First One at South Fork of Clearwater

I had a chance to go the South Fork of Clearwater again. On the way, I dropped in the Little Samon River again, but no luck for this time.

So I arrived SFOC around eleven o'clock in the morning.

At the first hole, which I thought one of better holes through previous trip's experience, I had a luck. I couldn't believe it was Steel's take at first!

He surely bit my nymph!

Though his size(26inches/66cm) might be under average in this river, I was really satisfied with his tug and beauty. He was so healthy one.

I think I liked this river by its flow and water color, only exception is its location(close to 5 hours is too far!).

By the way, I felt my double haul casting technique was getting better.

French Toast

I took care of my daughter until about 3 o'clock.

I asked her 'What do you wanna eat for lunch?'. She said'French Toast!'. 'F,French Toast?' I was embarrassed a little bit, but I decided to try it for the first time.




I think I could make it not badly, just following my wife's example.

She said 'I liked it, Daddy'. I was pleased to hear it, needless to say.

By the way, she's begun to practice fly casting recently.

It is a kind of fun to have a time together like this.

President Day's Native

Last weekend we spent a day together on Saturday, and I did 'Honey Do' on Sunday. So I've gone for fly fishing on Moday, President Day's holiday.

I decided to go the South Fork of Clearwater as a destination for Steelhead. And I checked the Little Salmon River on the way.


I could catch one in an hour morning. She was a small as Steelhead(23inches/59cm), but was definitely native one, a kind of lucky.

I left this river around Riggins about ten o'clock, and arrived the South Fork of Clearwater River around eleven.




It was my first time to try there except ice watching. It showed moderate flow and water color.

Although I got two white fish, no Steelhead there.
I think I need to try again.

Valentine Day

As I expected, I spent terrible busy days this week. So I could have a time with my family only during breakfast...

But on Valentine Day, I barely managed to see them just before their going to bed.



I gave my wife some roses with funny vase, and yammy chocolate to my daughter. She seemed to make some flower for my wife.

And for me, such a cute card!
I heard she made it at her pre-school.




I surely was given unmeasured power. I felt I should do my best for everything.

Thank you, my sweetie.

Muddy Wallowa

We family all'd suffered from a kind of cold for two weeks. So I had no chance to go fishing.

But I had a chance to go Wallowa River after long silence. As soon as I arrived there, I was so surprised. There was no ice, and it colored so much , in other word, just muddy. I also noticed a difference of the amount of flowing water. We had much smaller at last year's trip.

I had no way except to give it up... I'm wondering where should I go next.

San Francisco

We had a chance to go San Francisco again on last weekend.

Flight from BOI to SFO was delayed about 1hour after boarding.

But our daughter was happy to get the snack twice. She also became good at playing by herself.



We had a kind of trouble again.

Our rental car had overheast soon, so we had to wait about an hour till road service coming.


It was a kind of unlucky, but good experience for me.


The Japanese Style 'Lamian' was one of my fun at Bay Area.
I miss it somtimes in Boise.

I thought it was my most favorite one in my US life.





Needless to say, we never forgot to eat the Dungeness Crab. We especially my daughter loved it.

She also enjoyed to see the sea lion for a long time. She said 'I wanna come here again, dad'. I hope so, sweetie.

Spring Steelhead Season had begun

Last weekend, I visited Clearwater river first time to check the Steelhead coming. South Folk was almost iced and seemed to be impossible to fish there. So I had to go further downstream to see no ice. Finally I reached Orofino, and it took about 5.5hours from my house.

There were some Steelheader with bobbers and jigs and some of them caught Steelhead, especially using boat like right pic.

There was no flyfisherman and it was too deep for it. I had to give up...
But I could practice my new gear there, and it was more difficult than I imagined. I need a more practice to cast it.

Through my experience of last weekend, I decided to try the Little Salmon River this week. Because I saw no ice in downstream near Riggins when I passed it last week.

In the morning I felt no sign of Steelhead, so I doubted the existence of Steelhead. There was no angler also.


So I moved to the Salmon River just for change.

Though I practiced double handed rod casting again, it was still difficult. I need more time to get used to it.

I returned the Little Salmon River again around four o'clock in the evening.

I couldn't believe it when I got the strike! But I definitely identified him as the Steelhead when he jumped some times.

I was already fascinated with his beautiful color during fighting, and noticed there was no shallow to land him.




But finally I could push him on the ice of bank. He bit the egg dropper surely.

Although he was small Steelhead(56cm/22inch), it could be valuable one for me.

My Spring Steelhead season had begun undoubtedly. But I have a concern for busy day in February.

Midge Hatch

On Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, I headed for South Folk of Boise River after four months approximately. It was a kind of anual event for me(Last Winter).

It was cloudy and so cold about 15F(-10C) in the morning. I thought it must be one of the colder fishing trip.

I could see some midge hatch at first hole, but no fish rose. So I tried nymphing, stonefly nymph and brassie dropper.

I got two whitefish by brassie. They were about 15 inch, not bad.

It was difficult to continue fishing because of its coldness. Everything got frozen easily, and I had numbed fingers. Though I did several holes, I got nothing.

