January SpeyCasting & Steelhead

January is a great month because it provides solitude pretty much everywhere.
Spey rod steelhead fishing was great this week, headed to the Skagit this coming week and then the Olympic Peninsula at the end of the month.

Ian lands a monster.

West Side drought, still hanging on the East Side

OP rivers are low with only small amounts of precip, hatchery reports are pretty bleak.

Still finding clean, aggressive fish on the east side. Last few days have been great but I havent taken many fish selfies.

Headed to the Skagit in 2 weeks for some personal fishing & then teaching a class at the Gig Harbor Fly Shop.

OP season begins Feb 1 for me this year. Looking forward to it!

Road trip to the North Umpqua. Mark Stangeland Photo
Check out his website http://www.northumpquaflyguide.com/

New favorite fly.

Fly in big wild hen's mouth.

Sunset in the Clearwater/Snake valley after an amazing day on the water.

Olympic Peninsula Winter Spey Rod Steelhead

Winter steelhead season on the Olympic Peninsula is sneaking up on us and dates are filling in. We will swing flies with spey rods on the Hoh, Bogachiel, and Sol Duc Rivers for the baddest steelhead on the planet. Please get a hold of me asap if you are interested in chasing the fish of a lifetime.
 616-540-3836 or zack@pnwspey.com

Thanks!

Colder weather, still hot fishing.

Fishing is still going strong on the Clearwater/Ronde/Snake Rivers. Fish are coming to the fly almost daily with plenty of multi-fish days. The big fish are tougher to come by on the Clearwater than in recent years past but still available. We had a nice little bump of water yesterday and things look good for the coming weeks. Bring your Spey Rods and lets go swing some flies.

Dry Fly-Big Fish on the Grande Ronde

Hooked up on the Ronde.

First steelhead, first day with a spey. Nice!

Clearwater Sunset

Perfect late fall day on the big river.

Keep em coming!

Clearwater? Grande Ronde? Snake? Let's go fishing! October is FISHtober. And great fishing will continue until December. Now also taking dates for OP winter steelhead January-April.

A beauty for my buddy Zo.

Dennis for the win on his first day with the spey rod.

Bill from NYC with his first West Coast steelhead...kind of trouty looking.

Bill fights a big one.

Pretty little jack chinook. They are plentiful this year.

Floating lines, dry flies, who is in?

Grande Ronde...come fish.

After some initial concern about fish numbers coming up the Columbia/Snake basin, things have picked up and seem to be doing fine. October is a wonderful month to fish this area. In fact, there is no where I would rather be. I like to fish day trips walk and wade or floating the are from the Oregon state line down to Boggan's Oasis, and sometimes further down. Many people like the lower river near the mouth...many many people. I like a little bit more space.


Options for the fall will be the Grande Ronde and the lower Snake River. We can likely do both if you are in to that sort of thing. I will start this in early October and fish as late into the fall as people are interested in coming. The weather gets colder but the fishing continues to be great.

The last option I would love to do is a multi-day float. This will be a no-frills operation. I will provide all the food and drink (except alcohol), you bring your sleeping bag and tent, etc. We won't have a camp cook and someone to set your tent up but I am pretty sure it will be more affordable!

Previous years photos below to wet your appetite. Please contact me soon if you are interested in joining.