"You just are not a real steelhead fly fisherman if you don’t have one by Thanksgiving."


Syd Glasso, “The Olympic Peninsula,” published in The Creel, 1970


Whats this have to do with most of us gear-heads? Not much, maybe it just means you fish steelhead in November, but I do like the way the late Mr. Glasso thinks.


In 2007 I put my 1st winter steelie on the gravel 11- 22, well before my personal deadline. This year I pushed it to the brink, getting this red-hot hacthery fish on the afternoon of 11-24.


A big thanks to TBJ for letting me fill an open seat, & fishing that GLX 1141 side-drifter was a treat!

A shout-out out to Matt E. aka "Sensei" your a gentleman sir. Many thanks for all the advice......

For those of you who can't get out till later in the year, enjoy the pic's




c/22

your late in my book.

We were probably late too but did pick up a 10 lb winter run two days ago on the Skagit. Missed several others. Fishing was pretty decent until a major storm cell came in and everything seemed to completly shut down.

Beauty man !!!

Peace
Fly

11-22?? your way late

Nice fish!

As much as I valued Syd's friendship, I never found it necessary to agree with his opinion about everything in order to consider myself a "real steelhead fly fisherman." Maybe that's because I haven't always fished for winter steelhead during November. I think it's a lot easier to subscribe to Syd's philosophy if you live only minutes from two productive fly pools on the lower Sol Duc as Syd did for many years. Of course that worked out well for him in those days from November through April.

I will however, be taking a few days off in December and expect to catch myself a fresh hatchery steelhead to eat.

Sg

BTW, that's a nice looking brat.

A true winter steelhead fly fisherman would say if it's missing it's adipose fin, it's not a *real* winter steelhead. Those are just brats.

I suspect I'll get my first true winter steelhead in January. On a pink worm. Or a rag and sandshrimp tail.

Nice brat!

Hopefully, I'll start fishing for a steelhead next Wednesday. I could use a brat or two before the real game starts.

I may not be a fly fisherman but got my first winter steel this morning just under the wire. Nice to meet you Sue at the Sultan launch. Sorry we didn't get to chat a little. How did you & Roger do?

Let me guess, Rainshadow 1142c + Sky + side-drifting = 8 lb. brat ??





c/22

Had fun fishing and chatting with you guys, to bad we got pushed on so hard but thats ok , we were able to get a few anyway. Look forward to fishing again soon have a good turkey day,The Sensei

Nice job I told you crawdads with prawn juice would work

Nice fresh buck! Should be some gorgeous,firm meat.

I too was lucky enough to be on board with TBJ and Crome/22, Tom put us on a lot of fish and it was a blast to fish with you guys. Tom has the best gear I've ever fished with, my old steel head rod is a finwick. it was a real pleasure. It was also nice to meet Sensei, and Sensei, if your ever down here and want to do a little salt water fishing, I would love to take you out. Same goes for you Crome/22, Im going to have to make a salmon or halibut trip with you.
Good luck and good fishing.

They did work & tasted good too. We ate those with the hot pockets..........


c/22

Close...............6lb brat

+135

I agree with you Stam, it is in the blood, you don't have to be a brain surgeon to figure that one out, but its nice to use top notch gear.

HMMMMM...

Wonder if that still applies to the "fisherman" that uses a 100 yd long string of corks and nylon curtains as his "gear" of choice?

It's in his blood... does that by default make him "real"?

Just playing devil's advocate, since I am trapped at home while everyone else gets to wet a line this weekend.

Doc:

To continue with devils advocate, my answer is yes. Don't get me wrong, I would outlaw gillnets tomorrow if I could. But gill netters are passionate about what they do, get a thrill out of a good catch and spend their lives trying to improve their catches. Yeah, i think they are real fishermen.