Wrapping Hairwings...

Lets temper ourselves with the realization that steelhead eat gobs of eggs, diver plugs, beads and oh yes....pink bass worms.

But on the converse, they also eat some of the most beautiful hand tied creations that can pass as works of art.

Traditional steelhead hairwings are so damn cool, and so damn effective.

My work on the vice is far from that, but the journey of getting better gives me something to shoot for.    Like the junior high kid who plays pickup basketball with the high schoolers, I have been fortunate to become friends with some of the best bug wrappers who challenge me to up my game

I cant thank them enough.

You can only go so far on your own.    That's why I love this sport so much, the best are so willing to help.

Wire For Steel...

Some metal for metal?  You bet.

Bugs like these are soon to be available at Emerald Water Anglers in Seattle.

Get some.

#PhatSeries Bugs

I have to tell what, when I first saw these steelhead bugs I said....meh, no way.

Drop shot hooks on a dryline?  Yeah right.

Then I started fishing them...

They crush.    That is all.

I cannot take credit for these bugs in any way, as I first saw these off the vice of the legendary Leland Miyawaki of Orvis in Bellevue

Give them a shot.  The strikes are nothing short of savage.

Perfection...

A mid day dryline eater in the middle of a 70 degree October day with all the fins that god gave her.

Perfection.

Swinging For Beaver...

I'm going to get some interesting google search hits from this....

The take was just like a hot early season fish.  It ripped the loop from my hand and after two days without nary a bump or a pluck, the reel screaming felt great.

Dogged runs and surges made me believe I had a monster buck on.  I had dreams of a thick bodied B-Run steelhead on the end of my dryline, but....

The head of the beast popped up near where I thought the fish was and my first thought was, huh...I spooked a beaver.

Then it occurred to me......I HOOKED A BEAVER.

On a traditional size 8

On a full dryline

Prior to the hookup, I had no idea the toothy critter was in the area.   The line swung through this runs bucket and the fight was on.

Not having a lot of experience in a beaver landing situation, I ended the interaction by popping the fly

All I could do was laugh.  I caught a freaking beaver.

Oh Crap, I Caught One...

Maybe it would have been better to not catch one so darn early this year.  Setting the expectation of catching a white unicorn from here on out is going to be rough.

The Clearwater has done this to me before.  I went 5 days between action the last time I caught a fish so early.

Bye bye trout gear, see you in the spring.  I've had a great time with the tiny bugs but it's time to dive into that time of year.   Dryline time on the big river is as special as it gets.

While not the biggest steelhead ever, she was as perfect of a wild specimen as I've seen and gave a pretty nice battle for a fish it's size.

As she swam away, the guys I was fishing with looked at me and in unison, asked how that felt?

"Awesome"

It's the best way to describe the first steelhead of the 2013 season

Photo credit to the guy who puts out this awesome online mag for swanging flies.