Category Archives: Steelhead
Just When You Think Your Dialed In
IT'S A NINETEEN HOUR DRIVE AND A THIRTY MINUTE WALK TO THE SPOT WHERE THE SYCAMORE TREE IS DOWN ACROSS THE RIVER, MAKING THAT SWEET SEAM. Flies are tied in the truck on the drive up. The color and size that worked last year but with...
How hard is your guide working for you?
A GOOD GUIDE WILL DO JUST ABOUT ANYTHING TO PUT THEIR CLIENT ON FISH, BUT DAMN! Jeff Hickman ran into a little problem while guiding Nate DeVol on the Deschutes River in Oregon. Jeff put Nate on a sweet run where he'd been finding steelhead. A...
You May Be Killing Steelhead And Not Even Know It
STEELHEADERS ARE GENERALLY PRETTY SERIOUS ABOUT CATCH-AND-RELEASE, BUT IT'S LIKELY THAT MANY ARE MORTALLY WOUNDING FISH WITHOUT EVER KNOWING IT. There are few species of fish as vulnerable as wild steelhead. These fish are beset on all sides by threats both natural and man-made. With their...
Burning Chrome
By Louis Cahill The sun never rises. Not today, at least not here on the Deschutes River. The light is an eerie yellow-orange. The air is hot and dry, and the wind is howling. It’s unsettling. You’d expect it to feel like fog or overcast but it...
Nets, Go Big or Go Home
I received an email from a reader the other day asking advice on steelhead nets. I thought it was a topic worth some discussion. We put a lot of thought into rods, reels, lines and flies but often the piece of equipment that seals the...