Guide Gossip #11: The Most Difficult Thing About Steelhead Fishing
I believe people who chose to fish for steelhead with a swung fly choose more than just the species itself. It is about the connection with the river, with the community of stewards and friends, the moments of laughter and pause, the difficult chase at hand, the long days of slow fishing, and the new zest that the river life brings to you.
Guide Gossip #10: Dealing with Pressure
How can you better your odds, when the odds are against you? I always think creatively and have a positive attitude, and that seems to help with most anything. However, these helpful tips below from guides might find you thinking outside of the box.
Guilty Pleasure: Robert Meiser builds ’em stiff in the tip with junk in the trunk.
I call his rods the John Wesley Hardins of the West… the true grit cowboy that prevailed
Guide Gossip #9: Setting the Hook
hearing your reel scream and telling yourself, “Be patient…be patient”? I have heard it as “the 10 second rule” or “wait for 3 seconds” or “wait for 1-2 feet of line pulling off your reel.”
Guide Gossip #7: What to do when you flub your cast?
What do you do when you flub your cast? Fix it with a mend, strip in and re-cast, or do nothing?
Guide Gossip #6: Player Fish
If you have a ‘player’ fish what are your first steps to your approach to get it to come back?
Guide Gossip #5: Superstitions
I asked fourteen EXCEPTIONAL spey guides from the most infamous West Coast steelhead rivers the same questions. Every guide was given the task of answering sixteen questions, some with a specific river in mind and others just as a general guide of steelhead tactics.
Guide Gossip Question 4:
I have always been a two-knot kind of gal – a turle and a clinch. That is until I tried a non-slip mono, or an Orvis knot, or a riffle hitch … The list goes on. I gauge the knot based on the style of hook and go with the strongest knot I know. With that said, all of these expert answers below gets me thinking …
Guide Gossip: Does the Fly Matter?
It’s the question we think every time we open our fly box; the question we think of when you have been fishing all day with nothing to speak of; the question we think when your buddy hooks a fish behind you; the question we all lucidly dream about: Does the fly matter?
Guide Gossip: What Fly?
“A skater, unless the zombie apocalypse is happening and I need to eat, then a dirty black leech with an orange cone head.” -Dax Messett
Guide Gossip: To Fish A Loop?
I asked fourteen EXCEPTIONAL guides from the most infamous West Coast steelhead rivers the same questions. Every guide was given the task of answering sixteen questions, some with a specific river in mind and others just as a general guide of steelhead tactics.
The Forbidden Fruit
Superstitions and fishing go hand and fin. Some anglers have a lucky fishing hat that has been worn for years; others never wash their lucky fishing socks afraid to fade the mojo clean off. A long-time guide on the Rogue once told me that he would grease up his gunnels on the ol’ woody for good luck – so the fish could just slide right in.