I went fishing a few days ago. In a storm. A big storm. Mostly wind, in the 45-60 MPH gust category. Fair amount of rain too. It was glorious. I was excited to be out there, rain sheeting sideways across the water, fishing a place I have not seen for darn near forty years. Parts of the river have changed, for the worse, much of the access is gone, but in the storm, in wind and noise and the last few hours of daylight, it was as if I was there all those years ago. I had the same anticipation, knowing there must be steelhead there, but not knowing if it was so.

I didn’t catch anything, of course, but I didn’t fall in while wading, and I had the river to myself for those few hours. I fished indicators and Starlight Leeches though little pockets, around snags, under cut banks, and through one perfect pool.

Yesterday I got out for an hour at dusk. A Bald eagle was out hunting too, like me. Those great predatory birds were not in my decades-past memory banks; a success story in the conservation world. I doubt that salmon and steelhead have increased in this river the way the eagles have here, but I really don’t know.

There is much we do not understand about our anadromous fish. Time marches on. Trophy homes have replaced farms and moldy cabins along streams. Public access has been denied in many places. The rivers and fish have endured floods, hot summers, fishing, and in some places, hatchery fish. I look at our rivers these days and see them in quite a different way than I did when I was 18.

I found a beautiful river tooth on a gravel bar last week. A remnant of giant Spruce trees that populated this river valley. All gone. Wood in those trees was precious to manufacture of British Mosquito Bombers in WW II. The war was won by the good guys, the world is a better place than if the bad guys had won, but the great trees are gone.

I drive the roads along any coastal river, and see places where my route has cut the river off from its flood plan, forever, stealing winter rearing habitat from young salmon and steelhead. Without deliberating the harm done by logging, farming, fishing, hatcheries, seals, and the long list, I see rivers forever changed from what they were before whites came and began taming the land and the waters. I have no tears, no blame, and no use for regret. I am able to sit here in my little cabin, with my propane stove, looking out at frost on the grass, wood smoke raising from neighbors homes, cows in the farm across the gravel road — because of everything that happened before. I sit here at my computer where Native American Indians had a village, a century ago. Today I will work on installing a new water heater in an unheated closet and worry about whether or not it will freeze on me.

Meanwhile, coho eggs are nestled in the gravel, and maybe even some chum eggs too. Young steelhead are finding shelter from the high water we are enduring, while fresh, chrome adults stage in tidewater, ready to surge upriver. The runs of salmon and steelhead are not what they once were, I sincerely believe, just as our world, for all of our civilization, is not what it was. I am certain that my time here is waning. I have no patience for lamenting change that occurred over the last century. I think I understand some of it, but have no way of prognosticating what would have happened if different choices had been made. I do care about choices we make today, and choices we will make tomorrow. Anyone who is attracted to movie themes about time travel can wonder how much our individual choices make in determining the future; the future of the world economy; the future of our friends and families; the future of salmon and steelhead.

Fate? The future is what we make of it. Or have made of it already. Heaven and Hell? If you are reading this, if you have a computer and a place to live and can turn on the tap and get clean water to drink and have food every day, most likely you are living in heaven, a place that about five billion human beings would trade their life for yours in a heartbeat. Hell? Hell is all around us too. Sometimes it is close, sometimes far away, clear around the world. We probably don’t need to look five minutes from where we are right now to find women and children who are abused. I walk to my refrigerator and lament the left-overs on the menu today, but a billion people may not eat at all today.

Sorry. This was going to be about fishing. This was going to about a river still alive after four decades. About wild steelhead and salmon. About hope for the future. And it is, it really is. The wild steelhead’s spirit is strong and resilient. If given half a chance. The Human spirit is strong and resilient under the most desperate conditions. Those of us who really care about steelhead and salmon need to keep fighting for their future.

We should pause, for a moment, to remember that today, someone will die in Iraq, or Afghanistan, or Iran, or Syria, or Somalia, or Jamaica, or in our cozy little USA town – someone will die from neglect, starvation, violence, illness, or some condition that we, today, are immune from. Tomorrow, we might not be immune. Tomorrow, the future of salmon and steelhead might not be number one on our list.

But today, it’s OK for us to obsess about catching a steelhead, or saving a steelhead, or cooking a steelhead, or tying a steelhead fly, or some new rod or reel or hook.

It really is OK. It’s what I’m going to do today.

God. I did it again.

Jay Nicholas
January 27, 2012

For anyone who follows trivial pursuits, this blog post provides more detail to complement a general fly over on some of the Echo fly rods I have fished over the past several years, that is posted on the Oregon Fly Fishing Blog.

Blatant commercialism is a fact of life these days. My friends know that I happily fish any fly rod that has a wiggle. Sage, Winston, Redington, Beulah, Loomis, Scott, Tenkara, and even an old Fenwick and St. Croix. More often than not, however, I have a boat-load of Echo and Burkheimer fly rods that I am doing my best to step on, tangle in nets, and otherwise find ways to test the warranty tolerance envelope. Honestly, truly, it broke while I was casting, playing a fish, sleeping, or some such excuse.

The MOAEFRR post represents a brief accounting of my experiences with specific Echo fly rods. I may not be objective, entirely, but I do not make up stuff to the point of saying nice things about a product that I have fished and not liked. My experience with Echo fly rods has been wonderful in this respect. I liked each and every one of the rods I fished, with slight reservation for two rods, and my reaction to these is detailed following. No bull. Echo represents what is, in my experience, the best intersection of performance, price, and warranty.

Echo Shadow PE Fly Rod Review: This is a 10 ft. 3 wt. 4-piece single-hand fly rod.

The Echo Shadow PE (inspired by Paul Erickson who is some famous guy I have not met – imagine that will you?) offers to deliver high-stick nymph fishing excellence. The Shadow delivers on the promise. This fly rod gave me the excuse to delve into the world of high-stick nymphing without an indicator. I had read about the Shadow and even cast it with Tim Rajeff at the Sandy Spey Clave in 2011. I remember thinking that this rod had far greater potential than the special niche market for which it was engineered.

I started out thinking that the Shadow could be a great fly rod for all around conditions, to heck with the specialized functions, but I changed my mind. For a general purpose rod, the Shadow is a little on the heavy side. I didn’t notice this unless I fished my Shadow right alongside my Echo Edge 9 ft 5 wt. In this situation, I covered the water perfectly with the traditional fly rod, and found the Shadow a little on the cumbersome side.

Lake fishing applications. I fished the 3 wt Shadow from a boat in a coastal lake too. This included plopping weighted nymphs and buggers around downed trees and lily pads, into little coves along the shoreline, and change of direction presentations to trout that showed themselves behind me, in open water, just as I was about to make the perfect cast to a shoreline target. Not surprising, the Shadow excelled at pin-point presentations anywhere from 10-50 feet away when I spotted a cruising or raising fish. The Dapple over shoreline structure was an area where the Shadow excelled. For simple Bugger-trolling or stripping, the long rod did not offer any advantages, but the extra weight of the Shadow was only noticeable when I picked up the traditional nine-footer to make a cast.

