York River - Quebec

York River -Zone 4
Day 1Rusty and I fished Zone 4 of the York River today. This was abeatiful stretch of river with about 70-80 Salmon in the pool we fished today, but they were what the guides called "dour". We put wet and dry flies over these fish in sizes 10-2/0, every imaginable color, and you've got it, we were skunked.


We saw a few giant (50lbs+) fish in the run and the are truly impressive to see.

It can become frustrating to fish a pool full of salmon and not even to get an interested look at the fly, I bet i is exciting when a fish pulls away from the pod to grab the fly, but in that regard I can only surmise, as it never happened on this day.


York River - Zone 9
Day 3
Rusty and I fished Keg Pool on the York River today. Quebec Sporting also booked one of their guides and a Client on this water with us. There is not even enough room on this run for 2 people to fish it at the same time so the third angler was not welcome, and it was not what I was expecting. and I was less agreeable about than I should have been.
This short run was certainly full of fish and on his second pass through the run the other angler hooked and landed a small salmon. He kept the fish and called it a day, which was awesome, as I really wanted to spend more time in the water fishing, and less time on-shore watching.
We rested the pool and then I fished through with a #8 low water Black Bear Green Butt and just a jolting grab, I am so sick of grabs with out a hooked fish. I am ready to feel a fish. (Note: This was written the evening after fishing. I would change it, but I guess it shows how hungry I sometimes get to catch a fish)
Rusty followed me through and He hooked a solid fish. It fought hard, getting tangled in a beaver dam, but Wayne (our guide) and rusty crossed the river and tried to free the line. Wayne waded out to and on-to the dam to free the line from the offending limbs and got the line loose and luckily, the fish was still on the line. The fight went on for many more minutes in the lower part of the Keg run.



 This was the last fish of the day, but a great one. Wayne said the fish was around 25-30lbs.

The North Umpqua

I first visited the North Umpqua in 2004. I instantly realized that it was likely the most beautiful Steelhead River in the world, But I did not like fishing it. often the fishing would consist of standing on a rock and methodically lengthening my cast as the cast and step technique was not an option. Wading on the Umpqua is tougher than on any other river I have seen. As John Shewey says in his Umpqua river Journal, you may as well just jump in the river first thing in the morning and get it over with, or something to that effect. I love casting and step fishing like on the Deschutes and figured that the umpqua and I were just not a good match.

Despite this I did catch a very big fish on the Umpqua in '04. It was right at Mott's Bridge and I local had taken me there with the promise that we were about to light up the steelhead, and we truly were. He then tied a wholly-bugger on to my leader and had me cast up stream and stack mend, and led the fly fish deep. I did this and on the second drift through my line came tight and after a long battle, I had landed a Buck the was fat as hell and over 36", and I felt dirty as hell. This was not how I had imagined hooking my first Umpqua Steelhead and In short order I realized this was not the type of guy that I wanted to fish with or near when I saw him spay crayfish scent on his fly. Well he hooked a fish and I got out of there.

I got one grab on the swung fly in 04 that was it , and I wrecked my rental as I was leaving the Umpqua. So I didn't have the best flavor for the Umpqua, But over time the river grew in my mind and I knew I must go back.It was only this last week end that I did finally return to the Umpqua. My friend Charlie and I had just fished the Deschutes for 4.5 days and had landed about .5 steelhead, tough to explain quickly, but we were jonesing and sick of the desert. The Umpqua was as I remembered but also better. The River was the same, but I had changed a bit and this time I discovered more about the river and I liked it.

I found that standing on a rock and working your way out to you biggest cast can be really fun, and some runs can be rolled with the standard cast and step as well. Big flies are effective and I like that. and there are lots of wild steelhead in the river, even though catching one is a miracle.

For Charlie and I a Steelhead was not in the cards. I got a really solid grab and I caught a 17" sea run cutthroat on a skater. Charlie got our Deschutes Steelhead so I didn't feel too bad for him. If you are going to get skunked, this is the river to do it on.

The Miramichi River, New Brunswick

I drove down to the Miramichi from Matane, at the base of the Gaspe Peninsula in Quebec, on a Wednesday night. My GPS, set to take the most direct route, chose that I should travel southeast on old Highway 108, A remote two lane road that travel straight through the Canadian Bush, the Forest primaevil. I was very excited about this route, thinking that this was finally my chance to see a moose again, all the signs were there, Literally.
Well I saw a moose and, I hope I never see one so close again. I had to slam on my breaks to keep from being killed by the furry, forest giant. I thought that a moose was about the size of a large horse, but that is far from reality, that first moose was so large that I am sure that with careful practice and cooperation on both of our parts I could have driven that rented Toyota Corolla right through his legs, and have tickled his sensitive belly on the way through, using the sun roof.

