Swing, Swing, Swing
From our most recent eMag HERE!
The thought of throwing long casts with traditional flies on dry lines and getting pulls from aggressive steelhead made me a bit giddy. The thirty two hours we put in on the floor during the grand opening of the Lewiston Idaho N40 Outfitters went by like a slack tide. While we were in the store, river reports were coming in. Fish counts were good. On Friday, the flows were over 6000cfs and temps were averaging 54 degrees. Cornfed went out early on Saturday morning and swung four steelhead on a skater. I could already feel that first big pull. Unable to take it after work, we went out Saturday night with Captain Calvin. While back trolling two boats tied together and loaded with people, Calvin put the crew on two steelhead and a beautiful King Salmon in complete darkness. Knowing those fish were out there made me want to swing even more during daylight hours.
On Sunday, several guys came into the store and said they had swung steelhead early that morning. Joe O’Brien let me borrow his Jet Sled on Sunday afternoon before my incessant babbling about the prospects of swinging steelhead got out of hand. I managed to get on the water at 5pm. It was bright, dead calm and 90 degrees. The water temp was up and the flows were going down. It was not fishy, but there is always a chance. I took a short run up to a good looking bucket and watched two steelhead roll as I tied a skater to my leader. I was buoyed by hope, imagining the flush that was about to envelop my skater. Before I could make a cast to those willing steelhead, the wind started blowing hard enough to raise significant waves. Hope ebbed a notch. I cut off the skater and tied on a wet. My Scandi head would mostly unroll, but my leader was landing 15’ upstream of the tip. In short, fishing conditions were awful. The wind kept up until after dark. The crew got together again for a night mission and caught 2 more steelhead and a King from the boat. I tried in vain to swing a fish with a gob of Glow in the Dark Flashabou in water that had been flowing and fishy the night before, but was currently slacking out. Then I collapsed for a couple hours.
Monday morning came quickly and I was nearly exhausted from working three long days and then going night fishing. Everyone was pretty whipped, but we were on the water shortly after 6am ready to swing, swing, and swing.
Our Beulah rep Bruce Berry brought along some great rods and let me use his 14’ 8wt Onyx Spey with an Elixir Scandi head. It’s a whole lot more rod than the trout spey sticks I’m used to, but I loved it. It seems like a perfect rod for a big dry line river like the Clearwater. I spent about 8 hours making friends with it. I would have loved to catch a fish on it. I also got a chance to try Joe’s Winston 7wt BIII TH. Another great rod. I would have loved to catch a fish on it. I even got to work with Calvin’s Goran Andersson 6122-4. A great rod for tight work and swinging from the boat. I would have loved to catch a fish on it too.
The fishing was so good on Monday that Joe slept most of the day. Jerrin stayed busy working his social and Jake quit looking through the camera lens and started catching frogs. In our defense, it was the conditions. The river dropped over 3000cfs before we got our chance to swing it.
We saw some fish roll and we spotted some from the boat, but they were not willing to approach our flies. As Bruce said, "These steelhead are not happy." There were also Kings holding in some of the deeper runs. Steelhead and Kings don’t get along and the low water forces them into being neighbors. So the Kings that would not bite our flies were stressing out the steelhead, so they would not bite our flies either. If you are paying attention so far, I’ve worked in at least seven good excuses for not catching steelhead. As a fly fishing steelheader, you are going to need a quiver of good excuses.
In afternoon desperation, I rigged up the 8wt with a Skagit Compact and a 15’ type 8 tip to try for a King. I quickly hooked a boulder and said goodbye to a special fly. It was the last fly I’d used to land a King Salmon in Alaska. I’ve carried it around in my rig since last June, glancing at it every day and reliving that fish. I took a deep calming breath and tied on another fly. I would have loved to have caught a King on it.
Despite little validation during the day, evening always happens and with it, more hope. Most of the crew took off in the mid afternoon heat to eat and rehydrate and take a sensible brake. I volunteered to stay out with the boat so we would not have to go through the effort of taking it out, stowing all the gear and then relaunching and loading. Bruce stayed with me and we took a run back upriver for several miles. We parked in some shade and kept our eyes on a good run. We talked the fish talk while waiting for some magic to happen as the shadows worked toward the chosen water. Before the shade reached our run, a couple fish rolled. I couldn’t take it. I dashed up to the top, waded into position and was just working out line when I got a call. It was Sam. "We are at the landing ready to go." I left Bruce to enjoy some swinging goodness and jetted back down to pick up the crew. They were rested, fed and not ready to go. Jake was somewhere up the hill. I was figuring Bruce was already hooked up. I was starting to get twitchy when Sam pulled out an Effie Burger with my name on it. Big points for Sam. The Effie burger is famous and huge. I rarely eat processed meat, but I wolfed down half of that Frisbee sized burger concoction before Jake got in the boat.
The water was still dropping and I was now running Calvin’s big Woodridge sled on an unfamiliar river. We had a boatload of five and I still had to get Bruce. I dumped the guys off on a good run down low and then ran up to see if Bruce was getting it done. He said the run where I’d left him was too "Chinooky", so we loaded up and went back down. We set up across from the other boys. The light was totally off the water at this point. It was as fishy as it was going to get. Multiple lines were swinging both sides of the run. Hope was back. Hope was all we landed.
During the day, I did get a savage grab by a 9" Cutthroat. The 14’ 8wt managed him nicely. Calvin got a tug. Sam did battle with a scrappy King pushing 14 centimeters. Paul snagged a squawfish. Bruce bullied up a 16" King Jack. At some point, Paul supposedly landed the one and only adult steelhead on a fly. I did not see it happen and he was using a MOW tip, so it doesn’t count-as much, though I’m sure he’s kind of happy.
Thanks to everyone who came out and met us in the new North 40 Outfitters Fly Shop in the Lewiston Idaho store. As you know, you’ve got a great river in your backyard. I just picked the wrong day. As my friend Matt from up in Moscow used to say, "I’d like to book one yesterday and two tomorrows." Let us know if there is anything you need to improve your time out on the water.
Tight Lines--