An unexpected advantage. One completely surprising feature of the Shadow, in addition to the ability to swing-a-fly-over-obstructions, was the tippet protection offered by the soft tip on this long rod. Not that a 9 ft 5 wt rod is incompatible of fishing 6x tippets, but the 3 wt. rating on the Shadow fairly indicates it’s ability to fight big fish on 2 lb. tippets.

Echo Edge Fly Rod 590-4 fly rod review: This is a 9 ft, 5 wt., 4-piece, single-hand fly rod in the Echo Edge Freshwater series.

I fished this Echo Edge fly rod in small Oregon Cascade streams with dries, soft hackles, and strike indicators. I fished wide-open water on the McKenzie and Willamette with dry flies, soft hackles and Buggers. Then I drove to the coast and fished dry lines, full sinking lines, and sink tips for sea run cutthroat. Lately, I have fished coastal lakes with bead-head leeches, buggers, and chironomids. In my mind, the 9 ft. 5 wt. fly rod is the core fly rod in the world of trout fishing: the first rod to build a trout rod collection around. I have fished a ton of rods in this class over my lifetime. I started with Eagle Claw and Shakespeare and Herter’s back in the 1960s. I progressed to Fenwick glass and graphite in the 1970s. I have fished Orvis, Winston, Sage, Scott, TFO, Loomis, Lamiglass, and probably others since then.

This Echo Edge fly rod ranks among the most pleasurable of the trout-class fly rods I have ever fished. Short and long casts, small and large flies, full sinking and floating lines, wind and calm, shallow and deep presentations: this rod is fun to fish, is what I would refer to as a medium fast action, is light in hand, and performs under as wide a range of environments imaginable.

Echo Ion fly Rod: 990-4 fly rod review: This is a 9 ft, 9 wt., 4-piece single-hand rod in the Ion Saltwater Series.

I fished this Echo ION fly rod in estuaries for king salmon, and in the ocean from a Dory for Black Rockfish and silvers. I fished poppers for Silvers in tidewater too. The Echo Ion series of fly rods is built to take harsh treatment. The Ion series, if it is anything like the 9 wt. I fished, casts well and is an excellent value at its price. If it were not for having Edge and Echo 3 fly rods strung up in the boat at the same time, I might just fish Ions exclusively. No complaints whatsoever. I experienced first class performance from this Ion.

That said, when I picked up both the Ion and Echo 3 in a similar rod weight, the latter rod was noticeably lighter and crisper to cast. Here is my overall take on the Ion series of Echo fly rods. These fly rods are built to be the unfailing back-up rod or the failure proof single rod for the fly angler who wants to test the waters in a particular rod/line class. If you are off on a trip and want back-up insurance in case your first-choice rod gets smushed, the Ion is your rod. If you are dipping your toes in any waters and want to see if you are going to stay the course, the Ion is your rod. If you need to have 5 rods strung in the boat with different lines to cover all the bases, a few of them ought to be Ions. But if you are looking for light-in-hand, high line speeds, tight loops, stunning components, and an overall high-end performance specialty rod, the Ion is a tad less than you are seeking (You want the E3 series to meet these specifiations.

Echo 3 SW fly Rod 790-4 fly rod review: This is a 9 ft, 7 wt., 4-piece Single –hand fly rod in the Saltwater series.

I caught 30 Lb kings on this 7 wt Echo 3 Saltwater fly rod. Not because it was my rod of choice, but because I had loaned my Ion out, and had to have 4 rods in the boat, each with different lines. I also fished the 7 wt. Echo 3 with Poppers for Coho, trolled Bucktails for silvers in the ocean, and chucked Clousers with T-14 heads to lure Black Rockfish and small Lings in the Kelp beds.

Keeping my comments short, (ha ha you know me better than that) this Echo 3 fly rod showcased features of the series. These rods cast an incredibly wide range of fly lines and fly line weights. They are fast but not scary fast, they cast long and load short if you need it, they are Echo tough, but light, very very pleasurable to cast, an absolute blast to feel the bend of a fish, and dependable.

Echo 3 SW Fly Rod 990-4 fly rod review: This is a 9 ft, 9 wt., 4-piece Single-hand fly rod in the Echo 3 Saltwaterseries.

This Echo 3 SW fly rod is the core of my Chinook fly-rod arsenal. The rod was in hand for all of my offshore fishing adventures too, but there was never ever a day during the autumn in the estuary when this 9 wt. single hand rod was not strung with one fly line or another and a salmon fly.

Like all of the Echo 3 SW series fly rods, I give the 9 wt. the highest marks. I treated this rod rough, day after day, week after week, and month after month.

Echo 3 SW Fly Rod 1090-4 fly rod review: This is a 9 ft, 10 wt., 4-piece Single-hand fly rod in the Saltwater series.

Next to the Echo 3 9 wt, the 10 wt. is my second favorite salmon rod here in Oregon. Some choose the heavier rod as their first choice, and I probably would also if my fish were running in the 35-plus lb. class more often. They do not. Most of the fish I have been tangling with are in the 15-25 Lb. class, and the ten wt. just isn’t necessary. Too, making five hundred casts with a nine versus a ten-weight rod – hoping to hook one fish, gives the 9 wt the nod of preference every day of the season.

The Echo 3 SW 10 wt rod is always going to be in my Pram when I am fishing the estuary, even when I am mostly chasing sea run cutthroat. The Echo 3 9 & 10 wt fly rods are what I consider indispensible when salmon fishing, and I cannot imagine any advances in technology are going to change this, ever.

Echo 3 FW 7100-4 fly rod review: This is a 10 ft, 7 wt., 4-piece Single hand fly rod in the Echo 3 Freshwater
series.

Coming off a several-season fixation with two hand fly rods, I decided to step back to the single hander and swing flies for winter steelhead the way I once did. My choice for going retro was this 10 ft. 7 wt Echo 3 freshwater fly rod. I wanted the extra length in case I reverted all the way to fishing egg patterns, and wanted to have the line mending ability that the 10-footer offered over a traditional nine-footer. My intention was to fish Type-3 sink tips in soft water and focus on the close casts. These are situations, often during high water, when steelhead will lie in 3-4 foot deep water, with gentle current, and they can be so close to our feet that presentations with a two hand rod are awkward, as this is about where our sink tip starts to emerge from the rod tip, and I, for one, am usually focused on working my Spey line out of the rod to start making epic far-bank casts.

This 7 wt. Echo 3 Freshwater rod is pure fun to fish, and it is a highly versatile tool in my winter (and summer) steelhead arsenal. I had almost, but not quite, forgotten just how simple and fun it is to fish single hand rods for steelhead. A few of my friends still poke fun at my Spey rods on the Deschutes, as they tromp off down the trail with their single hand rods. We return to camp in mid-morning, and after dark; each of us has fished effectively, each of us has had fun, and sure, I may have covered the distant runs more effectively, but I wonder if perhaps they have fished the close water more effectively, because we both catch fish.

