Wednesday, February 18, 2004

Tumbleweed Steelhead It has been raining here in Eastern Washington since son Jon and I arrived, but it is warm compared to Wisconsin so we fished anyway. Dale Dietzman and Pat Henry, of Walla Walla, took us to a pretty little river in the foothills of the Blue Mountains today, where we caught three steelhead and rolled several more. Aside from catching my first West Coast steelhead, the highlight of my day was stepping off a high bank and into a 20-foot-high pile of tumbleweed. I felt like the kids in the room full of plastic balls at McD's! Fortunately, the tumbleweeds cushioned my tumble and I rolled down to the river, waving my rod and laughing as I went. A half-hour later, my new St. Croix Legend Ultra 8-weight rod made short work of a colorful male steelie, two drifts after had I hooked and lost a hen in the same run. Both fish took Dale's "secret" Glo-Bug pattern, which I christened "Dr. Third Eye." I'll let you figure out the secret, as I swore to protect it, along with the name of the river. Tomorrow, we're at it again. It has rained here for a couple days, so most rivers are "out." (That's West Coast talk for high and muddy.) We'll probably go back to the... (Oops! almost gave it away there!) I am posting this from Pat's computer by e-mailing it home to Shivani, who will paste it into my blog, so I can't add hyperlinks from here. I'll try to do that when I get home. Listen, 50 degrees, a little rain, open rivers and willing steelhead are a wonderful respite from ice-bound Wisconsin. I can wait to ski when I get back. Meanwhile, there's silver in them thar hills! Later... 10:02:39 AM    comment []

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