White River

The White's been fishing well despite the downright hot temperatures we've been having and just about everyone's catching fish. One of my clients, Michele, was kind enough to send some of her pics from her family's trip last week. They put the hurt on the pinks and hauled in a few pigs. Great job guys, I hope you all had as good a time as I did. Oh and Bill, I hope you remembered to brush your teeth.

Droppin' Bottom

The pursuit of rockfish has taken us to new lows. Literally. We've gone beyond the limits of fly gear and started plumbing the depths for new sea monsters. What will you find at 300' down? All sorts of wacky stuff. It seems 300 feet is a great depth for yelloweye rockfish, also known as red snapper.

There's a few halibut down there as well, lucky for us this one wasn't much bigger or it would still be swimming and we would have a few repairs to do.

We also found out that if you are in a big school of salmon in shallow water and want a bigger tug on the line, just drop some big dead herring looking thing on the bottom and hang on. Way to go Jo, you wrastle that doggie.

Poundin' Pinks

It was finally playtime today, with an afternoon off and the pinks going bonkers. There's a big variety of fish in now, from freshies still carrying sea lice (not really as gross as it sounds) to some of the earlier arrivals that have started to hump up and.....change. It really is freakish how fast they go through an extreme body modification from this:

To this:

I mean, it's shocking. I put that fish down in the water, picked it back up, and that's what had happened. Ok, not really. That's really a matter of a week or so in fresh water, and they're not done yet. Anyway, more to follow on that. The action on these fiesty buggers has been hot, with the right moves you can't keep them off your line and there's plenty of bang for the buck. Given enough room, some of the freshies are stripping my 7wt. to backing and earning every inch of it. The 3wt. has seen some action as well, although after popping a few on it I had to give the arm a break. It's a hell of a lot of fun, I highly recommend it.

It's back to the ruckus again tomorrow, with every guide booked and ready to rock 'n roll. There'll be flies zingin' every which way, bears divebombing schools off the banks, and plenty of busted knuckles. We've got more fish moving up by the minute and pretty soon we'll be just about able to two step across 'em they're stackin up so thick. Saddle up pardners, it's time to rodeo.

It's On!

Finally, after waiting much too long, they're here. The pinks have arrived in good numbers and while they're not quite smashing flies, at least they're biting enough to entertain with a lively fight. I've been out the past few days with some great folks, some of whom have never seen a salmon before, let alone hooked up with one. They had a blast and between the fish and the bears everybody's left with a smile.