Dreaming of that Past Day!

Have you ever had one of those trips that was so awesome....moving....so memorable that you find yourself longing for another shot at it.  Well, the Sierra Nevada's is one of those areas.  The fish are unbelievably beautiful!  The scenery will take your breath away!  For an adventurous fly angler, this high country experience is a must have!

I have been fortunate enough to  have been drawn to the region three times now.....yes, three times....and every trip is a very memorable time in God's creation with friends, flies, and fish.

JOHN BOWLING THROWS A TIGHT LOOP

TO WAITING GOLDEN'S

UNBELIEVABLE SCENERY IS AROUND EVERY TURN

SAO GUIDE BEN BARGER FISHES THE SAN JOAQUIN

WHILE JOHN BOWLING FILMS FROM THE OPPOSITE BANK

BEN BARGER FISHES UP THROUGH THE CANYON

Two years ago, we shot a lot of film while on the trail and from it came my true desire to shoot and edit films.  Upon arriving home, I began work on my new series that I entitled, "The Adventures of Flybum."  So, after many, many hours of learning how to be a better editor and finding out what shots I "should have" gotten, I finished a less than perfect volume one.  At nearly an hour in length, it was the first large scale project I had ever attempted.  It has now been shown at many fly shops across the region as we have done fly tying demos or while speaking on the greatness of the Steelhead Alley region.

That first volume is entitled "A Journey to Evolution Valley" and will always be near and dear to my heart.  Not only was it my first punch into truly high elevations, but it was my first film.

Here is a much shorter film that I reworked from footage contained in that first volume completed more than a year ago.  I hope you enjoy it...

Until next time, tight lines and good shooting!

Patrick "Flybum" Robinson
Head Guide
Steelhead Alley Outfitters

The Usual Suspects

This is what we are looking for!

The rain has come and the area rivers are up, fast, and muddy. This round of precipitation should bring in enough fresh fish to last us through the spring season. Some of the Erie tributaries should start to fish on Monday if we don't see any more rain over the next couple of days.

We will be back to our usual everyday grind here pretty quick, and will have more for you then. If you are still pondering the idea of fly fishing the Lake Erie Tributaries for steelhead, don't hesitate to give us a shout at 419-466-9382. We are on the rivers daily and can provide you the best experience possible while on the alley.

We would like to thank everyone for a wonderful week of fishing! It was great spending time with each and every one of you!  We hope to see you in the fall!!

Here are a few pictures from the past couple of days on the water with the Reel Woman-Reel Men of Indianapolis Fly Club and a few other Great steelhead trips with the SAO staff.

Patti with one of many nice fish

Patti with a fat Elk Creek Hen

Patti with a nice buck

A sweet colored buck steelhead from Elk Creek

Donny with a nice Elk Creek Steelhead

Donny with another good fish

John with a nice drop back hen

Chuck with a nice Buck

Chuck with a bright Ohio steelhead

Nice Fish Carlos!

Carlos with a nice fat hen

John with another buck

John with an early morning buck

Merodith fights the monsoon for this fish

Merodith poses with a nice buck


Greg with a fresh healthy looking hen

Greg With a good rainy day buck

Bob holds a nice Ohio steelhead

We will have more for you soon!

Good Fishing

Greg Senyo

Owner/Operator SAO

California's Sierra Nevada's - Part 6

Well, Steelhead season is upon us and I didn't want to leave my California trip blogs open, so let me just hit a couple of more highlights here and close the chapter.  Here in a week, we are going to be up to our necks in steelhead and our guide trip blogs will take front seat.  So, while we are waiting to hit full steam on our streams, let's look to California one more time.

Here is a photo of a couple of close friends who you may find on the steelhead streams with me throughout the season.  They have been to California with me the past two years and this year, Ben stole my big fish award with this very nice, thick Brown Trout caught on the Kings River.  This fish was more than willing to hit a large stonefly imitation thrown right at sundown.  Almost simultaneously, John nailed a smaller, but very healthy Rainbow in much the same manner.  Without question, this was the nicest double we saw on our trip.

