After a recent, very unfruitful, and very long trip to B.C. that resulted in almost no fishing due to high water and catching the cold of all colds, I was anxious to take advantage of some of the E. Washington steelheading that we are blessed with each fall. On Saturday, Oct. 10th, I met up with Joe’s dad, Bill Ewing, on what has to be one of the most beautiful rivers in Washington — the Wenatchee.

We decided to float the river in our pontoon boats and did a nice float from Cashmere to Monitor. It was a cool morning but by the time we got some breakfast, shuttled the trucks, and organized our gear, we shoved off around 8:30 and had already shed our jackets. By mid-morning, the sun was shining bright and the temperatures were getting into the 60’s.

There were lots of crusty king salmon in the river and they would occasionally launch themselves out of the

water, their dark bodies appearing even darker silhouetted against the glaring surface of the river. We had sporadic hatches throughout the day that would occasionally inspire a trout or whitefish to rise to the surface. We also witnessed quite a few “roles” on the surface that we suspected were steelhead. Overall, we got the feeling we were fishing over fish throughout the day.

We fished some of the most gorgeous water a steelheader could ever hope for. Whenever I fish the Wenatchee, I’m always a little frustrated that EVERY piece of water that looks and fished SO GOOD doesn’t produce a fish on the end of the line. This day was certainly no exception. In fact, we fished great water, fished hard, and despite the bright sun, didn’t have many excuses for a pretty slow day.

We did, however, get one grab for the day. About mid-day, when a few clouds rolled through and the sunlight died down, I found a fish on a tailout that Bill mentioned he knew held fish. Fishing a light sink-tip and a small Exasperator, I finally felt the pull of fish that quickly escalated into five or six screaming runs. I yelled up to Bill just in time for him to look downriver and see a chunky native hen screaming across the river with her back out of the water and finally jumping like a porpoise into the mid-river depths. After a pretty ugly job of trying to land her and get my hands around the wrist of her tail, we finally got her to the beach to remove the fly and get a picture or two.

Despite fishing more good water throughout the day, we didn’t touch another fish. I’m sure the next day it was on fire… but there is a big difference between zero fish and one fish when it comes to steelheading so it was nice to get to touch one.

Good Fishing,
Michael
Pacific Fly Fishers

Sorry we haven’t had a recent blog report posted in a while but we’ve been very busy. After many months of work, we have finally launched the new version of our website and catalog. Nice job by Peter, PFF’s in-house web guru, for making this new site way more technically advanced, better looking, and much more interesting.

You will hopefully notice many new features on the new site and a ton of new functionality in the catalog… such as wish lists, online gift certificates, (optional) user account creation and maintenance, and much more.

One of the coolest new features is our new Trade-In Program “toolbox” where users can create an account, then send us used fly fishing equipment, and then we will sell it and send back a gift card for the amount their used products sold for. How easy is that? Whether you live down the street or in Maine, this is an easy way to take advantage of a very popular program and get new gear!! Here is how to get more info and get started.

Well, we haven’t been working all the time. In the last couple months, I’ve been fishing for redfish in New Orleans, up to the Skeena for steelhead (despite dirty water and barely getting to fish), smallmouth fishing on local lakes, and having a ton of fun on the Skagit for pinks… oh yeah, and some trout fishing in lakes too. Ben has been guiding his butt off on Puget Sound, taking his new boat out, and targeting pinks and silvers in the salt on his few days off. Joe has been guiding for pinks in the local rivers and now steelhead in E. Washington. Peter doesn’t fish (yet) but he has hiked half of the Cascade Mountain Range in just the last few months. (He hikes a lot!).

Let us know if you have any comments on the new web site. We would love to hear your feedback.

Best Regards and Good Fishing,

Michael