I will add, though, that if you are looking for a fly rod that will double as a wading staff, the Spey rod, and specifically a heavy Spey rod, is a better choice than a single hand rod. Not kidding. The single hand, 7 wt. fly rod, Echo or otherwise, is not up to the challenge of breaking the fall of a 225 pound fumble-footed guy like me. Not even close.

Overall, this 7 wt. Echo 3 freshwater fly rod is a wonderful reminder that traditional approaches to fly fishing still make sense. I will add that this rod fishes as a switch rod with Spey style casts, but you gotta plan ahead and string it with an Airflo Skagit Switch line in about 360 gr, (you can tip it with an Airflo Polyleader or Airflo Custom Cut T-7 tip of about 10’ – 12’.

Echo Switch fly rods. Like all of the rods in the Echo Switch
family, have what I would describe as a full action, one where I can feel the rod load through the butt section. I find this an advantage, given my casting skills, with two-hand casting strokes, and this 8 wt rod can really send my sink tips anywhere I want to send them with a short D-Loop behind me if I am constrained by brush or rock.

For overhead casting with full fly lines and shooting heads, the characteristic full-flex action of Echo Switch fly rods is great for Spey casting but the action is not so hot for my overhead casting with shooting heads and full fly lines. Specifically, the full-through-the-butt action requires me to really slow down my backcast, giving the line plenty of time to straighten out behind me, and then driving the cast forward smartly. The length of the Switch rod, compared to my usual 9’ single hand rod, plus my casting ineptitude, usually leaves me with a pretty open loop, and I just deal with that.

Advantage in windy conditions. There are plenty of days when I am anchored, fishing with a brisk, right-to-left cross wind howling. As a right hand caster, these conditions find me with hooks embedded in the back of my head, square in the middle of my back, in an ear, or sailing past my left ear. The Echo Switch fly rods allow one to overhead cast from either side, so I work my cast from my left side, using mostly lower hand power and my line and fly stay on the downwind side where they are not a threat to life or limb.

Shoulder relief. Anyone who has cast single hand rods for days on end, double hauling shooting head fly lines, is vulnerable to shoulder injuries, or at the very least, to shoulder soreness. I often reach for my Echo Switch fly rods and keep right on fishing shooting heads and full fly lines – casting two handed with 95% of the power from my lower hand. This is quite a relief on days/weeks when my right shoulder is talking to me.

Echo Switch Rod SR 81010-4 fly rod review: This is a 10 ft 10”, 8 wt., 4-piece Switch rod.
I fish this Echo Switch rod in two ways: 1) overhead casting for Chinook in tidewater with shooting heads and full traditional floating and sinking fly lines; and 2) with a 480 gr Airflo Switch fly line.

Echo Switch Rod SR 4106-4 fly rod review: This is a 10’ 6” 4 wt. Switch rod.
My experience with this Echo Switch rod
has been fishing from a drift boat with strike indicators and nymphs. I would recommend this Echo Switch stick to anyone, and I do mean anyone, who is going to fish nymphs and indicators. This rod made nymphing easy, effortless, and delightful, which is saying something – because anyone who has dredged nymphs knows it can be dirty business. This 4 wt Switch rod exercised trout well, without beating them up, and we caught natives in the 18” down to 10,” having fun with ‘em all.

Echo Dec Hogan Spey Rod Reviews.
I’m gonna keep this section short and to the point. Dec got these right and Echo has produced a series of Spey rods that are friendly to both beginner and expert alike. The following are quick snapshots from my days on many rivers with these rods.

Echo Dec Hogan 5120-4 fly rod review: This is a 12 ft, 5 wt., 4-piece Spey rod.
Light summer steelhead special. So light you find it difficult to believe that you have reached out waaaaaaay across the river and are swinging a damp, dry, or sunk fly. Fun, fun, fun, and the summers have an equal footing with this rod.

Echo Dec Hogan
6126-4. This is a 12’ ft, 6” – 6 wt. 4-piece Spey rod.
The absolutely perfect summer steelhead rod in the Dec Hogan series. I fish this rod in winter too, with Airflo Polyleaders or RIO MOW tips and it has plenty of authority to fish dry and Skagit lines.

Echo Dec Hogan
7130-4. This is a 13 ft, 7 wt., 4-piece Spey rod.
If you are a new Spey fisher and want advice on your very first winter steelhead stick, this is the one I would send you out the door with. You will cast tips and big flies right off the bat. The rod is light for the power it carries and is able to convince good chrome to “come to pappa,” at least some of the time.

Echo Dec Hogan
8136-4. This is a 13 ft. 6” – 8 wt., 4-piece Spey rod.
Reach for this rod if you have king salmon in mind. Some favor this for heavy winter steelhead and pushing heavy tips, but not me. I find this rod has the guts to engage in serious conversation with kings. Unequivocally, I have decided that this is more rod than I am comfortable with fishing for winter steelhead; I keep kept going back to the DH 7130-4 or the TR 7130-4 to cover the same water with tips and weighted flies.

Echo Tim Rajeff Spey Rods 0product review: The TR 7130-4 is a 13 ft, 7 wt., 4-piece Spey rod.

This is the only Spey rod in the Echo Tim Rajeff Spey rod series that I have fished for days on end. This is a rod of surprises. Reading the literature on the beast, I was a little afraid that I would not measure up to the skill needed to cast it well. Not even. This rod is as intuitive as any Spey rod I have cast, and the power of the 7 wt made me think that I would be comfortable fishing kings on this rod and would probably reach for the 6 wt Tim Rajeff Spey rod as my first pick for winter steelhead, and then the 5 wt Timmie for summer steelhead. Lots of conjecture here, but I can tell you outright that the 7 wt fished 15’ tips up to T-17, cast long and short, and had a responsive feel through the butt that amazed me. Not quite as limber in the lower nethers than the Dec series, but the Tim Rajeff series of Spey rods are not the broom-sticks that you might imagine from reading the promo literature.

Time to quit writing, in my case, and reading, in your case – and go fishing. See you on the river, maybe, possibly, hopefully, or maybe not.

Jay Nicholas
January 2012

I received a short phone message from a friend today.    He sent good wishes to me and my family and hinted that my blog posts might be easier to follow with paragraph breaks.  He didn’t even ask for full sentences.

Rodger that.  Thank you all for your patience and acceptance.  Yes.  There is a lot going on.  Just not going into details right now.

Good Fishing and life to you all.

