Mia and I spent a day on the Skagit with Ed before it closed in early February. This is our second year in a row going up and playing on this awesome river. On our first day out with Ed we hooked three and landed two nice winter steelhead. Not bad for a river that was due to close based on low escapement predictions.
Over the years, Ed has been coming down to fish the Sandy River. On these occasions it is one of the rare moments we can get our buddy Steve Kruse to come out and chase Steelhead with us. Such a treat to have Steve on the river too. Steve has been my biggest influence in fly fishing. Based on the style of Steves spey casting, since the late 80's, its hard not to notice the influence he had on the early Skagit style of casting and Eds form too.
Ed had taken a photo of Mia with her Steelhead so one evening we downloaded it to our computer and accidental we got all Eds photos from his camera. Some of the fish are really sweet and we wanted to share them. Enjoy!
Its hard not too notice, when fishing with Ed, that he has a very effective technique for hooking steelhead. More times than not when we fish together he (and Mia) connects with some chrome!
This is Eds favorite "office".
Eds car.
Alaskan bow!
Ed with a clients big AK king.
My favorite! A huge smallmouth Bass!!
Brilliant colored char!****************************************************************
Ed has amazing stories, tons of insight, and is a super fun dude to spend a day on the river with. He also has a a video out that if you have not purchased yet...well, your missing out!
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"Actually...
...compared to the average trout fishing scenario, steelheading is a bit on the extreme side. What is one's personal requisite for defining extreme? I've run rapids while floating steelhead streams that have puckered my ass. Ran my sled through wave trains and over basalt ledge work that caused my heart to stop. Gotten myself into wading situations that gave me the sweats. Driven far beyond the point of fatigue to eke out a bit more time on the water. Continued walking up or down the river to check out what's around the next bend, eventually ending up doing an all day foray without food or water. Like a lot of other things in life - it is what you make it! What better place to do a bit of excessive drinking than in steelhead camp? Of course I can't think of any other human activities that produce such cult personalities! By the way, if you can't laugh while your steelheading, then you might want to try the excessive drinking bit!"
...compared to the average trout fishing scenario, steelheading is a bit on the extreme side. What is one's personal requisite for defining extreme? I've run rapids while floating steelhead streams that have puckered my ass. Ran my sled through wave trains and over basalt ledge work that caused my heart to stop. Gotten myself into wading situations that gave me the sweats. Driven far beyond the point of fatigue to eke out a bit more time on the water. Continued walking up or down the river to check out what's around the next bend, eventually ending up doing an all day foray without food or water. Like a lot of other things in life - it is what you make it! What better place to do a bit of excessive drinking than in steelhead camp? Of course I can't think of any other human activities that produce such cult personalities! By the way, if you can't laugh while your steelheading, then you might want to try the excessive drinking bit!"
-Ed Ward-
