The Adventures of Wild Bill and Jim "Silver Lips" Lewis....and then some!

This week, I had the good pleasure of fishing with Jim and Bill. Adventure doesn't even come close to the experience you have when you fish with these brothers. Although they are far beyond the boyhood days of life, you can still see the happy go lucky, poke fun, razzing each other brothers of youth coming through in full fashion...and let me tell you that it is a spectacle worth seeing and experiencing.


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)

On top of all the fun we had with the bigger than life boys from Texas, we had a lot of other folks out the end of the week as well with other SAO guides. Here are a few photos from their time on the water.

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

Alaska Part IV: The Red Salmon

I am fascinated by the large schools of Sockeye jumping waterfalls and being caught in mid air by hungry grizzly bears! HD Television and the Discovery channel do a great job of making you feel like your standing next to the production crew. For years I have watched, just waiting for the opportunity to head north. To finally arrive in Alaska and experience the wildness and fishery first hand has created an addiction I will need to feed for the rest of my life. What TV fails to provide is the tingling sensation on your neck when a 1200 pound grizzly sneaks up behind you, and proceeds to fish well with in your comfort zone! This was something that you learn to come to grips with and soon appreciate. The shear numbers of sockeye layered in the pools is mind boggling! It did not take too long to realize how important the sockeye was to every living creature on this land. Humans, bears, Birds, eagles, char, trout, etc... depend on the red salmon flesh & Eggs to sustain them through the long winter. It was a time of plenty and nothing goes to waste. Estuaries such as this looked like the water was stained with pure blood, as thousands of Sockeye were constantly pouring into the streams. Large Rainbow trout and Char were strategically placed among the salmon gorging themselves on drifting eggs and flesh. Watching the Grizzly bears tear into salmon after salmon put alot of food in the drift, and watching the char feed in and spar for feeding lanes was extremely entertaining. Every good group of salmon was followed, patrolled, and preyed on by the large Char and Rainbow Trout. Fishing egg imitations on the out side edges of schools like this produced alot of good fish. At first you were excited to catch Sockeye along with the Char and Trout, but after a day of landing these red beasts you started to feel like there numbers would get in the way of your drifts. What a problem to have right? Too many fish in the way! LOL!!!

Sockeye half eaten my a grizzly becomes food for wolf, birds, and the weak and old. Nothing but bone will remain in this highly utilized Eco System.

This is what the Red Salmon made possible for me. The opportunity and chance to catch and release Large Arctic Char! A dream come true and something I have always wanted to catch on the fly.

Watching huge fat grizzly bears crash into the stream from the near by alders and high grass was awe inspiring!! It also scared the living s**t out of you time and again. The old saying of turning white and resisting the urge to scream like a little girl would describe this situation perfectly. Its not like I have 1500 pound bears back home on the Alley to worry about, so it took a day...or two to get use to the whole bear thing.. In the end I feel like I won and overcome my fear of being bear food.

Greg Standing on a large boulder fighting a large Char that was sitting behind a school of sockeye. Everyday since I have arrived back home, I found myself day dreaming of my stay in AK. So much to do and so little time to do it..

The Prize of the Sockeye runs! Big Colorful Char, My pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. I have never held a fish that was as beautifully colored and as mesmerizing in 20 plus years of fly fishing. I felt full filled and a sense of accomplishment and true appreciation for being granted this opportunity.

For their size, I was amazed at how agile these big bears could move to catch salmon. Along the streams you see alot of large holes that are dug out by the bears just to put their bellies in while they rest.

Sockeye on Dry Flies? I spent a good amount of time swinging and stripping mouse patterns in search of Rainbow Trout. The mouse would slash over the school of sockeye, and next thing you know this large green alligator jaw would poke through the surface and take off with your dry! It was an added bonus and happened quite often through out the day.

Sockeye are very territorial and aggressively attacked patterns such as woolly buggers, egg sucking bunnies, and small sculpins. When hooked their wide bodies are tough to turn and make for one heck of a battle.

John Clouser fights a trophy sized arctic Char that took a tangerine colored egg. We were all amazed at the number of 20 plus inch trout and char in the streams. Add that to the line busting runs, the wildness setting, and the terrific company it makes for a great time.