Jay Nicholas, December 26, 2011

So here it is – November 15^th, 2011 been salmon fishing a lot this year; really a lot want to know what the fishing has been like lately sure you do we all want to know how the fishing has been not that fishing reports are our only interest in life but why on earth would any of us visit a sort of fishing blog if we were totally disinterested in learning a little about how fishing has been or how it is going to be or what sort of flies to use or leaders or lines and fly rods and fly reels and fly lines and all sorts of salmon fishing related equipment and tactics and techniques and salmon fishing strategies and how do any of these vary anyway like how do salmon fishing tactics differ if at all from salmon fishing strategies well I never was too good at those like remembering in grad school about goals and objectives and some people make their whole life about this sort of what I consider trivia but to them the organization charts for their business or government agency is the entire universe but guess what once you are retired or semi-retired or reach a certain stage in life you realize that most of that stuff is bullshit anyway and thank god you are out of it but how could you have suffered through it and even remained blind to it and defended it too but what the hey that is past and today is today so let’s get on to the business at hand like reporting how the fishing has been lately well you can see by the accompanying photos this is what I have to report like for one I have an anchor on my pram and was fascinated by its reflection the other day when there was not a single fish in the entire water body where I was fishing and that also I own several fly rods wow big deal this is commercialism at its finest but at least I won’t mention the brand names but will just say that I would feel underequipped if I could not have at least four fly rods in my boat when I am salmon fishing because I am obsessed with this stuff and have manufactured all sorts of justifications for each rod and reel and line and by the way in years past I stuffed the boat with high end rods and reels but of late I have sold the fancy fly rods and reels except for my Burkies and a few old Abels that aren’t worth a dime anyway and just fish mid-price-point fly rods and some beat up fly reels and never ever rinse this tackle off after fishing in salt water and dirt and estuary mud and cow poop effluent in the places where I fish and heck if a drag gets nasty I just dunk the rod and reel in the water fresh or salt and presto it is back in service besides the old timers who fished for salmon with fly rods and cheap leaders and such never had fancy fly reels anyway so I have found that even though I love the esthetics man on man if it were not for spell checkers I would surely have choked on that fancy word but what a thrill it sent down my spine to say I mean write esthetics even it the context is wrong it might pass me off as a certified smart person unless you happen to know me and laugh and mutter that I am really not all that smart and oh yes the fishing well take a look at the photo of the grass sprouting in my jet sled wow I feel like I have arrived for real in Tillamook County if I can grow a crop in my boat but I actually washed out my pram a few weeks ago and it looks practically clean on the inside and then check out the photo of the anchor and reflection and you will get it I hope that some days there is nothing at all going on with actual salmon so I get bored and take photos of weird things but there is always the fish finder that marks virtual pretend salmon but I thing they are really pogies and if you ever fish tidewater you will know what a pogie is but if you don’t you will have to read my fly fishing glossary which will be published as soon as a few years after I secure a book contract so don’t hold your breath even though I have already written a good ninety count ‘em nine zero plus pages of factual sarcastic twisted definitions of fly fishing related words like chuck and bouncing betty and gink and poo goo and slickshooter and mend and the like but OK the salmon fishing has been a tad on the slow side which is good because it is sort of like a gambling addict who needs to run into a brick wall and go broke or else he or she might never cease and desist from spending every waking minute obsessing about the next hand or round or what ever goes on at a casino and for me it is like being a rat pushing a button go get a food pellet because I remember one time getting a food pellet and so I keep on pushing the button and pretend that there is some skill involved but trying to forget all the times when I catch a fish and it is painfully obvious that it was pure luck and then I jump back into the self serving belief system that my years of experience have in any way accumulated an advantage or an increased catch rate and then I laugh at myself of course it has like an increase of maybe three percent at best and who cares because oh forget it you wouldn’t believe or understand the way my mind works because it is a little vague and maybe scary and I surprised Lisa lately when I said that I wanted to play scrabble and taught my youngest son to play 21 and previously having no interest whatsoever with card or other games and she looked at me and asked who are you and now that I think of it I have really been neglecting my old son not that he is old but since I have two sons I refer to my young and old son and I am so proud of them both and they are twenty years apart but Jackson the young one really loves David the old one and David really loves Jackson and I do wish we lived a little closer so they could spend more time together and even though Portland is only really two hours away David and Heather are young professionals both working for food like I still do in retirement and they have their own pressures and friends and obligations and time is never adequate to do even half of the want to dos and in my case I have been salmon fishing obsessed plus working and wah wah wah you can see that I am really making excuses for not calling my big boy and by boy I know that is only an age thing because he and Jackson are now both taking to advising on my behavior which is to say that they both think that they know more about life than I do or maybe they just don’t trust that I will make good decisions and sometimes they are probably right and I do try to listen  to each of them and I love my boys so much and wonder if they know it what with me being so busy and fishing obsessed and such but god I do love them and my family like who would I be without them I would be fishing more and missing them terribly because they Lisa and Jackson and David are part of my life and I sure wish I could get to know Heather David’s wife better but sometimes I think I barely know my big boy David really and I hope someday he will help me get to know him and does he really know me either or do any of us know ourselves or do we really know the façade and oops better not get into that now and dang nab it wasn’t this supposed to have something about fishing in the content yes it was and so OK again, this has been the most amazing salmon year for me and I love these fish and may they always be wild and healthy on our coast and in my home waters and my trip to the Dean as nice as it was truly left a little to be wanting simply because I was a guest and an interloper a non-native up