Loren Elliot with a Cali Striper

Bring up the topic of fly-fishing for striped bass in the surf and East Coast hotspots like Montauk and Cape Cod are usually first to pop into fishermen’s heads. Many don’t even realize that the Pacific-facing beaches of California see large enough runs of migrating stripers every summer to constitute a viable fly-rod fishery thanks to a mere 163 specimens that were transplanted from New Jersey to San Francisco Bay back in 1879.

Though tactics can be very similar to those used on the east coast, the numbers of fish present along the California coast do not come close to those on the other side of the country. Over there, it is not unrealistic during a great day to land a double-digit number of fish. Out here, however, landing a single fish in the double-digit pound category is the mark of a great day. As a result, fly-fishing for west coast stripers in the surf is in some ways more akin to the pursuit of west coast steelhead than east coast bass, as they are a “fish of a thousand casts”.

Beulah 8/9 Surf Rod

Skunkings are a regular occurrence. To connect to one of these fish a number of factors have to come together: winds need to be light, swells need to be low, fishy structure needs to be located, and then the angler needs to be on his or her game during this fleeting window. Before long, the tide will shift, the wind will come up, or both, and chances for success will drop dramatically. Because of the challenging nature of pursuing these fish in the surf, I consider a session successful if my clients or I are able to effectively present flies in a “fishy zone” that I have real confidence in during ideal conditions. This is really all that can be asked for as a guide and angler pursuing CA surf stripers. That heart-stopping violent grab followed by strong runs and powerful head shakes is just the bonus that happens often enough to keep me coming back for more.

When hooking bass with any consistency in the Pacific suds is such a challenge, many might wonder why not just fish the California Delta or San Francisco Bay instead.

"...there are few dinks in the surf." Loren Elliot

Though by no means easy, these fisheries offer a fly flinger much more forgiving windows of opportunity, as well as greater numbers of fish  (twenty fish days are possible). So then why do I return to the surf day after day during the summer months? The answer lies in the challenge and great potential for reward that, in my mind, cannot be equaled on the inland striper fisheries. An angler is completely immersed in the environment of the bass when fly fishing afoot in the surf. This environ is often rough, but this means that usually only adult bass roam this zone to feed, while the packs of “schoolies” stick to the protected inland waters. As a result, there are few dinks in the surf, and the opportunity to hook a fish over twenty pounds is very much present.

The Reward

Surf stripers are truly turbo-charged. They are in the surf for one reason only: to feed. This makes them extremely aggressive, as a bass has little time to inspect an offering before the next wave sweeps it away. These fish do not mess around when taking a fly, and just about every grab is violent. Because stripers in the surf are well fed on baitfish and adapted to surviving in the crashing waves, they fight unlike inland stripers, often making an initial run well into the backing as they charge for deep water past the surf line. That first tug is all it takes to open one’s eyes to the absolute thrill of fly-fishing our west coast surf. 

Loren with a Surf Perch

***Loren Elliott is the only guide specializing in teaching clients the ins and outs of the Bay Area surf. He guides during the prime months of June, July, and August for the elusive striped bass as well as the much more common and less challenging surfperch. Loren can be reached at LSE@sonic.net, and more information can be found on his website at www.LorenElliottFlyFishing.com***

The first time I floated the Bighorn River I was simply overwhelmed. Every bend, run, riffle, pool and bank held promise that I may just catch the biggest trout of my life. The greatest challenge was simply keeping my composure.  One thing I have learned in the many years since I first floated the Bighorn is that the Bighorn River’s greatest attribute is that it can be anything to anyone, at any time.  Let me explain…..

From year to year the Bighorn River never seizes to amaze.  While we think of tailwater rivers as consistent human controlled watersheds, which they are, the truth is tailwater rivers such as the Bighorn offer an incredible amount of diversity from one year to the next.  Fluctuations from year to year in snowpack, water flow and seasonal hatches offer anglers an incredible amount of angling opportunity year round.