More likely scenarios have the moose crawling off the road with broken legs and damaged ribs, looking for a place to die and I would just float there watching the seen from the spirit world. Any way, it turned out to be a long stressful, terrifying ride in which I saw about a half dozen Moose, none as big or as close as the first.

So, I made it to Miramichi and met with a customer who has a plant right by the river, Good stuff, good stuff. And then I was off to Blackville, for my license and groceries, and then to the lodge were I would stay in a separate cabin and do my own cooking. It was truly and amazing cabin.

The first night I had trouble getting to sleep as I kept thinking about Moose and Bears, and how I was afraid of the on that night. Yeah, I used to sleep in an army tent when I was guiding the Talachulitna, saw bears from it a lot and I slept just fine at nite, but now I am a citified chicken.

The first morning of fishing started at 8 am, and we took the boat up to where the Barthalomew
River dumps into the Main Southwest Miramichi, here we cast from the boat using truly giant (5/0) salmon flies. I was using my 13’3” 7wt two hander, and I am not used to fishing with a two hander from a boat. We fished from spot to spot, doing the same thing until just before lunch we let out a lot of line and trolled around the river a bit.

After lunch my guide, took me to a run just down from the camp called Mountain Channel, and we trolled it. Then it was down to White Rapids, Which had beautiful shores for wading on each bank and awesome step and cast water for a good two hours on each back. We fished from the boat! But, we got a salmon. Then I asked that I be dropped on shore. My guide conceded and took me over to the inside bend.

I started at about the middle of the run, working a major current seam, and I mean rough water with standing waves meets smooth soft inside flow. It took about twenty minutes to get a grab once I was calf deep and fishing how I was comfortable. That first grab was a good sized hen, around 34". This fished jumped at least six times made strong, fast runs, I think more than that and it's body was rock hard, this fish was definitely a Kelt, but "black" really does not decribe this fish.

From that point on the trip totaly turned around. My guide, Jeremy, saw that I was happier wading he was all for it and we started looking for runs that would fish from shore at high water levels, and we found them. I really thought that lots of people would be fishing kelts with two handed rods already but aparently it is really an almost boat and one handed afair, but really I think that the early season is great for our style of angling, since the whole river is open for anyone to fish, while it is mostly private pools once June comes, and the fresh salmon fishing begins.

Anyway, I landed a grilse just after the first salmon on the same run. That was it for the first day.The next morning started out great. I hooked a salmon at the very top of White Rapids, but it came off right away. Then I landed a big Sea Trout (Sea Run Brook Trout) and Grilse, both on the hang down. Then at the very low end of the run I got a solid grab mid swing and then saw my backing head through the guides, on out for a solid hundred yards, followed by several
minutes reeling it all back in with a large salmon in tow. The fish rolled several time and made several other short runs, but never jumped. I got the fish in, and removed the hook which was in the fishes tounge. This fish was the biggest of the trip at, 36".

I landed another salmon on the outside bend, below White Rapids. It grabbed on my first stip as I finished the hang down. another Hen of around 34". This was it for the trip for me. My guide, Jeremy, landed two grilse from the boat one at White Rapids and one at Mountain Channel.

The Miramichi reminds me very much of the upper stretches of that great river in Wisconsin where Angler X guides smallmouth. Now it looks like the Menominee in may when the water is high and form the pictures I've seen, It even resembles the menominee in low water, which is most of the season on the Miramichi.I think I would like to try the Miramichi in summer for the bright salmon, but it sounds like it will not be remotely similiar to the spring. low water and tiny flies are apparently the rule.

New Brunswick Flag

Bristol Bay, Alaska

The Naknek River:

Flowing west from Naknek lake for 35 miles before dumping into the Kvichak Bay Branch of Bristol Bay. The river is known for having the largest run of Kings in Bristol Bay and this is probably due to the rivers emmense size. There is also a great population of large Rainbows.

I headed for the Naknek in July of 2003. My Wife and I made a visit to Rapids Camp Lodge for the second leg of our honeymoon. We landed in King Salmon which is several miles down stream of the lodge and then took a long van ride down the dirt road (King Salmon has no paved roads) to the lodge.

We took several day trips to other rivers and streams, taking one of the lodges float planes to rivers such as the Lower Morraine, and several others, but nearly every evening included fishing the Naknek with two-handed rods. Most of this was for Kings on a run across the river from the camp, usually fishing until midnight. While I really didn't land any big kings, I did hook a few big guys and I brought a few smaller fish, up to about 13lbs, to hand.

