Found hiding in a side channel

Some people think that warm low winter water and fresh fish make for good swinging, those people are right.

Snider buck, going home

Jim Kerr
Raincoast guides

Well,  Its been fine.  I have fished with lots of fun people this week.  We hooked a bunch of nice bright steelhead.  Some big, some medium all chrome bright.  We found fish up and down the Sol Duc AND Hoh.  If I had made it to the Bogachiel I am sure it would have fished fine.  The weekends have been crowded, but the week days have been quite and lazy.

Check out how thick the wrist of this fishes tail is, total chunker.

I have days open here and there through out the rest of February that I would love to fill.  Give me a call if you want to give it a try.

Camo Synder buck

Jim Kerr
Rain Coast Guides

I took a few days off this week to hang with Lauren at our southern estate in Astoria for my birthday.  As a present I took myself creek fishing, at a brand new creek (new to me anyway).

I was invited; very generously I might add, by my friend Adam McNamara (Cast away guide service) to fish a awesome and forgotten river where he has been swinging 3 or more fish a day.  I declined, I needed some family time.

So, this morning, when Lauren left for work, I headed out for a little creek about ten minutes from the apartment.

As I said, I have never fished it before, although I have driven over it a hundred times.  You know the creek, on the way to work, looks interesting, maybe a little brushy and slippery, but wouldn’t it be cool, if you really had time to learn it.

Well I don’t have the time so I planned a one-morning stand, hit it and quit it type of deal.

It’s been a long time since I have fished somewhere new.  It was great.  When I got there it was just like I remembered, some ones wife or girlfriend or daughter was sitting annoyed and impatient in the parking lot.  Two guys on the river turned and looked at me like a leper when I walked up.  The banks of the creek were boot beaten down and there was a generous amount of beer cans and fast food wrappers strewn about the parking lot, stuck in the bushes, lying in the river.  It really felt like home.

In about ten minutes me and the glowering locals where old pals, they gave me directions to a few of the better pools, told me what was private land, what was public, and where I should sneak.

I fished down river and enjoyed the awesome weather, the company of other anglers I met, and the fact that although I wasn’t seeing any fish I wasn’t loosing many flies and I hadn’t fallen in the river.

As I fished my way back to the car I finally saw a guy hook and land a fish.

It was a great fish, a really nice long jawed buck about nine pounds with a snow white belly and just turning pink on the sides.  It was a miraculously thick hatchery fish, and it made me feel a little more optimistic to see it.

The hole at the parking lot still had a couple guys flogging it when I returned, now that the sun was on it I could see it a little better. There was plenty of room, and every one was friendly so I decided to give it another try.

About two cast later I thought I hooked a fish, I wasn’t sure at first, he was slack lining me pretty bad, sliding toward me just a tiny bit faster than I could strip line, but I knew it was something.  After I got tightened down and he started running I began to wonder.  This is Oregon, and a tiny little hatchery creek; the fish can’t be that big.  But he kept holding down and running fast and long all around the hole at will.

When he finally rolled over I thought I might be about to catch a 20-pound steelhead on my birthday.

After I got him to the beach though I saw that although he had the length, he wasn’t far enough around.  A nice healthy solid teener wild fish.

I had time to get one more before I headed for my massage appointment.

Happy birthday to me.

Fishing in Forks is damn fine right now, I will be headed back Friday and I do have open days next week.  Give me a call

Jim Kerr

Raincoast guides

Wayne grabs one back

Jim Kerr
Rain Coast guides

Green water and no pressure for the last 10 days or so should make for some hungry chromers

Steelhead workshop this Saturday

2 spots open

Yep, the last winter steelhead workshop of the season has two spots left open.

Here is the skinny.

This workshop is designed to get walk in fly anglers comfortable with a variety of spots and techniques that will put you in fish around the west end of the Olympic peninsula.

Here is the way it works.  We meet at the crack of 8:00 am at my house in Forks and sit down to breakfast and coffee and look over maps of good walk in water on some creeks and big rivers.  Then we grab a bunch of gear and head out to fish a spot or two, discuss and demonstrate some different techniques and generally try to get everyone on the right track.  Then we eat some lunch and do it some more.

After fishing we meet back at my house for a dinner and a chance for everyone to ask any questions about gear, techniques, fly’s, or spots that they didn’t think of before.

The workshop will be full at four guests.

Cost $125.00 per guest

Remember, the goal is to learn new spots and how to fish them, NOT TO LAND A STEELHEAD.  We might hook a fish, but if landing a steelhead is your goal you would be much better off booking a trip.

