- Water – Low & Clear
- Weather – The rain finally showed up for a few days and it was awesome, back to low and clear, storm coming.
- Fishing – Super fun, consistent when there aren’t plug boats in front of you. Especially 3 plug boats…
- Fish – Ain’t no head like steelhead, 28” fish was the biggest, plenty of 20-24” fish, the half pounder numbers are slowing down
- Boat – NRS Otter Dodger, AKA Lil’ Horchata
- Clients – AWESOME!
- Gear – 7wt Redington Vice 10’ – Redington Ace in Tobacco color with Rio Elite Indicator line. (NOT XTREME indicator, that stuff sucks compared to the Elite, the head is too short for proper mending and roll casting), the other Vice has the Redington Grande Reel. For the starvation stick, Redington 11 ft 5wt Switch Rod with 350 grain Rio Skagit Max and 10ft Poly leaders
It’s nice to be back after taking a week off due to my neck causing me pain. As I said in the last report, it’s time I take better care of myself if I expect to do this any longer. Also, I have to say thank you to all the people who reached out to check on me and to express how much they want me on the water. It means the world to me.
I got 9 trips during this last run. The fishing has changed a lot in just two weeks. The salmon are finishing up their spawning and the steelhead are now spread out a bit more in the system. The bead bite is still going a little bit but I have been focusing more on bugs. Which bugs? Subscribe to my Patreon to find out.
I have started to get the fish in pools and riffles where the last time I was out, it was most productive in the riffles and near salmon. My approach has been to stay away from boats and to try to get the flies as far in front of the boat as I can and be as quiet as I can. The fish are podded up so if you get one, there is going to be more fish in that location so fish it hard after you land the fish of a lifetime.
We had some rain and it jumped the river up a bit with Canyon Creek blowing out down river. I had some calls about water clarity already which I don’t share too often as I get WAY too many inquiries about water clarity during the season. The best thing to do is to subscribe to my Patreon and I will put water clarity reports there. That being said, the fish came ALIVE after the rain and it never blew. It got this small brown stain to it like tea but nothing too bad. These fish love rain and it was bonkers fishing. Double digit days were had and wow, Brad scored again this year. Last year, he had an epic day lined up with rain and this year he had two insane days lining with rain. Of course, that’s mostly luck as you can’t predict when storms come through in fall when you’re booking months in advance. So good for him! Lucky mother fu….haha. Thanks for the epic day Brad.
Brad’s big ole fish at the final countdown.
The neck is feeling good but it’s an up and down each day. Just grinding and trying my best to stay off pain killers so I can work on fixing the pain instead of masking it. All in all, it’s been an amazing Fall season and one of my best so far. So many fish, great clients, and beautiful weather. This is now my favorite time of the year. It used to be winter and I love winter up here but there is something about those colors.
Right now, I am booked out for the rest of the Fall season. I do have some dates available in December, January, and February. You can see my Calendar here. https://tacoflyco.com/calendar/. Please book mark that if you want to keep an eye on when I have things open.
