DECEMBER TROUTING WITH ZANE GREY

                                                     

                                              JUST TO LET YA KNOW   

                                           
                                OK, SO THEIRS SOME REALLY
   NEGATIVE  PEOPLE  OUT  THEIR  WHO'S SAYING  THEIRS  VERY  FEW  FISH  IN  THE ROCKY  RIGHT  NOW. Is it that or is their more , newbies than ever before fishing. I'm going to have to agree with the second reason. They're is some green lines that really just do not have the know how to learn about the STEELHEAD. Or a hard head., that is to want to learn. Then theirs the guy with brand new orvis wear and rod who thinks he has a clue throwing 3 inch streamers ten feet away from the fish. It's funny. I can tell these guys a mile away.  Usually, standing in water that would hold fish. Cocky, for no reason. I don't brag about the fish i catch. Really, I fish for myself and have nothing to prove. You would never know about the one that got away. Because we all have that story.(I REMEMBER MY FIRST BEER). 
                    The patient angler is the one that's always caught my attention. Confidence. Its huge in this sport. U know their is fish their. Like my Grandpa told me..."if it looks fishy, it probably is". If you just wait it out and change direction of your cast. Mend your line. Even if your egg chucking with an open face.Mend your line. Its crazy how huge a little change in what your presenting can do to catch fish. It's also ironic how all the household legends in the fly fishing world have been skunked numerous times.(You should read about it sometime) Noing they would. Days of it. Stepping back, not being so hard headed and observing. Trial and error. Zane Grey, the most fabled Steelheader of all time (arguably) has numerous books he wrote on his days on the vise, and experimenting. And if your from Ohio reading this and don't know about Zane Grey and his stories about his fishing camp on the North Umpqua, your missing out.       

                     Zane Grey , "The Grey Ghost" as they call him was very instrumental in trying to originally get ODNR to stock these fish. But fell short. That's how far back Ohio roots go to the Steelhead. And for the record he died in 1938. Imagine what we could of had .                             
  SO YA, IT WASN'T JUST AN ODNR EPIPHANY.

     Zane Grey has many books and 112 of them had been later turned into movies . His passion was fly fishing. and he did it all over the world. And left a huge imprint on the fly fishing community and is in the fly fishing hall of fame. His cabin is a landmark -park on the banks of the North Umpqua , but he would probably say his heart was on  the Rogue river. Although a Steelhead legend, he also made ocean fly fishing a commercial passion, set 3 world records on various species caught, started the Florida keys fly fishing club , helped settle treaties with the U.S. government and Indian tribes to allow fishing on their lands through tribe permit and if that's not enough, its documented he would fish nearly 300 days a year. His wrap sheet is almost 10 paragraphs in wikepedia.
                                                                                    
The bottom line..Their is fish their. These fish are not smallmouth. Its like playing chess .   They are reclusive as hell. Maybe it's just lazy people that make me sick. Complaining is pretty much the standard for most people. But if you actually stand back and look at what the hell your doing , you might notice something. They did. It's called hard work. And it pays off. Especially with these fish. Theirs still guys that are 75 plus fishing for Steelhead that are trying to solve the riddle. 
Just ask Lefty Kreh...

                                            

                                    I was fishing the rocky when the water was around 60 c.f.s.  Low as hell. I probably swung that pink woolly bugger 8 times past that fish. Forgetting that salmonoids have monocular vision {as ours is binocular} I next dropped the line to the left of the fish. Around 3 feet away. Theirs a blind cone of vision for these fish at 3 feet in front of them because of the way their eyes are set. I choose pink and oranges after i know the water has gone  stale and low . As these fish now have adapted to their 3-5 week color shift change that was once in blue and greens, to now in reds . That wasn't me just waking up in the morning and having God let me in on a little secret. I wasn't cocky. I shut up and observed others, study and read over 21 years . Going to orvis and buying a Helios doesn't make you fit in.  your 600$ waders doesn't tell me shit. Your lack of reading the water and river etiquette  does however. All decent to good anglers I know right now are catching fish . Trial and error....................................................................................   

                                      SPEAKING OF ERROR..    

The ODNR has finally after over 100 years decided to conduct a new study if you didn't hear that has been ongoing  now for over a year on the growth rates and biology of the Brown Trout. After around 24 streams were sampled and only 2 were supposedly  good enough for them this new study is going to tell us exactly what trout bums already know. so , thanks again for nothing. If you want to view the link you can.    

                                                                    mvff.tripod.com/Reference/ODNR_Brown_Trout_Summit.pdf        

                                           NOVEMBER EVENING ON THE ROCKY
                                                           thanks Adam for the picture.