The Grande & Fuego River

 

I woke up at a leisurely pace today. I knew 100’s of my closest’s friends would be out on the rivers. I knew that when I went to the Fuego River, I would not see a soul fishing, but I also knew that all the steelhead that comes into that river are strays! 

Made myself breakfast and a thermos full of java and hit the road at 0630. It was steelhead grey out this morning. The winds where light and that’s odd for this time of year. 

Then I showed up in the parking lot and holy sheep dip there was only two cars in the lot. Now, counting mine there was three. There were two guys getting dressed and they sped up when I drove into the lot. 

I started to laugh when I got out of the car. They looked at me like I was crazy. I already had my waders on from getting dressed at the house. The river was only 65 minutes from the house. 

I told them I will not race you to the river gents so don’t hurry on my account. I poured some more coffee into my cup.  I took a stroll down to the river and passed the two that were in such a hurry to get to the river. 

I found a nice beach with some nice current breaks and decent looking section. I struck up a conversation with a fellow steelheader on the bank.  We became quite chatty, and he said he would not be fishing much longer! I thought well this is really working out today.

I strung up my switch rod and then my west coast style eggbeater rod. Its an Avid St Croix and it’s a west coast style med-heavy steelhead rod. It’s been on some amazing adventures with me. 

After taking about an hour my new friend left. 

I would use 10’ of T-8 with my 440-grain head and swung for the fences. I would alternate with my eggbeater. 

The eggbeater was strapped with an 8 gram float and staggered split shot. I used flies on it also. Except with the eggbeater, I was using it for a drag free drift. I had no lookers and no takers on the eggbeater. 

I stepped onto a perch and the rock went out for 30 feet into the river. I would cover the water from top to bottom with in 20 feet and 45 feetish. I wound cast twice at each different horizontal differences. I would step down the river after every cast 10 feet and then repeat. I did this three times to cover the bubble and current seams. 

I chucked out my longest cast of the day. When I did this, I gave a down stream mend to send my tube fly into Mach 7 across the river. When I did this, I must of pissed someone off because when the fly starting to be in the hang down and just sitting there going side to side near the shoreline. I saw a boil near the end of my line. Before I knew what was going on it was over. 

The adult steelhead took the fly but starting thrashing at the surface of the water.  When they do this and not being able to apply any type of pressure on the fish it popped out. I yelled out fair enough and I picked up the beer can “that was not mine” and headed for the car! 

I pointed the Soob to the west and headed to the Fuego River.  After a 35-minute drive I walked about 2 miles out to get to the river and found it void of people. 

I am glad this river does not get stocked with steelhead because if it did she would be over run in a heartbeat. 

I swung for two hours in all kinds of water, and I still had hope, but the stars would not align for me this day.  Battered but not broken I started the trek back to the car.

Over Christmas I plan a return visit to NY. As long as they don’t get another seven feet of snow I will be on the shore of Lake Ontario somewhere.

Be well folks and happy holidays!

Sonder

Tis Thee Season

 

We watch the weather, the water levels, and to see if we can as Steelheaders fish tomorrow. With a weather forecast like this what’s not to love.

Tonight

A chance of sprinkles before midnight, then showers likely, mainly after 4am. Cloudy, with a low around 36. Calm wind. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible.

Sunday

A chance of showers. Cloudy, with a high near 40. West wind 3 to 7 mph. Chance of precipitation is 40%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible.

I still will not be on the riverbanks until 0800 in the river valley I will be fishing along with the cloud cover there is no reason to be up with the Turkeys. I will be the guides there though.

I will be fishing in the Whittlesey Culture areas and then moving to the South Park Village area in the early afternoon.

I will be taking my Scott switch rod and armed with 10 feet of T-8 and my 440 grain head by Scientific Angler. I will also be taking my eggbeater to fish some buckets and of course flies will be used on both tools!   

I have two trips left in me this one and over Christmas. I will be taking my camera and tripod to see if I can get some nice photos while I am out.  My fish nerd friend convinced me not to hang it up yet for the rest of year so here we go folks stay tuned.

