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!