Going hard at them at 2:00-Matt Leon delivering in Hansel-Gretel Land.

River and weather conditions were perfect and during the heat of your session a major surge of transitioning fresh runs raced by, fueling the juices and stoke. Yet after eyeing every colored/style fly in your box and presented in various depths they strangely move through without a touch? Why; poor casting and presentations, limited angling abilities, shitty flies, funky equipment, dark side of the moon, all the above or simply flat out unlucky? Nobody said steelheading would be easy.

Trinity River Veteran, Dave Lougee, obviously adjusting the angles correctly.

Denied, refused or skunked call it what you will. Adding a goose egg to the nest, when you thought conditions were perfect and you were on your game, can be a tough pill for anyone to swallow; especially Youngblood’s eager to score their first. It happens to everyone accepting the steelheading challenge. Anyone who says it hasn’t is lying through their teeth, if they are their teeth. To help ease any fishless pain, keep in mind, there are brief windows of opportunity on which you can capitalize— a very positive set of factors that induce steelhead to strike. And, feeding or not, it is the angler’s responsibility to fish carefully, thoroughly and totally believe in EVERY CAST. So anyone feel’n dejected stop licking your wounds and consider fishless sessions as a learning curve that helps advance you to future steelheading success.

Continue reading →

Scott Frogner- do’n the ” Slip- Slide’n- Away” release

This past September I’ve been fortunate to be on the water almost every day, search’n and stretching for steel, so just now finding time to check in with this post; not to mention I’m moving a bit slower these days as I am shifting gears into my 33 rd. year guiding on the Trinity River; GREAT TIMES and a hell of a lot of river miles.

Big’n Beefy Bad’n Ballistic-2015 TR fresh arrival

Despite feeling a few extra aches and pains I am enjoying every minute of it; especially Trinity Fall seasons. They never disappoint and are a personal favorite time of year. A soothing mellow, magical transition of blossoming unsurpassed beauty, hidden intensity and highlighted with electrifying arm-wrenching grabs and explosive surface takes from fresh run steelhead; a seasonal grand finally and hype that tends to make every steelheader giddy, yet totally focused, when stepping into their favorite steelhead runs with high anticipation.

Continue reading →

Steelheader, Glen Stanley, stretches with heavy anticipation, especially since the broken water above his right shoulder, produced a fresh slab to his skater.

Rowing, drifting and navigating waters have always been a major stoke and highlight of my fishing and guiding career. “Come for the Float of it,” was actually our slogan when we first started our business in 1982. Since then I have had the good fortune to spend half of my life logging thousands of miles on lakes and rivers that has been nothing short of an incredible watermanship learning curve. Quality, up close and hands on river time that broaden my fishing and guiding skills that ultimately sprouted a deep appreciation and respect for the resources. It has been one hell of a ride although hasn’t been an easy class I float. After three cracked ribs, knee contortion, bruised sternum and a few other minor rowing tattoos I quickly gained the utmost respect for the force and powers of water hydraulics and progressively developed a keen awareness of conditions and impacting elements. Each outing, regardless still waters, tail waters or rivers, is a new opportunity and adventure challenging mental and physical abilities, leaving little room to falter. Off the get-go, the past clearly demonstrated bring you’re A-Game or be prepared to learn the hard way.

Continue reading →

Straight from the East side of the pond, angler/author Ben Taylor delivers a delicate shot into a school of milling Tarpon, (aka big, bad-ass cousin to the shad family). Photo By Patt Wardlaw

Cottonwoods in bloom, warm central valley heat punctuated with flaming sunsets, crop dusters engaged in acrobatic aerial labors over farmed checks, pheasants and mallards nesting atop flooded field levees, pelicans, terns, egrets and black ibis flights over valley waterways and swollen rivers receding from winter’s flush, striper spawning runs winding down yet coinciding with new surges of fresh chrome oftentimes eager to eat your socks off, cold beer, laughter camaraderie, and smell of savory BBQ’s drifting from isolated river camps, fly boxes filled with refreshed inventories of psychedelic colors of orange, pink, bowline- red, chartreuse, silver- gold attractor flies and the shouts “Fish-On” echoing down lineups and interrupting social chatter from an odd lot preferring to endure the valley heat wading waist deep, sporting straw- vented hats, shades and mopped with sunblock, while repeatedly casting and delivering presentations that often yield thrilling rewards of multiple fish sessions; feeding frenzies totally capable of doing you in–A-H-H-H Shad Season!

Continue reading →