Pixie Wand Shopping

 Well even before my Montana trip would come and go, I had my trip penciled in for 2023. A reel good friend of mine invited me to fish on the upper AuSable. Now, I have been there on the main stem swinging for anadromous fish.  I swung up a few fish and landed none! I was happy with this result, but this time I go up I will be feeshing for wee trout during the day and mousing at night for bruiser browns.

Since I don’t traditionally for me fish in a small stream setting all my switch rods would be to big of a stick for her upper stretches.  I will use my TiCr 6wt with a fighting butt for mousing at night, but I soon reelized I needed a Pixie wand to fish small dries during the day.

Angry Lake Erie

I needed to purchase a lighter rod for this trip. I talked to my great friend and bestest fish nerd I know. He knows me well I introduced him to the Great Lakes fisheries, and I would later give him and introduction to work in one of the largest fly shops in the Midwest. He has flyfished and used and eggbeater all over this wet marble. I trust his input impeccably and he has loads of commonsense.

So, after many weeks of talking about this trip. He told me to not laugh but go wiggle a Fenwick Eagle fly rod. This an entry level rod at 99.00 to 125.00 dollars. I am going to purchase a reel just to hold the line. I ordered a Scientific Angler Master Series GPX WF fly line 4wt.  The action of the rod from wiggling it looks to be the medium-fast action.  I am really looking forward to getting the rod lined.  

This rod will be thee most less fished rod in my inventory and with a 5 year limited warranty does it really matter. I don’t need a more expensive rod, or reel for that matter. I will slap an inexpensive reel on it, but sure which way I will go.

I stopped at a local diner to watch a little of the KSU vs TCU game. The place I stopped at was Sparky's. I got a really nice “Fall” Coffee Stout by Maine Beer Company out of Freeport, Maine 

I got a nice bowl of Italian wedding soup and got a great looking burger also. 

The beer was so nice and with another hour plus to drive I only had one.  I got home without incident and learned TCU lost and with USC loosing if OSU makes it I would rather see them play the state up north and not GA first round!

2022 Spey Day Turkey has concluded

Today when I woke up, I was still on the emotional high from yesterday.  

I looked at the USGS site and saw she was getting fed little by little from snow melt. Where I would fish her she goes through alot of gradient change. 

I would guess 20 feet vertical in 200 feet horizontal.  I walked the 1.5 miles to the one run I wanted to swing.

The part I enjoy fishing out of this section is not a traditional run. It's a boulder strewn riffle. The water is 2 to 4 feet deep with a wicked current all the way through the water column.  

I put on a piece of T-14 that is 9'-10" long making it 137 grains. I perfection looped a 3-foot piece of Seaguar Red label 12-pound test on it. I then put a conehead Halloween nightmare on it. These are sparsely tied and have a lot of action in the fibers in the water.  

I worked the water fan casting and using the PNW step down I proceeded to cover the water column. The first series was 30 feet from shore and the second was 50 feet from shore.  

I would downstream mend a belly on purpose into my line so the fly would sprint cross current. I caught that Ho using the hang down method yesterday.  

I would not pause and just would repeat the casting stroke when my Skagit become parallel with the shoreline.  

I was about 40% through the one of the last few swings. I don’t carry a loop anymore. I set the drag to a fighting the fish tension.  

The it happened before I knew it i could see it happening. My drag was making noise and my line was going up stream. I'm like am I dreaming? I did not cast upriver like that.    

Then common-sense kicks in its a fish a fish o my goodness Charlie Brown. 

The current was heavy and moving fast. The head I was using is 440 grain and the tip is 137 grains. The total weight was 577 grains, and it was being pulled up stream. I applied enough side pressure to pull the fish out of the current.  

I would learn this fresh Manistee hen was mad at the world. Now shes got a #4 hook stuck in her craw.  

I could see from her profile she was dime bright and highly motivated.  

I circled her into a large back eddy and tailed her.  

She was approximately 27" long and loaded with eggs. She also had been eating well.   

Unfortunately, my camera and my backpack and that was about 300 feet away from me up river.   

I did not want to put this warrior princess through any more stress. 

I placed a kiss on mykiss and sent her on her way once she kicked out of my hand up stream.  

I get such a rush from releasing a fish hot and breathing on her own.  