Even the Smaller Kings fought incredibly hard, incredibly similar to bright steelhead. They would go on screaming runs and jumped with abondone.

We also fished two handeders for the rainbows of the Naknek. One evening, I fished with Clayton, one of the guides, in the rapids that the camp is named for. We landed lots of rainbows in the low 20" range as they chased down bait fish. Mostly the evening fishing on the Naknek was for King Salmon, that despite being late in the run for most rivers, were vry bright and aggressive. There was a run just across from the lodge. This was a nice long run.

I also Fished one morning with Scott O'donnoll the Head guide, we fished runs up river from the camp and Got some really great fish including one truly big bow that he landed.

Scott O'donnell lands a solid July Rainbow

The Naknek has a considerable bear population, as does the whole area of Bristol Bay.

The Lower Moraine River:

This is a small river that flows into Lake Illiamna. We flew into to the river from Rapids Camp Lodge and then floated several miles of river in inflatable rafts called Water Masters, I have since bought three of these wonderful little boats.

We fished big rainbows on swung flies. The largest fish that I got was about 26" and the fight was great.

Chris Anderson and Scott O'donnoll guided my wife and I down the river and fished with us.

We saw lots of bears.

Headwaters

The Coast

In four days of fishing Rusty and I covered a lot of ground, going from the Sandy to the Coast.
Rusty and I started our trip fishing the Sandy River. We rolled tent camp and Fished the runs around the Ox, but we just weren't feeling it, even though all the talk was that the river was fishing. So we called up Kaufman's to see where the run was hot. Dude there turned us towards the Oregon Coast and a no name river there, said he had just had some great fishing there and, since we were up for adventure, we headed to the coast.
On the first afternoon on the coastal river, we stumbled around looking for good water, and we eventually found it, and on our second run I got a tug. On our third run I hooked steel and it broke free. Then it was dark so we headed for the City and got a motel in town. Great town with one of the coolest rock island right off the coast, called the haystack.
Our second day on the river went real cool. We drove from Pacific City to the run I hooked up on the evening before on some increasingly snow covered roads and ours were the only tracks. Rusty led the way and half way through the run he hooked and landed a solid wild hen.
We then fished a few other runs, aand next we headed over to the rivers around Tillamook. Both those rivers had so many private property signs and it seemed impossible to get on decent water with out a raft, so we hit a run on each and head back to the our previous coastal river.

We hit some real small spots, 10-20 cast runs. I got a reel zipping grab on one but no fish. Rusty and I headed back to the run where he got his fish that morning, I led this time. I worked through the run and when I got to the spot where rusty hooked up I got a grab and again no fish. Rusty followed me through and picked up the fish 20+" wild buck. I had been using Gami B10S size 6 hooks on all but the fish that broke me off, so I switched to dropshot no.2 hooks.

The fish seemed to be holding in pretty slow water, so we headed for a run below an old defunct bridge, that had a heavy head and a good sized creek dumping in on the wadable bank the other bank was an unfishable sheer cliff. I was able to pick up a decent sized hatchery fish, the hook worked out. That was it for the day and another night in Pacific City.

The next day we hit the river early. No fish on Rusty's hot run, which we called "Red Hook". I did get to watch a large, 15-20#, beat up buck partol up and down the run several times. He stay close to shore in shallow water to he was easy to see with battle scars and all.
We hit another favorite run to no avail, then we hit the short runs we check out the day before and again I got a solid grab and no fish, I checked the hook and, guess what, B10S. Then we went back to the run where I got the grab on day 1. I worked the same far trench as before and fish on, drop shot awesome. then, fish off.



From here we headed up the coast to check out the the Little Nehalem River, it was a bust. So we set up camp at Nehalem Bay State park and we called it a trip.

Well, we got nine grabs in less than two full days of fishing, not bad. There are so many rivers to fish on the coast, I have only seen a few. One thing I really have learned from the ones that I have fished, is that if a person shows up with the wrong gear fishing can get really frustrating. There were runs that we fished where you would be waist deep in the river with your butt touching the bank and trees a few feet behind you, and the far slot that you know holds fish is an 80' cast away. Thank God for Airflo Compact Skagits and the new rio Skagit Shorts, I have been using a 540 grn Compact on my 13'3" Burkheimer 7wt, I might change to a Sage 6126 or 8110 as it seems that shorter rods are easier to use in such close quarters.

Thanks to Rusty for taking the pictures.