Happy Thanksgiving!

Fall has arrived in the Northwest! It's been significantly colder, and the vast kaleidoscope of foliage has been blown off their branches around Portland. Over the past few weeks, I was able to escape Portland to the East a few times in order to chase the illusive Steelhead. I joined my good buddy John Holland at Jack Mitchell's Steelhead Ranch. Jack started the Evening Hatch fly shop and guide service on the banks of the Yakima River in Washington. He now runs trips on the famed Olympic Peninsula and the Upper Columbia River near the US-Canada border. We spent the day with one of his top guides looking for chrome on the great Klickitat River. In Steelhead terms, it was a very successful outing. A few fish landed, and another half-dozen hooked and then dropped. I'm still learning the ropes on fishing for these beautiful, anadromous fish. Casting and swinging the fly is a big part of it, but it's all about reading the water. I'm still in the habit of looking at the river with "trout eyes". Steelhead tend to hold in much faster water, and in other spots that my trout trained brain is still trying to decipher. Enjoy a few images here from our day at the ranch...including this prime shot of John holding an 11 pound wild buck. It sounds like Winter has arrived in Jackson Hole right on time. Grand Targhee is open to powder skiing, and it looks like more snow is on the way. Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Redfish On The Fly

Where did the the Summer go? I'm sorry to all my readers for not keeping up on my blog updates this year more regularly. Life in the Pacific Northwest has been busy, and time is just escaping me! My more limited involvement in our business has simply diverted me to other ventures at the moment. Thanks to all the friends of Grand Teton Fly Fishing for such a successful 2013...we couldn't have done it without you! Despite some wild weather and high water conditions on the Snake, fishing was pretty darn good. I did not get back to Jackson as much as I had hoped, but was very excited to get continuous reports from friends and clients on their fishing. I've been getting out as much as possible with the my "two-hander" (read: Spey Rod), and am finally getting the "swing" of it. (Traditional techniques for Steelhead involve swinging flies in suspicious water, looking for native Chrome).

Wade from Ryan Griffin on Vimeo.

Here's a few photos of some of the better fish I've bumped into in Oregon and Washington. A nice native Steelhead Buck on the swing, as well as a 20+ pound King Salmon on the fly. I also want to give a shout out to my buddy Ryan "Ike" Griffin. Check out this fantastic video here that he produced this year. It just won first place in the Charleston Angler Go Pro Film Fest last week. Nice job Ryan, I love it! I've not had the chance to chase Redfish yet, and now I can't wait.

Also enjoy a great photo I just came across recently from legendary Jackson guide Boots Allen. He's hoisting a beautiful Snake River Cutty released into cool Fall waters in the canyon.