I began to walk back to my car. We are blessed here in the Great Lakes Region to have great park systems.   

I drove to check out another Lake Erie tributary. The parking lot was full and I'm like don't these folks have families lol. 

So, at this point I was ready to call an end to the trip.  I went to subway to grab my Thanksgiving dinner and a six pack Guinness.   

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone - I am getting ready to hit the river

Turkey Day Spey 2022 - Ho Version!

In life no matter what path you take one must make choices. Sometimes those choices are good and at times not so good. The same parallel can be said of fly fishing. 

For example, we will set up on a perch (a position that you have chosen to fish from). You watch the currents whirl by as you try and read the water. 

Reading water is an art and the better one is at it the more likely you are to hook up with a fish. 

Today luck was on my side and with little pay it forward "karma"! 

I posted up on the perch I had selected. When I got to the Oak, they were preparing to flush the leaves out of the vertical turbines.  

So, I am into about my sixth cast, and someone pulls the plug on the Oak. The water dropped two feet. I thought O my goodness what's going on here. One of the other fishermen across the way " said be patient it will come back".  

So, literally in about an hour the flow came right back with a vengeance. The flow was right back to where it was before. I watched the rock bars disappear once again. Then like a light switch being flipped the fish put their feed bag on. 

The female brown trout took a swung olive woolly bugger. She did not put up much fight. All the other fish I saw landed were lethargic and not great fighters. 

I need to confess something also. I choose to sleep in did not show up on the river until 0830. The overnight low was 32 and this section of the Oak is in a valley. There was no reason IMHO to get there at the crack of dawn.

The Oak is a tailwater and the water is always cooler because of that. Also, with it being in a river valley coupled with being a tailwater, and it being eight days away from December I choose to sleep in. 

The fish I saw hooked and landed gave up the fight early. 

So, the stage is set I changed my fly to the "Punkrock Cheerleader". After a brief hook up with a steelhead I was " like well that's it".

The next cast my line slapped the under spine of my rod and I thought it was a snag. Well, the snag started to move. I exclaimed " fish on " the other anglers respected my space and paused their fishing. 

My next thing I said, " if I land this fish I am done".  

I did not know what kinds of fish it was until it rolled on the surface. 

I yelled out it's a Coho. I was shocked because like their other cousins the King Salmon they should be dead or near death. 

He was bull dogging me like a laker. I was applying so much side pressure to pull his head out of the current I thought he would break off. 

He bolted upriver and I knew with my side pressure I could circle him around to me and net him.  

Well, that sounds easier than done. He then decides to go down stream and then I was forced to decide. Do I try to keep him off balance with the same side pressure? Do I change sides and risk the fish becoming unbuttoned?

I took a short deep breath and changed sides. This was to get him off balance and circle him back to me and into the net. 

This would also be the fastest way to net him. I did not really reelize how big he was until he got to the net. 

I have a 27" reach and he was longer than that. I estimated him to weight between 12 and 14 pounds. 

I took a few photos of the warrior and he tail kicked out of my hand to fight another day. 

Tonight, I decided to eat some place new. When one is from out of town it is sometimes tough to find a good place to eat. I decided to hit up downtown Ashtabula, Ohio. Let me digress for a moment. I do not have a refined pallet, nor can I tell the different between free range and non-gluten. I am also pretty sure I would not know the difference between tap or spring water!

Lol I found unknown to me a steak restaurant. What I did not know this is wine bar that sells great food and beer “at a trendy price tag”. The service was great and the food awesome. I got roasted cauliflower with an amazing dipping sauce. Two beers and a 5-ounce filet mignon.  The total bill with tip was $63.86

I know what you’re partly paying for is the presentation, service, and the certain level of paying attention to detail. The service was prompt and polite. All the food was hot and on time. If you’re looking to treat yourself this is a great place to eat and its called Bascule Bridge Grill, but if you’re looking for a Bob Evans experience this is not it! You can find them at this link Bascule Bridge Grille . The only thing I did not like is that they had Wi-Fi, but did not know the password, or could not tell me if patrons were allowed on it!

Well on Thanksgiving I will be standing on the shores of Conneaut. If she’s to high to swing I will have to find skinnier water! 

Be well and safe folks,

Sonder