The first time I fished the Bighorn was in the spring and the baetis hatch was in full swing.  As we float fished our way down a long slow run, I glanced downriver a witnessed more fish feeding in its tailout than I had ever seen in my life.  We anchored up on the top of the island and proceeded to fish to rising trout for the next two hours.  As a Bighorn River guide I have spent hundreds of days reliving moments just like this as I introduced others to moments like this for the first time.

On the Bighorn the Baetis hatch isn’t the only hatch that puts fish into a feeding frenzy; PMD’s, Yellow Sallies, Midge Clusters, Psuedo,  Trico, black caddis and a wide array of terrestrials bring trout to the surface from March – December.

While most of us that fish the Bighorn live for the match the hatch dry fly fishing, nymph fishing is the most common practice on the Bighorn River. While nymph fishing from a drift boat is very productive, often it is most rewarding as a wading angler.  Concentrated populations of fish exist in the Bighorn’s riffles, runs and drop offs where large trout key in on crustaceans and emerging insects.  These highly productive river features allow anglers of all skill levels the opportunity to consistently catch the rivers trout 365 days a year.

As if the dry fly and nymph fishing wasn’t enough, fishing with streamers might be the most exciting way to fish the Bighorn River.  While typical times such as the spring and fall offer anglers awesome streamer fishing on the Bighorn, I have never seen a river produce with streamers like the Bighorn does on bright and sunny summer days.  Trout on the Bighorn seem to be as opportunistic as any when it comes to capitalizing on the predator – prey relationship.  While fishing steamers deep in the water column is exciting and highly effective, my favorite way to provoke big browns is at night with mouse patterns moved quickly across the surface.  Fishing the Black Caddis hatch until the sun sets and then throwing mouse patterns under the light of the moon has become a tradition when I get the privilege to guide my good friends and clients George and Laurie from Calgary.  Fishing like this is what makes the Bighorn River blow your mind!

With all the angling opportunities available to anglers throughout the year, the Bighorn River can be anything to anyone.  While the Bighorn provides us with some of the most consistent fishing in the world, each year the river provides us with new opportunities that we never expected.  While you can employ your favorite technique on the river any day of the year and be successful, being prepared and taking advantage of what the river gives you each day is what brings anglers the most success.

Regardless of what the Bighorn throws up against me and my clients, the Beulah Platinum series offers a rod to meet its demands. If there were two Beulah rods to carry for all your Bighorn River needs it would be the 9’ 6” 6 weight for nymphs and streamers and the 8’ 8” 4 weight for all of your match the hatch dry fly fishing.

-Bighorn River Guide Steve Galletta         

 www.bighornflyfishing.com

Story and video by Steve Galletta. Photos by David Palmer

RT on Vimeo.

Watching a thirty pound fish inhale a fly and bend a ten weight to the cork probably isn’t the first thing that comes to mind when northern Wisconsin is mentioned, but maybe it should be. An extremely aggressive predator with sometimes fickle and notoriously unpredictable feeding behavior, musky have been the focus of countless angling obsessions since people began specifically targeting them for sport around the turn of the century. Fly fishing for them isn’t a totally new phenomenon, but drive through Hayward, the epicenter of Musky Country in northern Wisco, towing a driftboat with a roof rack full of fly rods and the odd looks and confused stares you receive might make you think otherwise. Put some time in on any of the multitude of musky lakes and rivers in the area though, and you will probably start to realize that these freshwater sharks are more than willing to eat a giant bucktail fly, you just need a healthy supply of patience and a boatload of time on the water to try and make a little sense of it all.

10/11 Blue Water

For a number of years now I’ve been fortunate enough to spend nearly all my time studying, chasing, catching and photographing muskies on the fly with a growing group of world-class musky anglers dedicated to innovating and improving our methods for chasing them on the fly. They say cocaine is addictive, but musky fishing is a hell of a drug. One vicious, out-of-nowhere attack a few feet off the rod tip can justify days and days of blind casting ten and eleven weights with heavy lines and huge flies because once you’ve seen it, you can fully believe that it will happen again, it’s only a matter of time. The list of fish that can have your knees shaking simply by swimming casually by the boat is pretty short, and the adrenaline high that comes with a big eat and battle with one of these beasts can be truly life-altering. 

