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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Getting better by the day.

Well the fishing on the creek today was a bit slower than it has been, but I was still able to bring a couple to the camera. The first part of the morning was very disappointing, to both me and my fishing partner. After the first hour of seeing no fish, we kept walking down stream, peering into all the small white water pockets along the way. Finally we came across two fish laying behind a rock in some fairly stiff water. It took a good twenty minutes just to figure out how to get our flies down into the seam these fish were resting in. I hooked up the first one after loading my leader down with split shot, and essentially slowing the drift down to a very slow presentation. It worked like a charm. I was hooked up, but not for too long, before the hooked returned with no fish on the end. We then worked the second fish for close to an hour. Finally Matt gave up and headed on down stream, I was not going to let this fish get the best of me, so I stayed and hammered this fish for another 20 minutes. My perseverance paid off in a big way. I hooked up and this fish tore me up. I was able to get this nice little 8 pound fish to the bank. After getting a pic, I took off to find out what Matt may have found downstream. When I did find him, he was on top of three fish at the head of a good size hole. The fish were held up against a wall of rock with a nice riffle over the top. Matt fished for some time for these fish, but there were no takers for him. While Matt was fishing the head of the hole, I looked up a bit further into the faster water, and was able to spot a nice big male sitting in the tail end of this little pocket. It was not to long before I was hooked up again, and this was a nice size male. After landing this fish, I sat back and waited for Matt to pull one out. Matt just couldn't get the fish to cooperate with him today, so after he got hung up and lost his gear on the bottom, I stepped up to give it another shot. Again it was not long before I was on. This fish was a real nice chrome female with a good fight in her. I landed the fish, and told Matt that there was at least one more fish in the slot and that he should get in there and get em'. He stepped up and was soon hung on the bottom again, (Some days are just like that, no matter what you do, nothing goes right). He was not able to retrieve his gear, and so he was in the pits again, and it was my turn. I got up and took about 3 casts when my tip stopped, I set the hook and it was on again. I landed the fish, took the picture, released the fish, and called it a day. Here are the pic's from today, should have more coming on a daily basis.

 

P2050012 P2050010 P2050006 P2050003 P2050004

 

Good Luck out there,

Flymstr;


Posted by flymstr on Thursday, February 05, 2009 10:51 PM
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Comments (2) -

Tom L United States

Saturday, February 07, 2009 8:19 AM

It was good talking with you today.  Seeing is believing.  I will be there on Sunday around 7:00.  I will have pole in hand but this is more to see if I can see what you were describing.  Exploratory if you will.  I am sure we will cross paths again.  I would offer a hearty "Good Luck out there" but that is clearly not your problem.  Tom

Donnie Hunter

Sunday, February 08, 2009 11:16 AM

Well Done Aaron! Tell Matt to "Get with the program" and start carrying his share... Time is short.

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