Category: Steelhead

Oregon Coast Puts Out

Brian Morris landed a couple beauties last week on the coast.

Mining for Steel

Jamey Mitchell hit pay dirt on the Sandy last week. I dont think it gets much better than this. Swung fly, beautiful day, and a beautiful fish to hand. 

And so it begins…

Matts new boat is in the build process as we speak…a 22 1/2’ Willie Predator with the new 4 stroke 200hp SHO Yamaha jet to back it up. So, what does this mean to you, you ask? Watch the “F” out! This season on the Clack and Lower D your gunna see a wild ass banshee Scotsman, cruzin by you at mach 10 with his kilt, high in the air, on his way to find the next silver bullet.

Matt is booking sled trips now for both the Clack winter and summer season, and the Summer Deschutes season. Spots fill up very fast. If you want to get in, book now.   

Roger’s First

A little more time spent here…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Equals better results here!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yesterday on the Clack, Roger lands his first Winter Steelhead with Matt. A big Congrats goes out to you, Roger!!!

Beautiful Sandy Steelhead

Ricardo Guzman struck chrome last week on the Sandy with one of his own Intruders. 

Fish to be had..

Even with the low levels and cold teps, there are fish around. We have had very high tides this past week and every Lower Columbia trib has seen a push of fresh fish. Even though we have some tough conditions at the moment, the good news is that the rivers are not blown, and the fish are there. Darker colored flies in the purples, blacks, and blues have been the most consistant, but I would male sure to have a couple pinks, reds, and orange offerings with you. If you find a run that looks too good to not give up a fish, switch from your dark to your bright fly and go through it again, sometimes thats all it takes to find a biter. 

McCrary’s Annual December Slay Fest 2011

About this time every year we get a drove of people coming in and calling, all with the same question: Are you seeing any Steelhead yet? Well…....yes…....yes we are. Time to go out and get it done people. The Sandy, Clack, Coast, and SW Washington all have fresh winter fish in them. Even though we are a little shy on moisture, and the rivers are low and clear, there are fish to be caught. Please see the evidence below, and quickly proceed to your nearest local steelhead run.

Piggy

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Andrew Grillos recently took a trip up the mouth with Matt, and landed this monster!
Andrew is a signature tier for Portland Oregon based, Idylwilde Fly Company.
To see some of his work, follow the link - http://www.idylwilde.com/html/signature_tiers.php?tier_id=12

 

Learn to Identify Fall Chinook Reds

Zombie Apocalypse hits the west side rivers

Every fall our local streams fill up with hundreds to thousands of fall chinook. By this time, they are pretty well beat up, and in the process of spawning. While not a fish you want to target at this point, it is pretty cool to take a few minutes to take a break from chasing steelhead and watch mother nature in action. Every trip out I have been having lunch near a group of spawning fish and watching them on the reds chasing each other around, turning on thier sides and make future runs of native fish.

A bright spot in the middle of the brown/green river bottom is a Salmon red. Learn to identify them and avoid walking through them.

Deschutes River Steelhead Update

McCrary keeps things going on the lower Deschutes with not only doubles, but triples!! With an avarage of 5+ hook up’s per day, thing have been on fire him and his clients. 

Steelhead are in the Deschutes…time to go!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

August has hit the lower Deschutes and steelhead have entered the system in good numbers. Here are a couple that Matt and Chris got into in the last couple days. The AM and PM water temps have been great. Now is the time to break out the scandi’s and get to it. Damp and skaters both have already put fish on the bank for McCrary.

West Side Steel

What does $150 in materials look like?

Gettin’ it done “McCrary Style”

The man, the myth, the legend. Matt finds a group of early winter natives to play ball this week. I dont think you could find a better fish in the entire NW than this one…..one of eight that is. The weapons of choice were a Type 6 tip, orange marabou tubes, pink marabou tubes, and orange tandem tubes. 

Back from paradise!

Jack and company got back Saturday from a week in Terrace chasing Skeena system chrome. While he was in the shop this morning getting some things in order for the next couple days of guiding in the “D”, I hounded him for the photo album (now in the form of an IPad). As we all know, the pictures we take on our fishing adventures hardly do justice to what the real think was like, so I can only imagine how beautiful Northern BC in person. Waterfalls, evergreens, cobble beaches, and patches of fog, laced between snow capped mountains were in the back drop of every picture. In the forefront….Skeena Steelhead. Truly amazing 100% wild fish. In short….perfect. There was no shortage of rain from what he told me, some of the rivers blew, and they were forced to find other venues. Enter Coho Salmon. Mint bright, big, and aggressive. Now, spoiled for life, Jack is back to work. I couldn’t help but feel sorry for him when he came in on Saturday. I remember the feeling waiting for the Portland bound plane at the Yakutat Airport a couple years ago. I was on the verge of mass depression, but, I guess we need those plane rides back to reality to keep those times in our life special…or maybe that’s just positive thinking….because it sucked!
I dont want to spoil the full report form Jack, so this is were I stop. Shortly he will fill all of you in on all the details, making all of us wish we were there with them.