Selecting Flies for Pacific Steelhead I keep several fly boxes stocked just for steelhead, I always think I'll leave a few home, before I head out, but rarely do. How many flies you decide to carry is up to you, but there a few things to consider when selecting an assortment of flies. The most popular colors for Steelhead flies are as follows: black, orange, purple, red, and chartreuse. The key is to have a variety of colors in the fly box before heading out. Although the old adage “bright days, bright flies, dark days, dark flies,” is a decent starting place. One also remember the time of day one will be fishing. Summer steelheading is done mostly in the darker hours, and therefore dark flies are popular like the aforementioned Green Butt Skunk, and its variations. As fall begins and water becomes murky and bright marabou patterns are often the ticket. And in the winter I use lots of egg-sucking leeches, bunny leeches, and bright egg patterns like the Sucker Spawn. As water becomes more murky, the brighter the pattern one can get away with.

Confidence in Fly Fishing For those of you who, like me, have memories of fishing that pre-date memories of school, think back to as many fishing partners and trips as you can. Even those people you only went fishing with once. Then try to recall times where the success or failure of a fly fisherman seemed to lie strictly on the fly fisherman's confidence. If you think about it in these terms, I bet you can remember numerous times, when an angler's, confidence or lack thereof, either doomed them or buoyed then until they started catching fish. At times the success of a confident fly fishing angler can be attributed to persistence. An angler, confident in their abilities is just going to fish longer when things don't start hopping right away. But other days when all things are equal, the fisherman with the most confidence often catches the most fish.

Do You Know Anything About Stream Trout? But, there are disadvantages to stocking lakes with stream trout as apposed to putting them into stream. First of all, and probably most importantly, stream trout can not spawn in lakes. This is due to the fact that they need running water and gravel beds to lay their eggs. Since this can't be provided for in a lake, it is up to hatcheries to keep lakes stocked with stream trout. Is it worth it then? It is because there is a large demand for stream trout in lakes. Since the demand is there, hatcheries will continue to stock these stream trout in lakes. The good news is that once they are placed in the lakes, stream trout grow to great sizes and survive well. So, this can be a great benefit to the anglers who want to catch their prized stream trout in a lake!

Fishing the First Cold Front
When a front moves through, fishing can really turn off. But, there are ways to beat that front and still catch fish.....

White fish fleet set to face fresh quota cuts
SCOTLAND'S beleaguered white fish fleet could be hit next year by further dramatic cuts in fishing quotas and tighter catching controls, industry leaders warned yesterday..

March 29, 2004
SURFS UP!!! The river is in good shape after the weekend rain. Orwell and Trout Brook are coming down quickly and the main river has a slight tint to it. Today I fished with John and Chris, we had two bites on plugs today and boated a nice mid teens spawing male. John took this one for the grille.  Most all the other boats fishing plugs today had one fish too. Some guys are tryin.