North Umpqua Weekend

I decided to get out of town and go fish some of my old stomping grounds where I developed a lot of my skills in the sport. The river was not in the most ideal conditions for winter steelheading but I was tired of waiting for the rain which may never come, so I loaded the car threw the dog in the back and hit the road. I couldn't believe how nice the weather was when I rolled into the lush canyon of the North Umpqua. It had to have been around 70 degrees and I fished my first three runs in a T-shirt. In the first run I fished a huge march brown hatch came off and two steelhead, hanging out in front of a piece of bedrock, began feeding on every natural that came by. I swang my large winter fly to them several times without even a sniff. I decided to tie on skater just to see what would happen and fished over them several more times. The fish of course, ignored my offering and continued feeding on the naturals drifting by. I wish I had my trout box with me because it could have been one of those rare moments when dead drifted dries are the preferred method. I have learned my lesson.

I spent three days in all fishing my ass off hitting every run I could from the upper river to below the fly water proper. The first two days were typical winter steelhead fishing where you fish like a wild man, covering as much water as possible without the slightest sign of life. (This river is definitely the prettiest place to get skunked.) The last day the river rewarded me with two nice hook ups in some of my favorite water. The first came in the first run of the morning which I had felt drawn to the night before. I quickly slid down the trail and carefully waded out to the one rock you are able to fish this run from. Typically I expect to get my fish in this run on a long lined cast deep in the bottom end but this day the the hook up came in the first five cast, catching me by suprise. One short run a couple of head shakes and the fish threw the hook before I even I got a look at it. It felt good to get that tug even though it was short lived. I spent the rest of the day fishing water I had thought about fishing but hadn't fished in the winter time. The last run of the day presented one more oppurtunity one of those ones you wonder how the hell the fish didn't get hooked. The grab was super hard and line started racing off the reel waking my dog from his mid-day nap. I lifted the rod after 20 feet of line had taken off and there was nothing there. You gotta wonder how this happens, I suppose it is one of the many mysteries of steelhead fishing. Now I am back in fishing jail for a few days before I can sneak off again.