Find Your Spirit Animal...

Walmart T-Shirts have unlimited river ju-ju.  Put the Gucci down and drop five bucks on some high quality threads.

The next time you're on a trip and you haven't aligned your moons and dreamcatchers, check out the collections of wolf, tiger, kitty, and teenage mutant ninja turtle shirts at your local supercenter.  It might bring you a few more fish to hand

Get The Cork Out of Your Mouth...A PSA

Check this out.  This is a fish, in a picture.....

This is a fly rod.  At least a part of it

Oooh ohh, check it out.  A fish and a fly rod in the same picture

Wait....what?  An angler, a fish annnnnnnnnnnnd a fly rod

Notice that theres NO pictures of a fish, an angler and his or her fly rod in his or her mouth.

Guys and gals, here's a quick public service announcement regarding fly rods and their role in and or around pictures

STOP PUTTING THE ROD IN YOUR MOUTH

At no time is that acceptable.  Looks awful.  As in dumb.  As in when in the hell did people think that's a good look.  As in, please for the love of gawd, stop.

There, I feel better now.  Rant over

Summer Swing The Fly is Live...

150 new pages of gloriously put together prose and pictures on the swung fly game is ready for your viewing.

Take a close look at the fly tying contest winners.  Wow, it's true art.

Click HERE to view the mag.  Enjoy.

"Our Two Hands" by BLOODKNOTS

Here's a great upcoming kick starter project that you should consider being a part of.   BloodKnots is throwing their weight into a subject that I hold extremely near and dear.

With regard to steelhead and salmon, don't continue to be a part of the decline.  Saddle up and be part of the recovery

Twitch. Slurp. Skop....

There was a time in my steelhead fishing career that I just didn't have the faith

This bug changed it for me

The Ska-Opper turned everything so visual.  Steelhead don't try and eat the bug, utter destruction of the interloper seems to be the only thing on their mind.

Try one....the results can be heartstopping

The Almost Double...

The Hero Shot doesn't always work out.

We were shooting through downtown Spokane on the river before most of the city was up. Fishing wasnt great, but the morning was beautiful...so who gives a shit.

Along that day was a great dude who've I've been meaning to get on the river for a long time.  Finally after I get the FB message last week saying this, I knew it was time to get my poop in a group and get him on the boat

"Fill in the blank...we haven't fished together this year because_______"

Well hell, lets go.

The bobber went down mid float and I was fast into a fish that went all types of rodeo on us.  I was dealing with the fish on the wrong side of the boat and anchor rope when "fish on" rang out from the front of the boat.   As instructed, Billy let his nymphs swing out in front and a nice little rainbow just couldn't resist.

I know Billy because I played ball with his brother in college, and we talked most of the float about getting a shot that would make his brother a jealous.  Sibling rivalry is alive and well.

So as we landed both fish, readied for the shot and our other buddy was about to press the shutter

"Oh shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit"

Flop

And one half of the hero shot was gone.

Makes for a better story doesn't it?

Very, Very Itchy....

June's a tough month for an inland steelheader...

You can only sit at the fly tying bench for so long pumping out patterns that make you say

"yeah, that will hunt"

You can only stare at the local rivers for so long at runoff stage without saying

"well shit"

You can only prep your gear so much, you can stare at the fish counting graphs....you cant make the fish run any faster or earlier

The only thing you can do is wait.

And waiting sucks.