Friday, October 22, 2010

Time for reflection


Sitting at home rehabbing a knee injury has given me some time to reflect on my life as a guide and fly fisherman. This season was really good for me as I had an increase in business of 300% and enjoyed some special days on the water. All of this bodes well for my future as I continue to grow my business and learn better ways to help my clients become the fly fishers that they seek to be.

Fall fishing has been going off locally and all venues are fishing well. I am unavailable to guide until my knee heals but I cannot recommend Jon Baiocchi(www.baiocchistroutfitters.com) highly enough so if you are in need contact him. Jon is super knowledgeable about Lake Davis and the Middle Fork Feather River,he is a patient teacher as well as a superb fly tyer!

Time to tie up some new leaders and refill some of the flyboxes and get the knee ready for steelhead!

Enjoy this lovely fall and get out and fish!

Friday, October 15, 2010

No More Plastic Bottles






I am proud to introduce my new stainless steel water bottles that will replace all plastic bottles on my guide trips. We, as a culture, need to reduce our reliance on the use of plastic water bottles, so I am affecting change where I can. These bottles are free to my clients and I was going to charge a nominal fee to non-clients,but after further thought they are free for the taking to anyone!

Fall is here and I have ventured north for my first steelhead trip of the season. I spent 2 days on the Trinity swing prime water with my new Sage 6110 Z-Axis switch rod. Pretty nice rod that casts well, but I didn't get to feel how it handles an adult steelie.Though it totally dominates smolts!!

With plans to meet Brian Slusser (Four Seasons Fly fishing 530 386 0525) for a drift on the Klamath changing due to his continued success with clients on the Rogue, I made the 4 hour drive to Grants Pass,Or. We did a short drift below town where I landed 2 half pounders and two coastal cutthroat, but no adults. Brian hooked two adults that he couldn't keep on. Zac Kaufman, head guide for Morrison's Lodge ( 800 826 1963) was also fishing with us and he landed a beautiful coastal cutthroat. The fish were there,but we weren't connecting with adults.

The next day Brian and I fished below Hellgate Canyon at a spot called Carpenters Island. Big beautiful pocket water that was fun to fish. I was confident that we would find fish this morning but alas no adults were hooked.The Rogue is a large river that has perfect steelhead water and is ideal for Spey fishing. I am heading back that way next week for a few more days.

If anyone is looking for a guide for the Rogue, I highly recommend Brian Slusser! He is super knowledgeable, a great teacher and can put you on fish in a mudpuddle! He still has some available dates left this month before he heads back to the Truckee so if your interested in tangling with Rogue steel give him a call;530 386 0525.