BEN WITH A TROPHY BROWN TROUT

Back into the backcountry of Kings Canyon National Park, we pressed into the higher elevations.  The next stop was Evolution Creek.  The creek starts at roughly 11,000 ft above sea level and ends at it's confluence at about 7,500-8,000 ft above sea level.  This change in elevation takes place in about 5 miles.  This is an amazing stretch of water that goes from flat water stretches that flow through high elevation meadows to moderate gradient and then to flat out rough and tumble turbulence!  Every part of it is beautiful in it's own right.  

The stretch photographed below was lined with various wildflowers that framed the river in a radiance not often matched.

EVOLUTION CREEK AS IT DESCENDS TO THE CONFLUENCE BELOW

As I said earlier, the stream, as it falls to the confluence can be a "flat out, rough and tumble turbulence."  The photo below is just one part of a massive series of falls that make up Evolution Falls.  It is a spectacular view that you have to see with your own eyes to truly appreciate!

PART OF EVOLUTION FALLS IN ALL ITS SPLENDOR

Now for the conclusion to my California blogs......we'll finish it with a couple of shots of the world renowned California Golden Trout.  Not only is it the state fish, but a highly sought after jewel that many only dream of catching on some day distant.

I have had the opportunity to catch hundreds of these little jewels in my past three trips and I can tell you with confidence that every one brings feelings of amazement every time I lay eyes on one.  The below photo, although not in good focus, was placed here, to help all understand the beauty of coloration.  It doesn't take a photo that is in crisp focus to appreciate brazen colors such as this.

A CALIFORNIA GOLDEN IN THE FLAT WATER OF EVOLUTION CREEK

And finally, a small beauty that rose in the late afternoon sun in McClure Meadow allowed me to capture his beauty on film.  I have been blessed to travel and catch fish of immense beauty and trust me when I say that these little jewels are among the best in the world.

I hope that sometime in your future (if you haven't already) you are afforded the opportunity to fish for this little treasures in crystal clear water.

 

RAW BEAUTY AT ITS BEST

Well, that ends my chapter on the  California Sierra Nevada's.  I hope that it has caused you to dream the dream, or as one old timer told me at one of my presentations...it took me back to a place I will never be able to go again.  Whichever category you might fit in, I hope that blogs like this take you to a place where your line is tight, the fish is just the one you were casting to, and at the end of the fight, you get to see up close and personal, the beauty that is insurmountable.

Until next time, keep the lines tight.....

Patrick Robinson

Head Guide

Steelhead Alley Outfitters

California's Sierra Nevada's - Part 4

Well, as promised, here is the next installment albeit a bit later than I wanted it to be :)

In the last blog, I said we would be moving to the next camp, so here we go.  After packing up camp and carefully practicing "No Trace," we shouldered the packs again and began the three mile trek to camp two.  This camp was located at the confluence of Piute Creek and the South Fork of the San Joaquin River.

Shortly after leaving camp, we came up on a Mule Deer doe.  After snapping several shots of her, we noticed that she was looking over shoulder....most likely another deer and most possibly her fawn as she was a good size deer.  Sure enough, a rather excited fawn came rushing up behind to find her mother and immediately tried to suckle.  We were lucky enough to get this on video.  Here is a photo that I snapped shortly after shutting off the video camera....

After a morning worth of hiking, we arrived at our next camp and what would be considered our base camp.  It was a beautiful location sitting right on the river.  Below is a shot standing on the bank next to camp and shooting upstream just prior to sundown.

After spending the rest of that first day in camp, we organized a trip down river with a plan to fish it back up.  It was a decent stretch of river with some holes holding large numbers of fish (that we could see).  Who knows what was there that we couldn't see?  At any rate, here is a photo of my buddy Ben throwing a cast to an upstream lie.

And here is a the subsequent reward for his labors.   This fish was feisty and did not want to be photographed, so this impromptu was the only one documenting his downfall :)  He is back in his home ready for the next eager angler.  Numerous fish we caught or missed in this area, but regardless of the outcome, we had a blast exploring new areas of water.

