Cast and Blast at Sunwolf

Cast & Blast April 4th-6th is a FREE event geared towards bringing unity, education, fellowship and fun into our community of Steelheaders. It is the perfect event to introduce new anglers to the pastime that we love so much. All of the educational events are completely free and are open to anyone.  There will be demos on casting, fly-tying and fishing or try the fly mini golf coarse.  Be sure to get your tickets for the Steelheaders’ Dinner April 7th to benefit the Steelhead Society of British Columbia, a fantastic organization that works hard to protect wild Steelhead and the habitat that they depend on. Get involved, sign up for the Ironfly tying contest and take part in our Fly Cast Mini Golf casting tournament.

The venues for the Cast & Blast is at the Mamquam Bar and the Sunwolf Conference Centre.

SUNDAY APRIL 6th sign up for the Western Canada Speycasting Championship at  Alice Lake Provinicial Park

Swing The Fly - The Voice of Spey

Click the photo for good stuff!

Persistence Pays Off

Bad timing, I doubt it, just persistent.

Chatters of slow fishing are being heard at every river mile, so I’ll fish hard and take what the river hands out.  Just means, work harder, because every cast is an opportunity and every break taken is a missed chance.  I want to be standing in the river when the fishing turns on.  

My body is feeling the effects of casting from morning to night. Aching back and fingers cracking from the hours of striping in line but I don’t give up and whiskey is a great pain reducer. I’ve been fishing a Skagit with a sink tip and decide to change it up and fish something lighter, I put on a Scandi line and tie on a classic fly.

Ahhh… the joy of casting a floating line.  

I fish through a run and feel nothing. I change the fly to a Dee pattern. The fly is dressed in white, fresh out of the box, the hook is sharp, and this is the fly.  I strip out 15 more feet of line to fish the faster outside water.  Ten cast in, a hard grab vibrates the rod and the reel starts spinning and screaming. I tighten down the drag and the pissed off anadromous fish keeps going, cartwheeling out of the water, across the river and 150 feet down from me. I have no control. 

I yell..“what do I do!” A friend yells back “nothing.” 

I feel vulnerable, helpless like a child learning to ride a bike that has just tipped over and can’t get up.

The warrior charges for the log jam downstream; stops… I recover some ground and the battle continues.  

One inch at a time, line is reeled in.

The beauty is connecting with the journey, this brute has traveled the globe to settle down in its home water and hooking one leaves me feeling like a child.

Highlight Reel...

In this photo I'm fighting a fish. The best fish I have EVER hooked...by far.

Before this shot was taken I was standing on dry land rolling out short casts to those small branches sticking out of the water to my left, running a skater into the stumps. In a split moment the single most impressive boil I have ever seen happened! It was insane. At least 25lbs of dime bright thickness rolling in the most violent rushing maneuver only a few feet from me. The fish missed the fly. It was like a crocodile trying to bring down a wild beast. "Mia did you see that." She was just to my side watching. "NO." she says...as I give the fly one more twitch before it swings into the stump, it triggers a second charge from the predator! We both watched the mouth open, suck in the fly and do a complete flip with the only part of the fish to not leave the water the head of the king sized brute! Mia says to me, "I sure as hell saw that!" My reel is screaming with joy. I am in total awe.

10 minutes later after multiple cartwheels, ripping runs across the river, and mega head shaking the most fascinating steelhead I have ever encountered decided to go back to the ocean. I had 20 lb test and cranked my drag to full tilt. I cant even pull it off the reel at this setting! I had Joe tune the drags of our reels before we left for maximum impact. It still went! Pretty soon it was around the corner and my line in the logs. No following from this station. The whole run was lined with a huge log pile. When I quit feeling the throbbing, I just cranked in the line until the fly came home. This is the Dean I had heard stories of. This was the moment that defined my experience. This was my high!

This story, as epic as they all were for us, only tell a smidgen of the tale. The people we met, old friends we shared time with, and local characters made the whole gig complete. We have more stories to tell and hope to share them all.

In time, we will. 

Dean River, Leaves You Begging For More

After a 20 hour drive listening to Eddie Vedder and public radio, drinking Starbucks coffee, eating at the famous Tim Hortons, one B.C road checkpoint, we arrived in Bella Coola safe and sound . We fly out to the Dean River tomorrow, even with reports of slow fishing we are so stoked, it's the experiance of fishing a classic river for hot steelhead and as a friend said, "you have to pay your dues." We've dreamed of doing this trip for many years and now it's our turn. Our friend Mark wrote us a very nice poem:

The adventure begins when you walk out the door

As you arrive on her shores your jaw hits the floor

the history there is high steelhead lore

the fish that you catch will leave you quite sore

the things that you see you will tell evermore

the trip to the Dean leaves you begging for more

it will dwell with you forever in your very core... Mark

The sunrise on the drive from Williams Lake to Bella Coola this morning. This was taken just before we hit "the hill" Freedom hill is a scary one! Dropping 6,000 feet in 10 miles on a muddy, switchbacking, and steep avalanche prone road that has up to 14% inclines!  Photo by Mia

Just recieved a first hand fishing report from friends that came out today. Slow...but still some fish being caught. 

We are excited to be here and take in what the river has in store this next week. There is a lot of buzz going around and if you are unaware of some of the issues the Dean River is experiencing this year, I suggest you visit this link: 

http://steelheadalliance.com/dean-river-steelhead-and-chum-salmon-concerns/

Homewater and Hannah's Special

Hannah tying flies.

This fall a one of guest shared a story about fishing a steelhead river in British Columbia back in 80's. He said it was a remote place with wonderful steelhead. There wasn't a lodge, just a humble camp in the woods and one of the guides was a 12 year girl that would stand on a rock over looking the river. She would watch the fish and as his fly swung closer to the steelhead, the little girl would say "here it comes." "Here comes the steelhead!"  He talked about fishing her fly that was deadly, a fly with blue and silver tinsel that he called the Hannah Special.  Hannah still tie's the fly but a modified version called the Blueberry. 

How long have you been tying flies Hannah? 

I started tying flies when I was about 7 or 8 years old.  I started with dries (uggg, how hard was that!) because getting moose hair and feathers, etc., was really easy in the bush (those materials are abundant in the wilderness), but learned that they were quite hard and then moved on to Green Butt Skunks, Silver Hilton's and Blue Charm's. My favorite fly growing up was the Blue Charm. Today, it is still one of her favorite flies, although i don't fish it as much as i used too. Now i am into modern versions of traditional flies and tube flies.

The Blueberry is a deadly fly on the waters I fish, and often that is my go to fly, especially if i need a 'come back' fly. It has not failed me yet...

The Blueberry

The box was made by an old friend of mine, back when we were in our early 20's. I used to tie those style of flies, and put them in the box (as shown) to show the guests the flies, and let them pick which ones they wanted.

Not your typical fly box.

Flies For Fin

Support restoration projects on the Thompson River, donate or purchase products on a site launched by April Vokey called Flies for Fin .
photos courtesy of Flies for Fin