Well, A buddy and I made the trip from Duck-land up to Gray's Harbor this weekend. I had won the Solfly Auction donated from Jim "Hairball" Harrington at Action Guide Service. We made the 4 hour drive up without incident.

We rolled into Montesano Saturday night and hit the Gepetto's bar & restaurant for some sustanance. Meet some locals with big hair who were dressed up in 80's garb? Had some beer and pizza. Unfortunately, no local Dick's beer on tap that night...

Picked up our licenses at the coolest gas station we'd ever seen because they had more corkies than bimart...



Talked with Jim as to where to meet in the morning and retired to the motel.

The morning greeted us with about 3-4 inches of fresh sticky snow. Meet Jim shoveling his drifter out with an oar in the morning.


Jim decided that the Wynoochee would be the best drift for us and we made our way to the river on snowy roads. Very pretty river blanketed in snow.


We got rigged up with side drifting gear and I was able to get into a bright hatchery buck at the "car body hole". You guys should take better care of your rivers up there and not dump cars into them...

The weather was challenging to fish in. It was snowing off and on all morning and we probably had another two inches fall on us early.


We came to a section of river that was partially blocked by an overturned drifter. The boat capsized and was tied off to shore, but no one was around. Hope the dudes got out of the water OK...




Next up my homie hooks a ginormous chrome hen. I estimated it at a solid 20# plus fish (on the Orygun scale). We were going down a swift section and the fish was taking out line and rolling all over the place. We ended up losing her after a couple of minutes! Jim later mentioned it was probably in the 13-15# range...

My buddy gets into another hen and gets it to the boat, Jim nets her and we bonk it. Two down, two to go.



We switched up to trolling gear and my rod buries with a nice fish on, but I promptly performed a long line release after a few seconds and a little jump. We continued on and had some more takes, but nothing else stuck for us.

When we left for the day, the conditions were deteriorating. We passed maybe 20 spun out cars on the drive back, although we made it just fine.

All in all, what a great trip!

My friend and I got to fish a new system in the company of a great guy. I really appreciated Jim donating his time in the auction and he taught us a lot. I never had much luck side drifting before, but I was doing it wrong. Jim was really awesome sharing his techniques and ideas about steelhead fishing with us. He also kindly would point out overhanging trees to me that I should try to avoid casting into...


I also want to thank Parker for handling the auction and putting me in touch with Hairball.

Well, we got a couple of fish and had a cool trip up there.

Thanks,

I remember your great post, Chuck.

I was thinking about naming my thread Occupy Wa or some such! It's nice to get to new water.

Hairball is a great guy and a great guide. Thanks for reminding me I need to get out with him this winter.

Glad you guys had a great time......I went up the Wynoochee valley about 8:30 a.m. Sunday morning. Some people must have decided to "not fish" because I saw 3-4 driftboats and a couple of take out rigs, heading back down the valley.

Didn't hear about the driftboat being sunk, always wonder if it was operator error, or anchor got hung up at wrong time......anyone know???????

WTG Hairball. youaretheman

Glad you had a great trip!

Thanks, guys.

You have some awesome steelhead water up there in GH county!

We appreciated the hospitality by everyone in town and on the river. The cool thing was getting to fish with Hairball, he was a class act that I'd like to meet up with again.

until next time, WA, tight lines from Oregon...