Winter steelhead season has come to a close. Yes, there are still some places open to fish but its been a long season and its time for a break. Always a little bummed out when the winter season is done, but it also means some well deserved down time.
This winter was a weird, but a great one! We got blown out almost the entire month of December, to only getting a few inches of rain from January 1st through the end of March. This made for some interesting conditions we only see in California once every 10 years or so. Conditions were either perfect or we were fighting low, clear water. I can only think of a handful of days were we got blown out due to rain.
As is any winter season, we had our ups and downs and so it is when your swinging flies. Some days you get ‘em and some days you don’t. Sometimes everyone needs a little reminder, that some days finding a fish that will grab is like searching for a unicorn. But when you do find that unicorn, it can be a good one! Any fish on the coast has the opportunity to be a 20 lber. While we hooked a few pigs this season, Marc Gignac landed a couple of mid teens bucks while visiting the coast and was rewarded with this pig that taped just shy of 37″.
This season saw a variety of cool fish from half pounders to sea run cutties, March Bluebacks, to your standard 6-12 lb adults. Finding these fish close to the salt means chrome, clear finned, hard fighting fish. And we were still seeing clear finned beauties such as this one on the last days of the season….
And then when the fishing is not red hot, there is plenty of beauty to be seen on California’s North Coast. There is nothing better than swinging a fly amongst the giants. Redwoods, hundreds and even thousand year old trees up to 300′ tall and with trunks that measure 26′ girths line the rivers causing many to lose focus…
When you are lost in thought and least expect it, it happens. A jolt of lightening, screaming reel, and this silver things jumping at the end of the line. Oh yeah, that just happened and its time to wake up. Well, only some awake and some still think they’re dreaming…
It was a great winter steelhead season and I want to thank all those that fished with me this past 2012/2013 season. There were many fond memories and we are already looking forward to this next fall and winter. To check out more photos from this winter, visit our facebook page.
JH
