without Joe!

        I’ve been fishing for steel head for  about 5 years now.  My first 3 years were awesome.  I fished with my buddies Doug, Craig, Patch, and a few other guys I met on the river.  The first trip to Idaho resulted in a short series of tugs from a silver and red monster and I was hooked. 
     After the initial hook up I spent a lot of hours driving back an forth to ID.  The 2nd time I went was awesome.  I think I hooked 14 fish in 2 days landing 6.  I’m like cool what’s so hard about this, so much for a fish every 1000 casts.  The next 2 or 3 trips I settled in and would usually put 2 to 4 fish in the net per day, some better days some a little worse.  But I think I was spoiled a little, but I also would talk to Craig, Patch, and a few others and try to go when the flows were optimal.  In other words, if the river hadn’t bumped for 2 days and now was on the drop at 700cfs, I wouldn’t bomb over there and waste my time!

     I would show my friend and boss Joe pics of steel head now and then and I think I perked his curiosity.  “That looks like fun, maybe we should take a couple of buddies over and go do that next year”  he said.  Not thinking much of his interest and comment he called me later and said, “all right lets grab a couple of our buddies an go catch some steel head next year, when is the best time?”  Since I was now a steel head expert, in my mind anyway, I told him the dates that I had success in the past.

      “All right then next year we’ll fish Feb 9,10,11 in Stites, and March 1,2,3 on the Methouw, we’re locked in the books” Joe stated.  My reply was “where is the Methouw?”  This unheard of river to me sounded like some little town in Washington with a huge rural drug problem!  “Oh its great, my buddy Matt has a river house there, the river is loaded with steelhead” Joe Confirmed.  “And you said that those are the best days on the South Fork, so we’ll catch fish then right” asked Joe?  “We’ll typically yes those are pretty good days to head over to the South Fork, but conditions can change a lot from year to year” I implied.
     We were booking this trip 10 months in advance, therefore we give up the versatility to move the days and just go over there when the conditions are right.  Steel head rivers have a tendency to blow out at times depending on rain fall, snow pack, and temperature of course.  Thank fully  trout fishing where we live is much more predictable and we pretty much can always catch trout March through November.  In other words I’ve noticed that there are more gambling factors when it comes to steel head fishing and if you pick a few exact days 10 months in advance, you might be playing cards for a few days while your river blows out.

without Joe!

     We’ll this, meaning when I started steel head fishing with Joe, is when my steel head bliss officially ended.  Call it luck, unfortunate luck that is, karma, maybe the steel head gods are getting some revenge on me for my blasphemous comments mocking the steel head of what was supposed to be hard, but previously I knocked the hell out of them.  Call it what you want but since I’ve fished steel head with Joe I have been blanked!

     My first trip to ID with Joe started out with the river bumping from 250 cfs to 1500 cfs the first day in a few hours.  I managed to hook one fish before the river bumped, and that was it.  Joe broke his steelhead cherry on the main river and that trip ended.
    The next trip to the Methou was cold, I froze and complained while Joe and Matt caught a few steelhead.  I did manage to catch a couple of white-fish and a sucker!  It was so cold that the plastic gears in my Ross reel froze and snapped off.
   My third trip with Joe and Matt, I rowed the boat, fished my ass off and watched Joe and Matt catch huge steel head, I caught a couple of sticks!

     I’m thinking WTF, and Joe’s comments are “Hey Jessen, I thought you were this steel head guru, what’s wrong?”  I am pretty competitive by nature so I sit there and wonder whether to bite my tongue, cry, break my fly rod across my knee, or just start drinking? Well I chose drinking.

     Luckily for my sanity my friend Craig called me and we snuck in a couple of trips to ID.  These trips resulted in bent rods and steel head in hand.  I think I might be cursed by Joe!

Without Joe!

Immediately after I post this I will be organizing my gear for another steel head trip with my good friend and boss Joe Cummings.  We’re headed to Seattle and then to the Olympic Peninsula to rail some steel!!  I hope!  I’ll also be fishing with my friends Ben and Tommy one day, maybe more, and my Seattle buds a day or two.  I’ll give a update and let you guys know how our, or more specifically my fishing went.   I’m looking forward to hanging out with friends, and seeing some new rivers.  I gotta make sure I dont forget my flask!

With Joe!		MANY MEN GO FISHING ALL OF THEIR LIVES WITHOUT KNOWING THAT IT IS NOT THE FISH THEY ARE AFTER.    -Henry David Thoreau