Salmon season has come to an end and what a season it was. With a horribly dry summer we found ourselves facing very low water conditions. How’s that old saying go? When life gives you lemons make bull frogs or something like that.
I have to give a huge thank you to all my awesome customers. You are the reason I do what I do. In less than ideal conditions everyone was more than willing to change things up which equalled smiling faces and fish in the net. Some days where better than others but everyone was happy.
Another thank you to those who have already booked next year’s trips or steelhead trips. It’s a great feeling having most of your next season booked as this season is ending. That being said if you want to salmon fish with me next year I wouldn’t wait too long to start planning.
With the low water I never fished the Salmon River this fall. I stayed on the lake as much as possible and fished other locations when I couldn’t get on the lake. Next weekend that changes and I will be steelheading on the Salmon River come hell or low water. The reservoir is slowly filling and I expect 335 cfs base flow to return in the near future as long as it keeps raining. My Smithfly raft floats no problem at 185 cfs so I am not concerned either way.
Steelhead season is looking like it is going to be a good one. Some very nice steelhead have been caught already along with some impressive brown trout. I do have a couple December dates open that I would like to fill if anyone is interested give me a call.
Last year my oldest son came home from school upset that his classmates had been off for take your kid to work day. We explained to him that kids aren’t allowed into the aluminum factory that my wife and I work in. Then it dawned on me that he could come to “fish work” as he calls my guide business. He was so excited that could come to fish work with me next year.
Well next year came and I had it all set up. Customers to take that understood the plan and how our trip could be cut short as Gunnar would be with us. Then the Corona virus shutdown school and guiding. This left me with one very disappointed 6 year old. It was time to come up with a new plan.
Plan B was to “guide” my father and wife for crappie and/or rainbow trout. Gunnar was very concerned that we would get in trouble for guiding when it was shut down. I told him mom and grandpa would just pay us at home where no one would see as he made sure they both knew they were going to have to pay him.
That morning Gunnar helped me get the gear and boat ready. Then he packed snacks while I went and bought subs for us for lunch. When we arrived at the reservoir he helped to launch the boat.
Unfortunately we tried about everything we had and couldn’t get anything going on the reservoir. We decided we would head back home and try fishing in the creek that separates our property from my parents. In the truck on the way home my dad gave Gunnar $4 which made his day.
Back at my parents house Gunnar wanted to ride his bike before fishing. I headed down to the creek with his fishing rod and a container of worms. As I made my way across the lawn I saw a fish splash on the surface. It was a good size steelhead. I called to Gunnar, who had just put on his bike helmet, telling him there was a steelhead in the creek. He came running down very excited to try to catch it. I explained we needed to be very careful not to spook it. I took the bobber off and hooked a whole night crawler on. I told him I would cast it for him becuase it needed to be a precise cast. Not sure if the spin cast rod would even make the cast I made a test cast in the yard.
We then snuck down the bank into position. After multiple bad casts I landed one the drifted perfectly to the fish. I was shocked to see it grab the worm. I set the hook as I handed the rod to Gunnar. The fish turned downstream splashing in the surface. Gunnar struggled to fight the fish as he laughed at the way it took line and splashed. After a couple minutes he managed to get it to the shoreline. I ran down the bank and grabbed it for him. He was ecstatic to have caught the biggest fish of his life and be the first person in our family to catch a steelhead from the creek.
He ran up to the house to get his mom so she could take our picture. After a quick picture we returned it to the water and watched it swim away.
We then returned the bobber to the line and proceeded to catch multiple shinners and horned dace. After all they were our target species when we headed to the creek. Gunnar later told me he had a great day at “fish work” and wanted to do it again next year. Given the circumstances take your kid to work day couldn’t have gone better.
Gunnar’s first steelhead and the rod he caught it on. Gunnar even let Beckett catch a couple
You often here people talk about fishing destinations and how they are “bucket list”. These are places people dream about fishing and hope they will make it too before they die. Many times they plan to go when they retire, when the kids move out of the house, child support payments end, and so on and so on. I have a big problem with this.
First off you don’t know how long you are going to live. You could die tomorrow, year or in 50 years. No one knows how long they will live. If you put a trip on your bucket list and then kick the bucket before you get to go what was the point. No one shows pictures of places people wanted to visit at their funeral. They do however often show pictures of extravagant places people visited while they were alive doing things they loved. Think about when you have seen these pictures. Chances are you thought about how they may not be with us anymore but at least they were able to do things they loved in cool places. This likely brought a bit of a smile or a bit of relief to you during a sad time.
The second problem I have with bucket lists is you don’t know what kind of shape you will be in when your retire or whatever excuse you are using to delay trip of life time happens. You might not be physically able to make the trip or may experience an unexpected financial hardship at a time in your life you aren’t able to make that money back up. So here you sit wishing you had taken the trip when you were younger. Again you never run into an old man in the fly shop talking about the trips he thought about going on. You will often see that old man telling you all about the places he fished when he was younger though. He will smile the entire time too.