As we moved upstream, the river wound through different types of terrain, but the most interesting was the zone just downstream from where this photo was taken.  The area was so loaded with downed evergreens of differing species, that we could walk for untold hundreds of yards along the river without touching the ground.  Later we found out about an amazing Sierra phenomena called Mono Winds.  They have been clocked at 100mph in the Yosemite Valley which was in the vicinity (within a couple hundred miles) of where we were camped.  I guess you needed to see it to believe it.

The photo below was just the standard view for this trip.  Sick to look at, I know :)

And last but no least, here is a sneak peak at a Golden Trout.  I have had a number of people request some photos of the Golden's and given the pace of my blogging, they couldn't stand to wait any longer :)  So, here is a photo of a nice Golden caught on the South Fork of the San Joaquin upstream a mile or so from our base camp.  Rest assured there will be some more Golden Trout photos to come.

In closing, if you are interested in more specifics on how to get to the area that I fished on this trip, go to your nearest bookstore that carries a good selection of magazines (Barnes & Nobles) and get the latest issue of Southwest Fly Fishing.  I have a short published there this month that gives details.

Until the next installment, get those Steelhead rods cleaned up and ready to roll.  The fish are already moving in and we will be swinging flies soon.

Tight Lines,

Patrick "Flybum" Robinson

Head Guide

Steelhead Alley Outfitters

A Day for Spey

As it goes for most of life so it goes with spey.....practice makes perfect.  Believe me, I needed the practice, but I'll let the other guys speak for themselves.

At any rate, we took the opportunity to get out on the water and throw some new rods and lines.  While doing so, our resident spey enthusiast Will Turek gave us some pointers on how to throw better lines.

When I had a few minutes between casting sessions, I grabbed the camera to see if we could capture some shots of spey in action.

Here Greg Senyo works on his Circle Spey.   As you can see he just made the cut on the bottom side of the "circle" and the anchor is in the process of moving to the upstream position. 

(Note: To see the photo in greater detail, double-click to see the full-size image...this will allow you to see the line much better)

In this next photo I captured a problem that Greg and I were trying to eliminate as much as possible in our spey game during the day.  When you haven't been casting regularly, it is all too easy to get a little relaxed in your casting stroke...which we both were demonstrating starting out.  Here you see the problem....it's very slight.....not like some of my casts that we didn't capture on film :)  The problem is a lack of a high rod stop on the forward stroke that develops a much more open casting loop on the forward stroke and prevents the potential of shooting long lines.

In this photo you can see a good stop (higher) on the forward stroke.   Although we don't have a lot of need for shooting long lines on Ohio tribs, there are times when you will need to and good form is a necessity in those instances.  Here you see Greg with a higher rod stop in the forward stroke than the previous photo that helped to produce higher levels of rod to line energy transference thus allowing more efficient shooting of line.

Here you see Will's near perfect example of a high rod stop with the developing tight loop that will not only allow for long lines, but also cuts the air more efficiently.

Another great demonstration of skill is found in this photo.  The "D" loop is foundational to the spey casts.  Without it you will not complete a fundamentally sound spey cast.  Throughout the morning, we worked on trying to put some energy into the "D" loop thereby loading the rod more efficiently and setting you up for a successful forward stroke.  It is a part of the stroke that needs to be felt, and here you see that Will feels it.  This is as near a perfect loop as you can throw.  When you can get the "V" in your "D" it demonstrates that the energy is building in the back of that loop.  Now if we could just do that on every cast.

Lastly, our fall is filling up very nicely and we are looking forward to some long rods with big flies and spey casting.  We hope that you are getting out and keeping the rods moving as we are.  We can't wait for some great steelhead action.

In closing, I am getting geared up for a great trip.  In just a matter of days, I will be in the high elevations of the high Sierra's in California fishing for Goldens, Browns, Bows and Brookies.  Two weeks of bliss :)  When I get back I will have enough video for my next film volume in the series called "The Adventures of Flybum."  Additionally, I will have hundreds of photos to share.  I look forward to sharing them with you either here or at the numerous shows Greg and I will be doing this fall.  See you on the water.

Patrick "Flybum" Robinson

Head Guide

Steelhead Alley Outfitters