Northwest Wild Country Radio Station

If I have to get to a ramp or popular bank spot two hours before daylight, so be it. For me, the sucky thing about getting up early is I notoriously stay up late. Last week my buddy Ty came down to fish and we stayed up ‘till after 1 and then got up 5:30 to hit the water.

Back in the day, my best friend Sam and I would sleep on shore-side rocks or in the bottom of a boat waiting for daylight.

The road: Will you drive long distances? My longest road trip consisted of driving from Tillamook to the Olympic Peninsula and back all in the same day. I spent over 10 hours in the truck just to fish seven. And I only hooked three fish!

$$$: Will you spend money? Is there a lure that you can’t get local and have to order and pay for shipping out your nose? Will you buy the newest and most sensitive Loomis to give you that edge? Will you pay for outrageous “Classified Water” permits to fish a Canadian river loaded with fish?

I’m planning on doing a steelhead trip to SE Alaska this spring - it’s a crapshoot going to remote rivers with few current reports and fish runs that are unpredictable from year to year.

No waders? No problem: I know it’s not uncommon for steelheaders to stand waist-deep in an icy river, occasionally chipping the ice out of the rod guides, but how cold will you get?

Last year I was going bank fishing with some friends on the upper reaches of a local river.
I was all thrown out of my game, my routine was shot. We slept in and took their rig. They wanted to stop at the grocery store for some food. Since I didn’t want to track mud and water through the store with my felt soles I decided I’d put m waders on when I got to the river.

Unfortunately when we arrived and I opened up the back to get my gear on, I discovered that the pile of coats and clothes I loaded up didn’t have my waders in it.

I had two choices: sit in the car or go fish in the cotton PJ bottoms I had planned on wearing under my waders.

I chose to fish. After all, I wasn’t working this day, and if I got too cold I could throw in the towel and go sit in the truck.

Despite the snow on the ground and the wind and rain, it wasn’t too bad. I stayed on shore and casted to the water I could reach.

After a few hours I hooked up. After about a 20-minute battle, I used my Loomis 1141 to slide the biggest steelhead of my life onto the gravel. Ty tailed the beast and we tried to get a pic with me teetering on some rocks but it just wasn’t working.

I said out loud, “Screw it Ty, I’m getting wet!”

Into the 40 degree water I went.

You know, after that day I am never going to take any whining about someone being cold again.

Bad weather? Bah!: Will you drive through ice and snow? Between Portland and the coast lies the Coast Range. There’s a lot of places that the sun never shines in those mountains during the winter. These places are prime for spots of black ice.

Over the years, I’ve wrecked twice on black ice, both times while pulling a drift boat. I've actually done 180’s with the boat behind me.

I now live at the coast so I don’t have to worry so much about this now, but this past Christmas when I was returning home from Portland, I passed a flatbed trailer with a drifter on it and a loaded tow truck heading back to town. It’s a risk one takes but is it worth it?

Sometimes.

Hoofin' it: How far will you walk or hike?

I’ve spent many a dark morning stumbling my way through the forest and along ankle breaking river rocks without a flashlight.

The longest death march for steelhead that I’ve ever done was seven miles long in half a foot of snow wearing neoprenes. I was soaked to the bone with sweat, dehydrated and covered with blisters.

My biggest problem is, when I’m pounding the banks, I just have to see what’s around that next bend. There are so many more fish to catch if one goes the extra distance. Don’t let a little snow, a few blackberry bushes or steep ravine stand in the way.

I’ve known of steelheaders who have rappelled down cliffs, drug drift boats down gated logging roads and cut holes in river ice to fish.

No pain no gain. If you really want to rack up some numbers or have better chances at trophy steelhead, play hard or go home.

This is how hard core steelhead fishermen roll.

-DJ