This is why I say take that bucket list and turn it into a F it list. Go now while you can. This doesn’t just include fishing trips. This is anything you have wanted to do. Find a way and do it. Don’t have the money? Find it. Sell some stuff you haven’t used and no longer need. Get a side job. Take a loan if you have to. That is as long as it wont take food out of your families mouth that is. Now if you are single and it means box mac and cheese dinners for a few months I say go for it.
Now what I mean by a F it list is take that list of places you want to go and prioritize it. Now figure out a way to check one spot off each year. My personal list has places that are expensive and places that won’t take much money they just require actually going. My plan is to do an expensive one followed by a year or two of less expensive trips so I can recoup from the big trip. This spring I am going to Argentina to fish for Golden Dorado. To be honest I had no idea what a golden dorado was until I heard about this trip. I found out a details from my friend Mark and said F it I want to go and I am going to go. Fly fishing in South America is something I have always wanted to do. I had just planned on going for trout but only because I didn’t know about golden dorado.
I am also going with my family this winter to Mississippi to visit my brother in-law. This will mostly be a family trip but will include fishing for red fish and sea trout. Something I have also always wanted to do. My wife has wanted to go visit her brother for a long time as well so we are saying F it and going this year while we can.
Many of us has places or types of trips we have wanted to take that are close by we just don’t take the time to do it. It is time to change that. Go do what is is you have dreamed about. As my boss always says this isn’t a dress rehearsal, if there is something you want to do you need to do it. So many people die at young age before getting to do the things they dream about. Don’ t let it happen to you. Turn that bucket list into a F it list today.
I had the pleasure of guiding Tom and Joe today. I decided yesterday I was tired of playing the who can get on the river earliest game. Last Saturday I pulled in to the Launch at 3:50 am and was not the first boat in the river. This morning we launched the boat at 5:30. I knew we wouldn’t get the spot I wanted but I also knew we could still get a good spot. We anchored up in a spot I like, started the heater and waited for day light.
Once it became legal fishing time we started casting Finger Lakes Tackle spinners. On Tom’s third cast the spinner stopped dead then took off upstream in the mouth of a nice 6 pound steelhead. Tom did an excellent job fighting the fish and it wasn’t long before it was in the net. They had decided they wanted to keep one to eat so this one went into the box. It was a good thing it did because the rest of the day we had a lot of trouble getting them to the hoop. We did land a nice little brown trout later in the morning though.
Spinners and egg sacks took all the hits today. Talking to people as we made our way down the river it seemed that most people were having a slow day. There were a few drift boats that had a pretty good day though. I know Tom and Joe thought it was an excellent day, as did I. We battled snow, wind, and cold all day yet still managed to hook multiple fish and land a couple. That is a good day in my mind.
Tom and Joe also enjoyed the comfortable seats and the warmth of the heater. Multiple times they complimented the Pavati especially using the doors to get in and out of the boat. I am definitely looking forward to fishing out of it this winter.
Everyone is waiting for the run to turn on and be in full swing. I wish I could report that it was. However, there are fish in the river from top to bottom. More fish and more fishing pressure in the lower half of the river. If you are willing to work for your fish you will catch some. You will also enjoy a few less people on the river than normal for this time of year.
The trick is to get on the river early and pick a spot you believe the fish will be in that morning. If when day light comes the fish are there then game on. If they are not give it an hour or so to make sure they aren’t just down stream of you and headed your way. If they don’t show get in the truck and head to a new spot. Keep moving until you find them. Don’t necessarily follow the crowds. During my trip on Friday we moved to a section of the river that we had to ourselves and we found more than enough fish to keep us busy.
The other option is to hire a drift boat guide that will cover water until you find fish or take you out in mouth of the river at night. I will say as of lately the night fishing still hasn’t been what it should be. I have a feeling by this weekend the run will be on but if it isn’t follow these steps and you will find enough fish to keep you happy.
I had the pleasure of taking Jimmy and his nephew Timmy fishing yesterday. We met at All Seasons Sports at 6 am and headed out hoping to catch some bass, rainbow trout, and walleye.
The fishing was slow and it seemed like every time we has the fish figured out the bite would stop. We did manage to put 17 fish in the boat by the end of our trip. The trout eluded us but we did get 2 walleye, a few smallmouth bass, a bluegill and a bunch of perch.
We were fishing from the drift boat and most of on fish came on crawler harnesses or Berkley Flicker Shads.
Salmon season is quickly approaching but if you want to get out and fish an area with the opportunity to catch multiple tasty species give me a call. We can even fly fish. Both casting and trolling flies.
I am offering an afternoon trip fishing from 4 pm until dark for just $225 for 2 people.
Wayne-o's Guide Service 