There's a place on the west coast that has quickly become a favorite spot of mine. A perfect concoction of mountains, beaches, rivers, forests, wildlife, and steelhead wrapped up in a relatively quaint package of proximity. Two spring trips have mostly kicked my ass from burning the candles at both ends, but that is the sacrifice to make for this sojourn happen. I have no way of knowing how many steelhead have entertained the idea of eating my swung fly over the course of about a week of fishing. I do know that I've only had one grab, which came from a player we found in a deep tailout. My buddy Austin was on an elevated position and watched the fish come out from a grouping of boulders and chase my fly to the inside. After a fly change, I failed to replicate the initial reaction. I switched it up again and added a little action to the fly which elicited another interesting follow as Austin gave me the verbal play by play. On my fourth attempt, I switched up the angle, gave a slower swing, and added the action. The steelhead came aggressively and seemingly hit my fly hard without grabbing it. I pricked her. Subsequent attempts resulted without any interest. That interaction was probably one of my favorite angling experiences of all of 2024. What follows are images and scenes from two trips, which resulted in three beautiful steelhead for the crew. I am eagerly awaiting my return and any potential shots at redemption...