At last hole, I could see some rises. It was about 15:30. So I change the rig to the dry fly system.



I got the one(18.5inch/47cm) by midge parachute. It was my pleasure to catch it by dry fly inspite of such a coldness.

Those rises continued about one hour, but I couldn't get a strike more.

Las Vegas

I had a chance to go Las Vegas by business trip. Yes, it was first visit for me.

First, I was surprised that there were many casinos even in the airport!





It was just '24/7' city.
I deposited a little money...







Fountains of Belagio was worth to see.

My advice is 'Don't be long there, if you wanna avoid wasting!'.

Imnaha & Troy

Hide & I did Steelhead searching trip in the end of last year. This 'Searching' means to go the place where we've never been.

So we picked Imnaha river as first destination.

On the way, we dropped in Wallowa Hatchery which located in the upper Wallowa river. No Steelhead reached yet.

After six hours drive, we arrived at Imnaha River(right below pic). And we found a good hole. But we couldn't feel the fish's exsistence.


Next, we headed for Troy(Grande Ronde River) as second place.

Though the drive had a little difficulty because of much snow, it was a kind of fun like explore for us. Approximately it took over two hours.

Grande Ronde River around Troy was really 'Grande'!

I felt the necessary to have the double handed rod. (It was maybe one of reasons to have bought new gear.)

As a result, we had no luck. But I enjoyed the this trip.

Now I'm thinking of next Steel trip soon, because I guess I must be busy after February...

Gear for Dreams

I thought I didn't need to have them until quite recently, because they looked like high threshould for me. But finally, I did buy them to realize some of my dreams.

Rod: 5-PIECE CL SPEY ROD 13 FT 9/10 LW, Cortland
Reel: PRECISION XC LARGE ARBOR FLY REEL #4 (9/10), Cortland
Line: Tip Taper TT-375(Sink Tip), JIM TEENY
It costed about five hundred bucks, it sounded much cheaper than Japan.

I'm looking forward to fishing on larger river like North Umqua and Deschutes.

New Year's Day

We did the New Year's Greetings each other in the morning.

After breakfast, we played KARUTA together. Our daughter did very well though it was her first one.



We went to the nearest park afternoon. We were surprised by the ice thickness of the pond.


I made a CHAN CHAN YAKI of Steelhead for one of dinner dishes. They seemed to like it.

There was hardly any special for New Year's here.

Christmas Presents for me

The Chirstmas Present from my wife delighted me a lot. It was titled 'FIFTY PLACES TO FLY FISH BEFORE YOU DIE'.

I liked pix and its selection of the destination. Henry's Folk and Middle Folk of Salmon River were picked from Idaho.

I wish I could fly fish all of these. It should be added to one of my dreams.





I was given another one also today.

It was hard fight for my #6 rod, because he struggled so much. I thought I should have used #8 as the usual.

He was so healthy(26inches/66cm). A kind of handsome boy isn't it? To tell the truth, I missed the good Steel before him because of line break in obstacle.

I'd never imagined that there was still some Steels in the Down Town Boise River. Yes, definitely it was surprise present!

Christmas!

Finally my daughter could put the last ornament on the advent calender.
So today was Christmas and her 3rd birthday!










She was crazy about the birthday cake, and me too.





We gave her TREK Bike as a birthday present. Though it was big box a little, I liked its motif and robustness.








I believe she must become a better biker than I.

Snow Angel

Yesterday we had much snow, so we could play in the yard with it.

Can you see the two angels on left pic? They are called 'Snow Angel' here.




The making of 'Snow Angel' is like the left photo.

Lie on her back, and flap arms and legs.







Snow itself was just powder and a kind of dry, so it was difficult to make the snowman and snow ball for us.

We had a fun together with snow.

Advent Calender

We bought the Advent Calender like right pic.

There are twenty five ornaments written the each number, and we can put one ornament in a day, which has the same number as the date. So the tree should be decorated with full ornaments on the Christmas day.

To put an ornament on the tree is my daughter's daily routine as a first job in the morning. She loves it.

Lucky again!

I had a luck again in today's lunch time also(24inch/61cm)!

He bit not the dropper but the large nymph this time.






Maybe the cloudy day gave me a good fortune.

Recently my catch rate has become within 1hour/fish. It sounds almost miracle for Steelhead fishing. What a lucky guy am I!

3rd one : Boise River Steelhead

We had a little rain today.

I avoided the famous hole because I saw some fisherman there.

And in another hole, I got Brownie(13inch/34cm) with large nymph pattern. It was a little unusual.






As soon as that, I felt certain tug when the indicator sank down.

It took a about 10min to land him in spite of his size(23inch/59cm; not so large).




The reason why it took long time was the fly hooked position I think. It looked like he tried to feed my egg dropper but failed.

Anyway I was happy to catch him. I like his face around his jaw.

Tonight's dinner menu

I think I could help tonigh's dinner menu.

I made a boiled pork rib by beer using dutch oven. It was so easy to cook.

And the fish stuff in the salad was smoked Steelhead made by my dutch oven.

So-so good.