Summer fishing I like best

I started to respond to an email the other day and it got out of hand, so I decided to post it here.

What will we fish for on our summer trip?

We have summer steelhead, spring chinook,summer coho,sockeye and sea run cutthroat trout in our rivers most of the summer.  A lot of different fish, but not a lot of each, great variety, relatively small numbers.

So what do we fish for on a daily basis?

We like to play it by ear. Many days we will sight fish, so if we see a bunch of Sockeye we will sockeye fish, if we see some summer steelhead, we do that, and so on. We often fish one handers, and adjust our approach to the water we find the fish in, sometimes swinging, sometimes stripping, sometimes nymphing.

We have a lot of different days we can put together, from a casual trout day, to a hard core dry fly steelhead day, and an amazing amount of other stuff besides.

The fishing I like to do best is not easy, it takes a combination of skills and some persistence, creativity and in the end a bit of a sense of humor.  Its sight fishing for big chrome salmon and steelhead.  Every spot is different, each requiring a bit of re rigging, thinking and experimentation.

This spring king gobbled up Oliver’s streamer.
Fish like this will bite flies here all summer, but perfect presentation is essential.

You will make casts that spook fish, you will miss bites, you will lose fish, trying again and again, getting lots of chances to put it together perfectly.  It is about making difficult fish bite, and it often seems impossible, until it works, and then it seems, well, perfect.

One of the things that still amazes me is how a fish that seems to be impossible to move to a fly will all of a sudden go bonkers to chase it across the river if everything is lined up just perfectly.  As anglers get a better feel as to the presentation that works

Whatever type of trip you would like to plan, drop us a line and we will put it together for you.  We have some open dates.

Early starts, good planning, and attention to detail me fish like this possible

If you want to take a king home, we are still catching plenty on gear. Ryan has been really doing a number on them.

Tim with a nice hatchery spring chinook

Jim Kerr Guides

Forks Wa