jam. If we find it, then we can get someone to remove it and the fish can get going on up river. If you read this before tomorrow morning, we will be there at about 7 am and then we are just going to start walking in until we find it, or it gets dark, Ha Ha. Anyway if you want to join, be at the hatchery parking lot up by the mail box where we all park to walk in to fish. We will be getting under way at about 7:15 am. Hope to see someone else there to help.   Aaron;

Categories: Creeks | Fish | logs | Steelhead | Streams
Posted by admin on Wednesday, February 11, 2009 9:57 PM
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Fish on! Fishoff!!!

I have been out fishing the last couple of days, and there is few fish to be had. I did get into 4 fish today, but they all left in huff. I can't seem to bank any of these beauties yet this year. I will be on the creek almost everyday from here on out, and I hope to have some pics for all of you real soon.   Good luck out there. Flymstr;

Posted by admin on Tuesday, January 27, 2009 12:22 AM
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Vacation Kings

Well it has been 7 years since I have seen the sun shine in Oregon, in the summer. Damn it's hot!!!. I know 70 and 80 degrees is not that warm, but from what I am used to, this is hot. Anyway, I am home on vacation now, and having a great time. The creek that I have been fishing for the last 30 years, for winter Steelhead, has Chinook returning to it for the first time in 20 years. When I was 18, I can remember days on the creek, where you could catch ten to twenty of these big kings per day. Then back in the mid to late 80's, because of lack of funding, the kings run was shut down at the hatchery, resulting in the decline and eventually the end of the Chinook to Eagle Creek. I am glad to say that 6 years ago the state funded a private hatch box, and this is the first returns to the creek this year. It is not a coincidence that I am home at this time. I did not want to miss the first year the Kings came back. I called ahead to some of my friends before I returned, just to see if there were any kings in the creek. The reports I got were not good, but I had a gut feeling that they were there, and my friends had just not spent the time to really look. Well I am glad to say that in the 3 days I have fished, since my return, the fishing has been great, and the Kings I have found have been in great shape. I have got into about 20 fish, and landed about half of them. The biggest so far, being about 25 pounds. These fish have just a bit of color, but they still have white belly's, and the meat is still bright orange, and they are very firm, and full of fight.       About 20 years ago, I made a fly out of pheasant breast, and it was the best King fly ever. I have not been able to find this feather again, so I used yarn flies for these kings. I used the same tie that I use for the Steelhead, I just used bright reds and oranges, to mimic an egg pattern. It worked fairly well. here are some pics from the last trip with my friend Steve.     Steve is the one I have to give the credit to, for starting me out with the fly rod. I have been fishing with Steve now for over twenty years. When I was just a  young fisherman, catching fish in any way that I could, Steve in the one that took me aside and showed me that you can catch fish with a fly pole, and you can be very successful, if you learn how to do it right. Since then, I have been fly fishing with Steve, and it's a great fishing partnership. Of course we have come to the point that when we see a fish, (if we can hold back from yelling "Fish in the Hole!")  we try to keep it to ourselves, knowing that if we say anything out loud, the other guy will have there line in the water before the words are spoken. So we play some games with each other out there when it comes to fish, but the time we spend together now is great, and we can fish together without any problems. We are both freaks when it comes to fish, so with that in mind, if we see a nice big one, the river gets quiet, and fishing is the only thing going on. The less Steve talks, the more I assume that he has a big fish in front of him, but I back off, you have to let a guy have one now and then.         So good luck out there. Remember if you have a place you want to fish, and some people are saying that there is no fish, then go check it out for yourself's. I found a gem of a fishery at Eagle Creek, I also have not seen another soul down there. So it is the best vacation ever.   FISH ON!!!!!   Flymstr;

Categories: Creeks | Salmon
Posted by flymstr on Friday, August 01, 2008 7:01 PM
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