You have to pay to play with winter steelhead

Sandy River guide, father, Rogaine user and Idylwilde Sig. Tier Brian Silvey reported in from the field after two days of swinging flies for elusive fish.  If you are still reading this and not looking at your reflection in the mirror formed on the side of this beauty, something is wrong with you.  For those of you not residing in the NW, local conditions have been dry making local steelhead rivers low and clear.  Low and clear is good if you like to spot fish and throw rocks at them but not so good for the angler looking to swing flies.  It is generally believed, but not proven, as not much in the way of steelheading is, that the fish feel exposed and become more wary in clear water conditions.  For the angler, that translates to “harder to catch”.  Low clear water, it is also believed, does not encourage new or fresh fish from entering the rivers, which makes this beauty all the more rare and no doubt will cause steelheaders to re-examine their belief system.

"That fish is so bright his teeth look yellow" - Marty Sheppard

This client is just another fisherman in a long line of anglers to benefit from Brian’s invention of “double tube technology.” The fish slammed the Silvey’s Tandem Tube in Red taking the fly on the 1st swing but not getting hooked.  One cast later to the same spot, “it was hang on time!”  Brian commented, “when you hook fish this fresh you never really know if you will be able to land them.  We had the fish to our feet but then she decided to get mad and tail walked across the river taking my client straight into his backing in the blink of an eye.”

Its hard to comprehend how fast this hen must have moved from the Ocean  into the river to remain this bright and still have sea lice attached.  Look closely just above the anal fin and you can see the dark spot which is a Sea Lie? Sea Louse? Sea Lice?  Does anyone know the singular for Sea Lice?  This angler was rewarded for sticking it out in some miserable weather that would have many clients calling it a day.  Any of you out there looking to tie into something like this and get a personal tutorial on the finer points of “double tube technology” benefits from Brian can contact him through his site.

Notice the tube has separated from the hook for better land ratio

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 10th, 2010 at 4:11 pm and is filed under Uncategorized You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response.