Thanks,

Jim Kerr

Raincoastguides

Scott with a snider creek hen steelhead

I Have open days in January, February, and April.  March is pretty solid but I may have a tiny bit of wiggle room.
There seem to be quite a few big early Native steelhead around.  Lets hope the trend continues.

Steve with a large native steelhead, much bigger than any of scott's

In an effort to write just a little bit about presentation I have deleted almost more words than I have written.

Fly-fishing, for most of us is made up of, books,conversations, rods, new wading jackets, long car rides and pictures of places we can’t afford to go.

We want tighter loops, higher floating lines and wading shoes that will keep our hats dry.

Not to mention, sun dappled streams, dusty roads, cold beer and the smell of Bar-b-que at the end of the day.

Oh, and fish.

Presentation is about what the fish want.

I am going to try to write a few entries about the things that happen at the far end of the leader.

 Because we are fast slipping into the coldest months of the year I will start with the tangled and often mis-understood topic of nymphing,particularly nymph fishing as it applies to steelhead.

Seeing Beyond the Indicator

        Indicate  Sign, suggestion, symptom, a signal, hint, warning, clue, pointing to something,something exists or is true

When discussing steelhead nymphing the first thing most people visualize is a bobber. 

A lot of people stop looking right there.

When I was a kid what most people I knew meant by nymphing was a nymph, or any sub surface fly, fished on a dead drift.

Because we added no weight or strike indicator you had to fish a very short line to get a good drift.  Fishing close also helped you detect bites because often all you had to go on was the most subtle pause in the leader.

That definition has remained true to me until this day, any sub-surface dead drift presentation is “nymphing”.

 In my rig the indicators primary purpose is to not to signal a bite.

The indicator may or may not show a bite, what it will do is let you know where your fly is; is it ahead, behind, to the right or left of the indicator?  It will tell you if your line is dragging your fly or if your fly is pulling your line. This information hints at what the currents are doing beneath the surface, its like a X-ray of the river, but you have to learn to read it.

Even for die hard spey casters, a little nymphing, from time to time, can help blow off steam

Like wise the primary purpose of the weight is not to make the fly sink. Yep weight makes stuff sink faster, but more importantly it creates a place on the leader to anchor the mend.

A lot of people assume nymphing is about fishing deep, on the Peninsula, even in the coldest water this is rarely the case.  The purpose of the nymph rig, no matter how it’s designed is to fish the fly with a controlled dead drift.  Adding a ton of weight makes controlling the rig harder, and destroys the indicators (if your using one) ability to tell you all its secrets.

Winter fish hold in all kinds of water, my goal in putting together a winter rig is versatility. I want one set up that will allow me to fish any water, fast of slow, between1 and 5 feet deep.

 It boils down to presentation, presentation,presentation.  Indicator, weight,or no, are you really getting a true dead drift?  I nymph a little southwest summer steelhead stream quite a bit and it has demonstrated more to me about dead drift presentations than anywhere else I know.

The fish come in chrome bright, are easy to spot, and not at all shy. They will let you walk right up and cast at them, but they are dead set on having the fly just the way they want.  On a daily basis we will anchor next to a fish and begin casting, often the fly will pass within a foot of the fish more than a dozen times with no reaction what so ever.

And then, the perfect cast, and you can call it, he’s gonna‘ eat THAT ONE!

The lesson to be learned is all the preceding casts looked pretty good, but often only perfect will do.

Spey casters walk by it, drift boats row over it, what is it?  The best nymph water on the Peninsula.

Obviously “perfect” presentations come from practice and experience, but there is another element that I think is every bit as important.  Take your time and think the whole presentation through before you make the cast.  Remember, goal one is to get the right drift, not to land the fish, that’s a bunch of steps ahead.

Preparing to make a good cast and thinking through your drift becomes automatic over time, but its one of those great basic lessons that’s always worth re-visiting.

 Perfect, whether nymphing or swinging hinges on picking a place in the river you want your fly and mentally designing a cast and mend to fit that exact spot.  The plan for the presentation needs to be completed before the cast is made. 

Nymphing for steelhead is not about a specific rig or fly,it’s about a style of presentation. Presentation is about awareness and control.

Remember, don’t let the leader, the line or the strike indicator move the fly.  Only the river moves the fly.  You control the line,indicator, leader, and weight so that they move with the river, allow the river to move the fly.

One of the great things about steelheading is that sooner or later all presentations meld into one. A cast that starts with a dead drift becomes a swing and ends up being stripped.  Each aspect will produce fish over time if you think it through.

Jim Kerr

Raincoast guides

Marty, gettin' grabbed on the spey rod, and stoked on the second fish of the morning

Marty with a chrome native steelhead