I was blessed to fish with these brothers over the course of a couple of days and can tell you that the time we shared, the stories told, the fish of yesteryear recounted, it was all a pleasure. And what was even better than that was the opportunity to put yet another angler on his first steelhead ever.
Jim had been to Oregon the year before, but Wild Bill was a bit hesitant in going.....Jim "Silver Lips" Lewis (more on this later), would tell you he was just making excuses. At any rate, Jim had his first couple of Steelhead in the bag, but for Bill, it was a first time experience. I am happy to say that it didn't take us any longer than about 30 minutes to get the first fish out of a nice bucket and into the net. Needless to say....Bill just got his label "Wild Bill," because he was now wildly in love with the power of these fish.
Bill holds his first Steelhead of his fishing career with
his big brother Jim looking on with pride!
Now that Bill had his first Steelhead, Jim didn't give a rip whether he caught another one or not...the brotherly love, brotherly deed, whatever you want to call it, had been done. He had allowed his brother to catch the first fish, but now, all bets were on! And I am serious! The bets were many....biggest fish, the most fish....we even had certain holes that became dinner holes....you know, biggest fish out of this hole gets dinner free kind of thing. It was a riot.
So, without hesitation, Jim stepped into the hole! He darn near Erie shuffled his own brother, and came out smiling as if to say touche....
Jim with his first fish of the day and his "bring
it on smile" to go along with it
Back and forth these two brothers went....a fish here, another there. We hopped, skipped and jumped to find the fish in holes and cuts and managaed to avoid all of the nasty dark fish that were beat up on gravel and redds. These guys were hard at work and their rewards reflected it.
Bill with a buck found resting in a deep bucket. He took
on the first presentation and never looked back.....
neither did Bill for that matter.
Just moments later, Bill strikes again, finding another couple of targets laying in a deep cut. A fish on, a fish off.....keep at it Bill and viola, another nice silver male in the bag!
A nice silver buck in the hand is always a welcome gift.
Bill was getting wilder by the minute, but Jim was not going
to stand for that....not today or any day....right Jim?
The day continued on and we traversed different stretches of river looking for prime targets. Jim warned me early that he has a tendency to set the hook hard....All I can say is that I humbly agree. So not to belabor the story, let's just say that he quickly got the nickname "silver lips," because we were sure that by the end of the day we would see a set of silver lips on the end of his line. In his defense though, we never did see those lips. In fact, by the end of the couple days we had together, I think we got him perfectly prepared for his big moment on day three...right Jim?
Jim with a beautiful little hen. She had amazing color that was
hard to capture on film due to high sun, but we did manage
to get a bit of the true color and leopard patterning in the photo below
A beautiful little girl that came out to play
Day two was much the same as the first. Fish on, fish off, fish in the net, photos, more bets than you could possibly imagine and fun for all involved!
Wild Bill scores chrome early in the day
Jim "Silver Lips" Lewis with a nice fish....and look at that,
Bill's taking the photo. I wonder what his plans were for
that photo? I won't tell you about the exchange that happened
after this....Oh, and I got it on film : )
Jim with another nice silver hen that hammered in a deep slot
Jim revives the fish and makes a successful release
Day three, it was SAO guide Greg Senyo on the job and a job well done my friend! Jim tells me that I prepared him well and I think Greg was happy I did so. Nevertheless, Greg did a good job of finding this fish in a hole that developed this spring at ice out....you have to love new holes! The three of them smile over this monster fish....who can't smile at so many pounds of fresh fish?
SAO guide Greg Senyo smiles as he holds
a quality hen with quality clientele!
Check out the release of this great fish!
(click on the YouTube symbol in lower right corner to watch in full format)
Marty came all the way from Colorado for Steelhead.
The day was tough with relatively little water available to fish due to low water, clearing water, and every angler crammed into the areas holding fish. However, we did get fish to the net in decent numbers regardless of the challenges.
Chip bangs a big buck for the day!
Chip with another hot cheeked buck
SAO guide Scott McClintock was out with Marty who, as I stated
earlier, came all the way from Colorado for his first
Steelhead....a couple of minutes after sun up isn't to bad!
Way to get the skunk off Marty!
Here is another nice video put together by SAO guide Ben Barger of some of his clients from last week. It is always nice to see the action in rolling film. Thanks Ben for going above and beyond and everyone else, enjoy the fruits of his labors!
Check out this nice video compilation!
(click on the YouTube symbol in lower right corner to watch in full format)
It was nice to have the Reilly's back with us this spring after a stellar day on the water in the fall! Tom and Cindy did so good with SAO guide John Clouser that they left the water early proclaiming the day couldn't have been better. Way to go John and congrats Tom and Cindy!
Cindy with a nice buck on a colder than usual April day!
Tom hammered a heavily kyped buck to seal the day!
Another client who was out lately was Victor. Victor spent a day with SAO guide John Bowling and had a great day as well!
Victor holds a great silver hen
Another nice hen slammed the flies in a great hole!
John stayed busy all week long and we are happy to say that so did his clients. John, from Cleveland, has been a long standing client who brings his own clientele to enjoy one of his pleasures in life....steelhead on the fly.
Bill below was a first time steelheader and had this to say. "This was by far my best day of fishing....ever!" Way to go Bill and thanks John for bringing another client to enjoy this resource with!
Bill with a gorgeous silver hen for his first day!
SAO guide John Bowling holds a buck pulled from a pod
of fish holding in a nice hole with client John Saxton
Jeff gets his fix for the day
Doug with another nice hen taken
out of a deep hole early in the day.
The week was unbelievably busy, but very good to us. We are still hoping for more precipitation in order to bring the flows up, but it's not looking good. The next forecasted rain isn't until late next week which means this week could be very challenging!
We are out every day across the alley with clients and will report back to you with what we find! In the meantime if you need anything, don't hesitate to give us a shout. Also, the smallmouth are in! If you are wanting to give it a shot, the coming weeks are going to be stellar fishing and we will be there if you want to go for a day.
Tight lines,
Patrick "Flybum" Robinson
Head Guide
Steelhead Alley Outfitters
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