Standing over a pod of sockeye, and watching the Char feeding on the far outside edge of the school. The next photo shows why we were so excited.

I was able to get a hand on the char from the pool above. Dave fought him like a champ! The funny thing was just minutes after this fish was released he was back feeding! These fish don't waste anytime...

John with a trophy class sockeye!

Sharing water with some of the locals.

Joel with a Trophy Red.

Solitude and Trout on the fly.

Dave with a nice fly caught Red.

Talk about being shuffled out of your hole!

Craig with a sockeye on the 4wt.

Eric with a red salmon from the mouth of the Brooks River.

This grizzly decided to fish directly across from us.

School of Red Salmon

Swinging and drifting buggers and leeches produced alot of strikes.

Sockeye that smacked a mouse pattern.

Alaska will be forever a place I visit! Counting down the days already!! We will be hosting back to AK again next year, and we are already taking those RSVP's. If you are interested in spending a week with us, we would love to have you. We can be contacted at 888-453-5899 or email us at team@steelheadalleyoutfitters.com.

Steelhead season is right around the corner, but we need alot of rain to get it started. Our Ohio and PA steelhead Alley reports are current every week through out the entire year. The report is located right next to the blog entries on the top right hand side. We will keep you updated!

Until next time....

Greg Senyo

Owner/Operator SAO

Alaska Part II: Born Bullies!! The Silver Salmon!

Last year when we decided on heading north to Alaska, All I could think about was the Silver Salmon (Coho) slamming pink & purple marabous, leeches, and Wogs on the surface! The thought of your rod being nearly pulled from your hand by this acrobatic silver bully was a constant day dream during my long flights. Needless to say I didn't sleep a wink on the way there...

During our stay we fished the Naknek River and one of her tributaries King Salmon Creek. The cool thing was that a multitude of different flies were successful and made for some fun, fast, and exciting fishing. I really wanted to catch a silver on a pink Polly Wog on the surface. I spent alot of time slowly retrieving the wog across the rivers. I had my fair share of hair raising explosions on the surface. Even though I did not land a silver on the dry the experience was well worth the try. Many of the silvers attacked the surface fly so aggressively, the salmon literally sent the fly sailing through the air in a violent explosion to the rivers surface. This was that deer in head lights experience, when you look over at the next guy with that " holy crap did you just see that?" look on your face.

We did hook and land our fair share on small leeches, woolly buggers, Popsicles, and PT nymphs. Silvers fight like hell too, leaping, cartwheeling, death rolling, and lighting fast runs that made sure you saw your backing! Salmon from the Salt are mean and lean, and there is no comparing them to their cousins in the Great Lakes. The Silver Salmon was by far the most exciting Salmon I have ever caught on the fly!!!

Dave, Joel, Joe, and Jay go 4 of 4! The action was awesome! Just watching these guys battle was priceless..

Big silver that took a black Crystal bugger, slowly stripped through one of the pools on king Salmon Creek.

Dave battles and brings a bruiser silver to the net.

John casting over a pool filled with aggressive silvers.

Joe with a fresh Silver on the Naknek River.

Dave had the hot rod!! Another fresh fat King Salmon Creek Silver!

Joel with a heavy Silver caught on a PT Nymph.

Dave with a heavy kyped buck.

Joel with another Silver Bullet...

Buck Silver Salmon Mug Shot

John demonstrates a very common scene while fishing for silvers! Boy did we miss and lose alot of good fish!!!

My river side fly shop and gear. The barn was pack full of Buggers, leeches, flesh, marabous, and various other streamers.

John with a good silver, we had to chase down in the sled!!!

Phil with a fat hen Silver Salmon.

John with a fat Silver Buck from King Salmon Creek.

The Release..

This Red Pig gave me the fight of my life, and was the biggest Silver I landed while in AK...

I will get more pics up as they slowly come in... So many pics from the guys it hard to show everything!!! Stay tuned for the Rainbow and Sockeye blogs in the coming week!!

Tight Lines!!!

Greg Senyo

SAO