there and it was clear that I was welcome to the extent that I never said anything to make the Dean attractive to people from the Lower 48 or even Alaska or wherever rent a helicopter and float the river in rafts because that would represent unwanted and I really mean unwanted with a capital U competition on the river and so I have kept a pretty low profile about that trip but maybe I will throw in just one teeny tiny photo from the Dean and redact wow now that is a cool word I learned from watching Eureka and have been waiting to use it and here is my chance to say redact as in I am going to redact any thought of where was I heading oh yeah my camera got dunked up in BC to the tune of another five hundred bucks but no pain no whatever and then the next camera got splashed again and again with saltwater in the Bay oh forget where it was it could have been anywhere there are silvers in saltwater in Oregon and I fished poppers for the very first time after shooting a popper fly tying video for Chris Daughters and the Caddis Fly oops blatant commercialism creeping buy fly fishing gear now please Ok just kidding but the popper thing really blew my mind because up to this point I was a little disdainful of coho in Oregon cuz I have generally been unable to catch the silly things on flies when spinner fishers around me were getting doubles and such as if it was easy but when I for the very first time fished a popper in the Bay the silvers romped on  and on and on and it was soooooooooo much fun and I was whooping and hollerin’ like a kid because partly I could not believe that I was actually catching soho coho on a fly rod consistently and partly because the fish were hotter than hot for their size and making me blubber and blabber to myself and shake and get all flustered and blistered hands and line cut fingers and still wanting more and more because when you see them wakes a-comin’ behind your popper it makes your adrenaline dump and your heart pound like a hammer and sputter and stammer and get all hot get the idea or do I have to get more elucent now that sure ain’t a word is it now but even though I got boiled and splooshed way more times than my popper got ate it was worth every second of it and I am already making plans on being in the bay popping my arms off instead of foolin’ around in BC next year that is the situation and ya know one evening a dear friend of mine got a good solid head shaking grab and then nuthin’ and when he checked his hook guess what he had the point of a crab claw on the point of his hook making it cleanly impossible for him to hook the fish which could very well have been a fifty pounder because those Chinook are so rare that you are about as likely go get a fifty pounder if you catch one king a year or a hundred same as buying a hundred lottery tickets sure your odds go up but so little that it hardly matters right and then there was the day when I hooked a nice salmon and played it and was about to slide it onto the grass for a quick photo and the hook came loose and it was a one in a zillion that my hook had penetrated the jaw in such a way as to enter the underside perfect dead center of a tooth near the corner of the jaw and just at that proverbial last minute it pulled the tooth out and Mr. Chinook swam off like leaving the dentist and if I was to make an analogy with my friends crab claw experience I might have to refer to it as “safe” fishing wouldn’t you agree and then there was the evening when I hooked a big king just before last light and everything was going fine on that big initial run when my reel stopped dead and I looked down at the spool as I held on to the rod for dear life and saw one heck of a birds nest in my running line and so I held on and prayed a little prayer but all my years of fishing on Sunday and poop no I really mean “pop” went my leader and away went my twilight salmon probably no for sure a sixty pounder and who is to say it wasn’t anyway and there were magic days when I caught salmon and they lay in the water beside me and I was able to look closely at their sea lice and seal scars and hook scars and see the little patterns and irregularities in their silvery scales and sometimes hook scars from where they were shakers off the coast of BC or Alaska and I wonder really since I see so many hook scarred Chinook if the exploitation rates I see published by PST and PFMC are even close to reality and then I leave it and just admire how beautiful and wondrous and mysterious these salmon are and say a little prayer this time of thanks that I was able to catch one and place my hand on it and release it and know that when Jackson asks if I let the salmon go I will be able to say yes and he will say good and you know last week he asked me if I could ever resolve to never ever kill a fish again and I said yes mostly except for the times when a fish is hooked in a gill and it bleeding and he just looks at me and here at our family cabin there are several wild cats that the lady who lived here fed and loved and they come around even though they are being fed by volunteers at a home nearby they must miss the love they received from the cat lady  and wonder where she is and if we will love them and I just resist but Jackson gave one of the cats an orange fluffy one some lovies and oh man here we go with two cats at our valley home and do I have any more fishing stuff to share no really except that this fishing is really the stuff that keeps mental institutions full and salmon fly fishing maybe more than any other kind of fly fishing can be a tricky thing because it can generate unintended consequences and some people start counting how many fish they caught as if anyone cares and some people get all secretive as if anyone cares and some people fish a lot and some people fish a little and some people are able to enjoy their time on the water with or without fish and some can only enjoy the days when they catch fish and the more the better but that is crap because my most memorable days weeks months are when I finally caught a fish after days and days and days of trying and failing and I have become sort of reclusive in my salmon fishing of late and have found myself avoiding fishing around other people even friends and just going off in different places and such because I don’t like the eventuality of people asking how the fishing has been and where did I fish and what lines were the best and what fly size and what tide and how many and how big and darn that sort of stuff can kill the enjoyment and then too I got on the wrong side of a dear friend for mentioning something or other and it will be all fine in short order because because  because it will but it caused me to rethink and overthink and step back and just go off photographing anchor reflections and grass growing in my boat and not talking to any of my fishing buddies for awhile and today it is raining and blowing and I am working for food and writing this catch-up that is a little on the long-winded side and barely mentions my wife Lisa who I adore and miss and do deserve but barely and she does deserve me but how does she put up with my fishing craziness and she does love me and wow that makes everything good and when the rivers go up and down again as they will do in the next few days I will be chasing kings for another two weeks and then I will be good and not go into a salmon trance until May when the springers show up I sure hope they do in 2012.

