Book with Confluence Guide Service

Want to fish with a steelhead guide that's not about the numbers, but about the experience?

Then Mark Shamburg and Confluence Guide Service is your guy.

For years Mark has produced some of the finest bench made classic click pawl reels and bamboo spey rods available, and now he's going full force into guiding the waters around the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State.

Booking with Mark will give you the chance to swing flies well to the best that wild steelhead have to offer.   He's a teacher at heart, a technician at the art of steelhead and you'll absolutely love your day spent in his boat as you float down world class steelhead water

The wild steelhead of the Olympic Peninsula are our last best stocks in the lower 48, but at the same time are in peril from a death of a thousand cuts.   Mark will show you how to really enjoy your day while giving you a picture of the issues in fish conservation we're fighting for.

 If you want to catch 10 fish in a day, this isn't the trip for you.

My guess is through your experience with Mark, you'll be jumping at the chance to help in the world of anadromous fish conservation.

There isnt a feeling in the world when a fish coming in on the tide the day before tears off downriver with your fly in it's mouth.   So if you're looking for a guide to show you the way, contact Mark today.  There are but few dates still available for the 2018 winter season, get on it!

I'll dangle this little offer out there as well.  First person to book with Mark for this season after reading this will get a 6 pack of my steelhead bugs to go with your trip.

Maybe something like this will have a big ol buck chase it down for you.

In any event, give Mark a shot.

Get all your information today at Confluence Guide Service. web site.

From The Pheasant Fields...

Aside of being knee deep in a steelhead river, pheasant hunting occupies a great deal of my mind.  It was my first real love in the outdoors.  The routine of the day, the ways the dogs worked, the feeling of elation when a shot connected and disgust of a miss.  Good bird years balanced with bad bird years.  Easy opening days and grinding out 1 bird days at the end of a season

I loved it all.

Here are some of my favorite shots from this year's season.  Another 3 weeks to go and a few more miles to hike before the closing bell.

Thanks for coming along for the ride....

Skylines Podcast from Bryan Huskey...

Some of my best memories in hunting and fishing revolve around stories.

The shots missed, the bucks taken, the fish lost and landed and everything that wrapped around them.  Part of the mythology and draw to these sports can be found around a campfire listening to the recounting of special events when wandering around the wild lands of the west.

Better than any book, these stories are told over and over again passing along the oral history and traditions that make up one hell of a life.

With that, Bryan Huskey of Fishbite Media and originator of the KEEPEMWET campaign has launched a new podcast that's going to make you feel like you were right there in the thick of it, putting a stock on a mule deer or shaken with frustration in trailing a wounded elk

The 2017 Rut Report is flat out amazing and details the lows and eventual highs of this year's archery elk season and I really loved "A Win For Dad" as it feels so similar to my experiences hunting with my father.

I highly suggest you check out the Skylines Podcast series and become part of the stories that Bryan so artfully tells

Enjoy!

Happy Dog...

A steelhead river.

A dog and stick, throw after throw

Tired dog, no fish.

(damn poetic, if I do say so myself)

Bend Fly Shop...

You know when you walk in the door of a killer fly shop, you can feel it?

These guys get it....

That's exactly what I felt when I stopped into the brand new fly shop in Bend, OR....The Bend Fly Shop, run by veteran guide Chris Odonnell

Opening just weeks ago, Chris and his wife have created a space that oozes class and has a second level upstairs that I am very, very excited about.
























From years and years as a full time guide and owner of River Runner Outfitters, Chris has created a Shangri-La of steelhead fly tying materials and components that makes a fly tying junkie like myself a very, very happy man.

The day I stopped in they were just getting settled with the boxes and boxes killer materials, the best of the best  from each manufacturer that will allow the feather jockeys out there to create some great bugs.

If you find yourself in Bend, go check them out and in the meantime, watch their web site to see the shop grow and if you're looking for a guide on the Deschutes in the summer and fall or the North Oregon Coast in the winter, drop Chris a line HERE

Never Trust The Dude In The Vest...

The running joke in my fishing crew is that I never trust a guy in a fishing vest.

Again, it's a joke....

But Secretary of Interior Ryan Zinke is doing his best to reinforce the joke as truth. 

For the first time in 106 years, our government is reducing a federal national monument.....thanks to Trump and his public lands henchman, Ryan Zinke

At one time, I sat across the table from him and listened to him extoll the virtues of public lands and I believed him.

Today, I am disgusted by the reduction of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase Escalante.

Shame on you Utah

Shame on you Zinke

Take a read to this insightful article from Outside Magazine, and here's a great section that really tells the truth on the fraud that Zinke is....

3 lawsuits filed already today to block this action.  Saddle up.