Jay Nicholas

November 15, 2011

Well the summer of 2011 has been a doozy yes indeed and may I please insert that if you are expecting  polished essay here then you  might as well just stop right here rather than get seventeen minutes into this and start thinking oh my the poor fellow has really lost it because this is reading like a diatribe of a lunatic and geeeze it is too bad that Jay finally lost it completely but we sure saw it coming and I hope that Lisa and Jackson are going to be OK with him all locked up and on medication all the time and wow maybe even if it is really sad Lisa will have to sell off all of Jay’s fishing gear and fly tying materials and boats and so on and such forth but you might as well forget it because this is just part of my normal everyday craziness and nothing at all out of the ordinary so anyway you are not going to get to buy all of my gear off craigslist or at a garage sale but you are  welcome to read on especially if you are stuck in a cubicle you poor wretch but i totally sympathize with you because i did the same thing for over forty years in one form or another and it put food on the table and if you have a job and are able to scam the time to read this and i dearly hope get a laugh or a tear or two on the Man’s dime then more power to you brothers and sisters and oh where was i  well let me just take off here and say that i do not mean sleepy but like wild really it has been wilder than wild and like wow where has the time gone and yes I have totally neglected my own blog right here in fishingwithjay but this has the logical justification as being as follows like first of all what should happen at the very end of March I got laid off and by the way let’s not make more of any of what follows than any of this drivel deserves yes it the layoff that is was couched as a sabbatical and totally not pejorative  and based entirely on when the funding entity delays a funding decision it is just unavoidable in dire economic times but still wow it really hurt and even though I knew what was what you know it was odd that most people who learned about me being laid off were really concerned because there is a pervasive image associated with being laid off that it difficult if not impossible to shake like were you obsolete or did they retain someone else over you and will you ever be able to get a job again in this day and will you have to go into foreclosure and you sure are not suited to get employment as a barista and it is almost like telling people that you have cancer and it doesn’t really matter what kind of cancer or what your prognosis is the mere word cancer is a very emotion laden word and laid off is also and I could have used a different word but hey when the man sits you down and says your position is being terminated and you have layoff rights including unemployment insurance it sure seems like a lay off and I am becoming more and more dissatisfied with choosing my words so very carefully as to avoid any discomfort and I still have to do that on many occasions that where my life was concerned I decided to call it what it was and the day I got laid off our family had to make the live or die decision about our old and very loved cat Tommy and he had being going downhill for about 3 months and we decided it was the time to let him go and the vet came to our home and first that morning I had driven to Portland to get the laid off sit down but Lisa called me when I arrived and was still in my car in the parking lot at the office and she was in tears and told me I had to get home and so I turned the key and drove home and the vet came and checked Tommy out and we had him put down now isn’t that an interesting way to say that the vet put Tommy to sleep and there I go because it is so very difficult to say that we ended his life with an injection and even that is skirting the issue and I just still see him there on the kitchen counter with his head drooping and all of us stroking him and crying and he just gradually went to sleep and died with us giving him lovies and shoot I am sitting here with tears streaming down my face and that was hard but we know it was the right thing to do and I so wish that someone could make the same decision for me when the time comes because I sure do not want to linger and decline like my mom did to the point where I don’t know who I am or who my family is and have to be fed and bathed and get all scrunched into a ball and just lay there all day and night and I would rather die of a heart attack or drown or have a friend hit me on the back of the head with a rock but anyway that was a tough few days but then I went to work the very next week half time as a temp without benefits but doing something that is dear to my fish lovin’ heart and the little bit of cash does help and then I upped the time I have been working with the Caddis Fly Shop and I am so lucky to be able to work with Chris Daughters and then naturally I started going fishing for springers and this has been the best springer season that I personally myself have ever in a lifetime as if that was not already obvious experienced and the fish were spectacular and the rivers were awesome and yes virtually all of the springers I caught were hatchery fish and yes it would have been wonderful if there had been a ton of wild chinook choking the rivers but alas there just are not so I just fished and had a wonderful time and brought home a few salmon from my dear friend Andy and for my son David and his wife Heather and Heather’s folks and so the great gift of nourishment of the soul and body was possible this season and I juggled family and we got two new kittens from the Humane Society and at first we were just going through the motions after Tommy’s passing and you know I really mean death but from the first day we brought Boomer and Rollo home they are brothers by the way we fell in love with them and Jackson was sick with some sort of flu and then I was sick for a week and duh after all that had gone on and we just sort of holed up in the bedroom with me and Lisa and Jackson and Boomer and Rollo and we watched Sci Fi movies and ate popcorn and  had root-beer floats and loved those two little kittens and took our time as a family to heal up and it was a wonderful time for all of us to spend together with no work and nothing that we had to do and a little BattleStar Galactica and Stargate, and Stargate Atlantis and Stargate Universe and explaining to our young son what some of the bad words mean and how to use them in propper context and how it is not appropriate for children or young persons or even adults to use such words that are considered foul in many social settings and remembering the drunk young man at the Brad Paisley concert who was showing off last summer by loud and repeated use of the F word and how silly he sounded but how very wonderful he must have thought he was and that reminds me that one day I was fishing and I got a comment on an old blog post about respecting hatchery steelhead and some probably unhappy person commented very harshly that my post had not addressed the issue of farmed steelhead and then he closed the comment by telling me to go F#@&* myself and I laughed right out loud and read the comment to several friends nearby and we noted that he had really missed the whole point of the post and was probably a tortured soul and then I deleted the comment into the trash so there you pooh brain dip stick and I would like you to know that yours was the most mean spirited comment I have ever received but oh yes by the way I continue to get comments on the ages old post that I did when the Caddis Fly received a huge shipment of rooster saddle patches and Chris and I were afraid that they would take about three years to sell and guess what we were really stupid now there is a word that I counsel my young son Jackson to not over use because stupid is harsh and somewhat mean spirited so Chris and I were not really stupid but indeed we were severely under informed because the entire shipment of rooster saddles sold out in about seventeen seconds and three days later the patches Chris sold for fifty bucks were on ebay for over four hundred bucks and oh well, that is all water under the bridge and have any of you looked at current fly tying materials catalogs either paper or online and looked for rooster saddle patches ha ha ha ha ha ha because they do not exist as far as we can tell especially in natural or dyed grizzly and now we learn to live with rooster capes and yes I avoid use of the perfectly natural and civil term for a male rooster that starts with the letter C and ends with the letter  K because oh my I do not want this website showing in google search results with other websites where folks are searching for that kind of stuff and it is silly but just one or two words can put this blog or any blog for that matter on a search page where I just do not want to be and if you know what I mean then fine but if you don’t then you are lucky and let’s go on and well finally I got out on the ocean this summer with Jack and John Harrell in their Dory launched from the beach at Pacific City  and I did not absolutely categorically get sea sick and that was a relief and we caught black rockfish and blues and lingcod and then we tried bucktailing for silvers and my gosh we got grabbed many times and sometimes even were able to watch the salmon take our flies just off the prop wash and those fish gave us spectacular leaps and runs deep into the backing and some were clipped and some were not so some came home to nourish us and some went swimming away to make their way in life just as we are and believe it for sure I ventured back into the Oregon Cascades for several days to fish for trout in clear cold freestone streams where there are only wild cutthroat and rainbow and the occasional Northern Pike minnow which is the new politically correct for the fish I grew up knowing by another namebut remembered that spring chinook once upon a time before white man built the great dams on the Willamette used to make a migration from the ocean all the way into the cascades near Oakridge but now they are but ghosts and I think it is wonderful that now the government that built the dams is trying to restore spring chinook runs above the dams but in my heart i think it is a false hope and will spend millions upon many more millions of precious dollars to maybe bring a handful of fish to a place where thaey simply cannot exist any longer in any meaningful number but in the meantime the government which by the way is still  probably the best on the earth with all of the weakness and sadly yes corruption and conflicts of interest that still and may always exist as long as men and women create government where was i oh yes the effort to bring springers back to the upper Willamette is more a case of delaying facing the finality of what harm we have done to the runs and the river and yes i had some wonderful fishing for chrome bellied blue backed sea run cutthroat and what with the estuary and the ocean I am ready to head waaaaaay out into the Pacific in search for tuna and I have an Echo 3 12 wt and a Burkheimer 12 wt fly rod all rigged int the garage ready to go and still hope to do that soon and get back out to chase silvers and kings in the ocean with a fly and I have tied up some amazing for me tube clousers from about 3 inches to maybe 8 inches and I am ready for most anything and how could I have forgotten to mention well it is actually surpgising that I managed to mention anything important because of the rambling nature of this post and my freshman year high school teacher carrie miller would not like this long run on sentence but I think or hope that she would understand the nature of what I am attempting to accomplish and cut me some slack and please excuse the madness of this post but it has been so very long and when I have been writing it has been for work or for the Oregon Fly Fishing Blog and for the Caddis Fly and so there has been this choice of will I do a blog post for fishingwithjay or will I go fishing or tie some flies or spend time with my family or tidy the garage or go to a movie by the way Source Code is a great sci fi movie and well worth seeing as is Super Eight but the final i hope it is final Transformers movie was absolutely worthless and Skyline made me want the aliens to kill off the human race and if the previous phrase gets flagged by the office of homeland security honestly I am just speaking in the figurative sense because the characters in that movie were so unlikeable and the movie so unpleasant that I simply rebelled and wanted the entire thing to end and I hated the movie but last year District 9 was a stunning sci fi movie that everyone should see ok not everyone because there are some unpleasant violent scenes but wow did it make me think and cowboys and aliens was at least entertaining but i am so looking forward to the battleship movie that is scheduled for next spring and oh my gosh i have not even mentioned how fast our kittens have grown and how my diet died and i gained back all the weight i lost after my heart surgery and now i need to get back into the healthy mode but it will be difficult with so much to do and fishing season yes one more fishing season about to start and a great part time job and my loving family and a few flies to tie and tuna to catch and maybe a few fall chinook and cracking the code ha ha ha ha for flyfishing silvers in Tillamook bay and now we need to get out the door to go do a little family archery and i have a ton of photos to post from the summer and I just looked at Jackson again and where was I this year when he grew about two feet taller and his voice is dropping steadily and he is so wise for a twelve year old and how could i be so lucky to be loved by my family and my son David is doing really well and I am so honored that they all put up with me so i will close with a plea to my friends to forgive my hectic emails and my neglect and my scatterbrained antics but Jay is after all Jay no more or no less than an enigma….

August 22, 2011

Jay Nicholas

Thanks folks.  Thank you friends and fellow fishing crazies and families and friends of fishing crazies and people who have so much inside their heads and hearts that they just can not express and all the people who have been deeply hurt but survived anyway with the scars and don’t even care to talk or write about the hurt because mostly no one will understand or care because they have not experienced  the hurt themselves and to all the old men who fougnt in WW II and Korea and Vietnam and the young men and women who have fought in other parts of the world and are among the forgotten wounded in so many ways and who deserve to be loved and hugged and treated well and oh my where on earth did this come from oh yes I know very well where this came from but let’s close here with my very best wishes and hugs and hopes for a wonderful salmon season this fall starting right now.

Jay Nicholas

Of late, I was thinking about why I fly fish for salmon.  Amongst all my rationalization, I was trying to convince myself that catching salmon onthe fly was really secondary to the hunt, the pursuit, to time on the water, dawn and dusk in the estuaries, the low clear water of autumn and the gentle river raise that follows a spring freshet.

I just about had myself convinced that all these things were enough, that it didn’t really matter whether I ever caught another salmon in my life.  fter all, I reasoned, I have fished days and weeks on end without so much as a tug.  Why not whole seasons without hooking a king?  I would still have my art to practice, the river sounds and smells.

Then it came to me, and it hit me like the proverbial ton of bricks.  I can devote those days and weeks on end as long as I have the genuine hope of hooking a salmon.  I always see salmon, at least every other day or so, sometimes every day.  I may or may not be able to draw the tug, but I have solace knowing that I am fishing among salmon.  My time on the estuaries and rivers is special because I know that salmon live there.  I know that I have a chance to catch a fish.  I can see their wakes, see them rolling, glimpse the  shadow of salmon in pools.

What is it about salmon fishing that I love, if not the salmon?  could I love just the rivers, just the waters?  As much as I love swinging a fly through the water, my ritual would be empty, farcical, if I knew that no salmon were there to see my fly.

Returning season after season to familar places, exploring new pools and tide flats, what joy would that hold if not for the salmon?

None.  None at all.  learning the proper tides to fish, the salmon’s habits, the flies they will take, the lines to fish, how the weather and river flows affect their movements – all of this would be irrelevant.  The anticipation of tying a fly, of planning a trip, of seeking the perfect anchor point – would be pointless if not for salmon beneath the waters.

So after all, it is not enough to feel the power in a good cast, focus on packing flies neatly  in  fly boxes, change lines at the end of a season, dream of a new rod, or be the first (or last) on the water.  None of the joys I feel while salmon fishing matter the slightest without the salmon beneath the surface.

I have been confused for years, thinking that loving the art of fly fishing could sustain me.  The art of the fly. Camaraderie and the weather and the river’s song.

Now I know with certainty, that the salmon are the ingredient that flows through everything else.  Without salmon, the rivers are uninteresting to me.  I acknowledge that this is irrational and unfair to the ecosystem that could still survive without salmon.

But still, rivers without salmon hold no interest to me.

JN

Just sayin’ ……

This release from the Office of Homeland Security and full disclosure.

JN

Every once in a while ……

Jay Nicholas –  June 8, 2011

BTW, this here fish is a hatchery steelhead that was released into the South Santiam in April or May, and was still hanging out in the river in September, where it gulped a size 16 Renegade and was then released back into the river to compete with wild rainbow, cutthroat, and chinook juveniles.

Wow, what a complex question, that faced by a rainbow/steelhead trout which is now actually a member of  Oncorhynchus, not as it formerly was, of Salmo, and as such is a member of the Pacific Salmon family.

What was the question?  Oh yes.  I am a little O mykiss (rainbow) living in Hood River.  My mom and dad might have been anadromous (like they swam to the ocean and came back) or they might have both matured somewhere in Hood River, mated and produced me.  But now, gosh darn it, I have this strong impuse to head off downstream myself, swim out into the ocean and migrate way up between Alaska and Russia in the Alaskan Gyre (Google that if you will), hang out for a few years, and then come on home to the Hood.  (play on words?)

This blog ain’t gonna answer the question completely, as this would take more time and dilligence than I have at the moment.  But here is the deal.

O. mykiss is good at exploiting habitat and ecological opportunities.  Some fascinating research in Kamchatka indicates that rivers with very fertile feed production tend to produce more “residency” in mykiss, although a proportion of the rainbow do practice anadromy (as if they need practice) and head out to sea and back, thusly becoming steelhead.

Conversely, the anadromous life history was more common in rivers where we would consider food production to be on the stingy side.  This makes sense.  If there isn’t much to eat, then let’s go to sea, grow, make lots of big eggs, and then come home to spawn.  If on the other hand, there is a ton of food in the river, then why bother?

One cool aspect of this tendency to express fundamentally an anadromous or resident life history, with lots of interbreeding among both “types” of fish, is that it shows how O. mykiss can exploit significantly different ecological conditions by mostly staying in the river to mature or mostly going to sea to mature.

But I ramble, as per usual.  Go to southern CA, at the extreme southern edge of where steelhead persist these days.  Little streams.  Harsh warm climate.  Unpredictable stream flow patterns.  And on top of all that, a few impassable dams.  O. mykiss persists above these dams, sending some number of little fish downstream over the barrier each year, and amazingly, if there is water in the creek, there may be two,or three or six or heck, even a dozen or so steelhead come back to the creek in some years.

Many studies in Columbia River, if not all, have found that resident mykiss parents can produce anadromous offspring, anadromous parents can produce off spring that mature in the river, and parental pairings can include any possible combination of anadromous and non anadromous fish.

Jon McMillan has observed non-ocean going O. mykiss spawning with anadromous steelhead in Olympic Peninsula rivers.  If it goes on in those coastal WA populations, then why not here in Oregon?

In oregon, ask the coastal biologists if we have “resident” rainbow and they will almost universally say that we do not.  My guess is that there are indeed offspring of anadromous mykiss that stay in the river and spawn with non ocean going or ocean going mates, producing mostly offspring that go to sea, but an occasional little guy or gal that matures in the river.

What about steelhead through Ballard Locks?  I find it difficult to believe that the mostly river resident rainbow in upriver tributaries don’t produce at lease a few little guys and gals who do in fact migrate to the ocean and try to return as big adults.  It may simply be that this life history is so scant that no one notices these fish, or that survival is so low that none survive to make it back through Ballard Locks, but common, there have to be a few offspring of the upriver O. mykiss that are trying to express an anadromous life history, don’t ya think?

Our Oregon coastal rivers could be an example of an ecological setting where food supplies, rationed across many species of Pacific Salmon, are slim enough that the residency life history is so rare compared to the anadromous life history.  But to think that the stay at home in the river to mature life history is completely missing in Oregon coastal mykiss populations seems a stretch, given what we have seen in most every place where we have really looked closely.

Most every place, not every place, I should add.  Let’s consider the McKenzie River, in the upper Willamette River basin.  This river is big and bold, it grows tons (not that I have weighed the critters, but a lot of rainbow at any rate) of what we call resident rainbow.  We call ‘en resident rainbow because they live out their entire life cycle in the McKenzie, Willamette, and various tributaries of same.  These O. mykiss are in a river close to 200 miles from the ocean.  There is what I would consider decent food supply in the river, and it seems that these mykiss have evolved to be stay-at-homes to such a great extent, that we don’t believe that there are any anadromous offspring of these rainbow.

Hummmmm.  If so, is this because there was such a clear disadvantabe to make the long migration to and from the ocean that the anadromous life history pretty much got weeded out of the population?  Are McKenzie mykiss derived from stream capture of an interior mykiss ancestor that had even less tendency to go clear to the ocean than to stay close to home?

So, yes, I think if one goes far enough inland, and looks at”rainbow” that have been isolated from the ocean long enough, you will see anadromy pretty much lacking from the life history expressions.

The Elwah?  I do not know enough about the specifics to be an expert and recommend a breeding program to re-establish runs of anadromous Pacific Salmon.  But your proposal should be considered.  And it really grates on my sensibilities to think about flooding the system with hatchery fish to restore anadromy to the upper basin.  I do not know exactly what has survived below and above the dam.  I am sure that a hundred years of isolation has had some genetic effects on the up and downstream mykiss.  So too, the below-dam Pacific Salmon in the Elwah, may have been influenced by hatchery programs.  Wouldn’t this be a great opportunity to restore an all wild assemblage of many species of Pacific Salmon in this gorgeous basin that has been strangled by the dam for so long?

Ooops.  Editorializing.  Again.

But hey, here’s an idea, if it is deemed essential to use hatchery fish to restore a wild run, what about limiting the program to one life cycle and prohibiting any fishing on the river for three life cycles?  I know, none of my business.  But an honest to goodness conservation/restoration effort shouldn’t get mired in harvest battles, and should give the fish a decent shot at making the re-introuduction on their own, because these are amazing resilient fish, given half a chance, and especially considering the quality of the upriver habitat in the Elwah.

And how would anyone know that there are not any anadromous mykiss returning to the Elwah from above-dam resident rainbow?

Jay Nicholas, May 25, 2011

Well….

1.  Went fishing and my friend Jim caught a beautiful hatchery spring chinook and a Kwikfish about half as long as the boat and Bandit wasn’t with us and it was great to be on the water with Jim after who knows how long an intermission man did I miss that dog and no, I didn’t really get a grab but I did get a jiggle which I took for a cutthroat trout but who really knows and then there was a sort of but not quite pull or almost a sort of something at the end of my swing that just might have been a salmon but I doubt it not like those solid how could that fish not have been hooked oh my gosh now I am excited no not even enough to get the adrenaline pumping but it did generate at lease five minutes of well it could possibly have been a salmon but I wouln not want to overstate it and….

2.  I went to eat a forbidden hamburger in Tillamook like I always order which is just the meat and ketchup on the bun and no cheese or anything else please and yes I got the fries too and then I got my meal and was eating the fries and drinking my caffeinated need to stay awake for the drive home and had not opened my burger box when all of a sudden I became aware of someone yelling at someone else behind the counter and it was the manager ripping up more than one person because there on the counter was a all meat ketchup only burger that some customer had returned because they wanted the mushroom cheese bacon burger and they sure didn’t want a meat and ketchup only burger that was for sure and then the criticism flowed completely around the staff back behind the counter about how there had been too many misakes and so and so was not happy and I was pretty sure that Mr. so and so was the manager because he was like all dressed up and looking angry and the hired help was scurring around with frowns on their faces and then withoug even opening up my burger box i walked back to the counter to smile at the scared little face standing quivering there and I said something like it was Ok and everyone makes mistakes but this scared person whispered about not wanting to get in more trouble with the manager and then there elapsed maybe 4 minutes of yelling and harassment and I just went back and sat down and finished my fries which I would have done anyway because I am a save the meat and ketchup on a bun for last anyway and then after a while it got like really quite and the slicked up manager came out all smiles and so forth and handed my corrected burger with his apologies and I was tempted to ask him to lay off the staff because I was pretty sure that they were doing as good as they could but no I just smiled at him and said thanks but it has been bothering me ever since and I wish I knew if saying something to him would have made him treat his staff better or if he would have been even meaner the next time and who really knows and man it is sure a high pressure job to work the counter at a fast food joint and …

3.  I tied a Silver Hilton with a grizzly hen cape, a Langtry Stone with a #2 Cree cape, and a Chinook Prawn with ingredients so secret that I have already forgotten what I used but here are the photos anyway and let me tell you that no matter how many flies a person may have tied in their lives it is tough to sit down and get it right after a many too many hiatus from the bench and the first version of each fly sucked so bad that I refused to photograph them and man is it strange in the new era of almost impossible to get saddle hackles like just a few monhs ago we could have any rooster feaher in any color we wanted but not now no sir indeed and try to get saddles for out Intruders but ha ha ha and like a Pik-yer-Poket must be about a 90 buck fly now just for the feathers and I remamber when I used to take these feathers for granted but now now not never again and what will the world be like if the women and men decide to wear cross cut rabbit in their hair gosh that would be crazy and then we would really be DOOMED as fly tyers and maybe I should stock up on pink and purple and black and blue rabbit strips and now that I think about it has anyone noticed how difficult it is to get Osrich these days and I think I am going to see if I can stock up on hen capes for my steelhead and Chinook collars before they dissappear too and …

4.  I watched a video I shot with Chris Daughters on how to tie one of Brian Silvey’s most awesome steelhead flies and my fly looked puny next to Brian’s but heck it was unrehearesed and Chris wouldn’t let me re-shoot the video and I know the fly would have cagught fish anyway and I do need to get in the groove again and ….

5.  Our two new family Kittens, Boomer and Baby Rollo are about twice the size when we got them 3 weeks ago these cute little creatures with each their own personalities are perfect examples of what love and constant attention and patience and hugs can do for people if they ever receive it but there are one heck of a mess of people who never in their whole life get treated with the love and patience and respect that these two cats have been and I am going to need to work extra this month hell every month to buy cat food not to mention Jackson being 12 and what on earth will College cost when he is ready to go and I sure hope I am still here then but probably by then I will be back to normal whatever normal is for me ahhhhh what the heck anyway, I’ll focus on the cat food first and then a few tackle items and maybe a WaterMaster and finally take some fishing destination trips like I honestly have planned and……

In conclusion:  does anyone know what this photo (below) shows?   Do you?

Thanks for all the encouraging notes my friends have sent me.  They mean more than I can express.   I just received my official diagnosis:  weird.  Textbook.  Quirky too.  Sustainable.  Count on periodic lapses into sputtering and drooling and definitely bingeing on various subjects including fly fishing, fly tying, and lord knows what.

BTW, it was wonderful to throw a shooting head on a 9 wt after 6 months.  Next up:  an honest grab!

Jay Nicholas, 23 May, 2011