Casting the Beulah Surf 8/9

The wild waters of northern Wisconsin surrounding the historic lumber town of Hayward have been home to muskies much longer than people, and this heart of the fish’s native territory runs deep with musky history as a result. Pictures and mounts commemorating the record catches and angling careers spawned in the region decorate many of the plentiful northwoods taverns that help keep the backcountry watered. Hunting such a fabled creature with relatively new and slightly experimental methods while floating through beautiful, sparsely populated forest is a little like going back in time.

Getting the chance to observe any fishery on a day-to-day basis is a pretty special thing, and musky fishing is no exception. Numerous boatside eats, a ten-minute follow, and duck hunting are just a few of the musky encounters that I’m sure I wouldn’t believe if I hadn’t seen for myself, and never would have seen from an office or a couch.In the course of promoting and growing our guide business, Musky Country Outfitters, we’ve had the chance to meet a lot of really cool folks from all over who seek and appreciate the same things we

Ultimate Reward

do. Sharing our region with such anglers, especially those who’ve never been to this part of the country is really one of the best things about our job.Crossing paths with the Beulah boys gave us a huge boost in the gear realm this season, as we found their Bluewater series to be very well suited to the big flies and heavy line systems we’ve worked out. The 10/11 wt has really opened the door to a wave of bigger and bigger patterns that were previously on the edge of what could be comfortably casted, bringing the hunt for that super beast to a whole new level. And the Surf Rod series has been great in a lot of situations up here as well.Watching our tools, methods and fishing tribe evolve and grow over the last few seasons has been nothing short of incredible, and it still feels a little like we’ve only just begun. Musky Country is truly a remote, domestic destination with one of the most uniquely challenging, yet rewarding native fisheries on the globe. Those who’ve experienced it can tell you what the mention of Northern Wisconsin should bring to mind- Beer, brats, cheese and MUSKY!

Brian ‘Lucky’ Porter

www.muskycountryoutfitters.com

Beulah Pro Staff member Hannah Sohl, a Southern Oregonian, has just embarked on a year long journey around the world studying migratory fish and the cultures and communities that depend on them. She is a 2011 Watson Scholarship recipient. You can read about her travels at conversationswithwater.wordpress.com. Here is a little about her project:

About a year ago I saw a poster in the hall of the college I was attending that may very well have changed the course of my life. The poster was of a young man staring off into the distance at a large snow capped mountain with bold writing at the bottom that said something along the lines of “What will your adventure be?” At the top of the poster were some smaller pictures with captions such as
“Clowning circuits and miming” and the one that really caught my eye which said, “Artisan fishing communities in a culture of change” and listed a couple of far off places such as Morocco and Italy. The poster was advertising a yearlong fellowship opportunity to spend 12 months outside of the United States studying one subject that you are passionate about. My mind started racing. What? Someone will give me money to study my passions all over the world? And someone did one about fish? For the next few months I almost obsessively returned to this semi-out of the way hallway to stare at this poster and wonder what I was really passionate about and how in the world I was going to get this fellowship. I brainstormed for hours about my sociology major, my love of field biology, my childhood in Oregon, fishing, music, conservation, and numerous things in-between. I finally realized that the one constant that brings all of the things that I care about together is rivers, and the things that really connect rivers to people are fish.

So I started to put together a proposal to travel to some of the world’s most incredible rivers and fishing cultures to study the relationships that have evolved over generations between fish runs and the humans that live along river banks. I researched many different areas of the world and different types of fish and finally decided on seven countries including Canada, Brazil, and Laos and with fish as varied as steelhead, catfish, and shad.

I ended up receiving the award and kick off my studies this week.

Throughout the year I will be interviewing guides, scientists, fishermen, activists, community leaders, policy makers, and many others about their rivers and fish, and getting in some serious fishing along the way. Some of the areas that I will be visiting have strong runs, while in others the runs have been decimated by over fishing, pollution and dams.  Each river that I will visit has a unique story and culture that is or has been impacted by fish.  While each region will be very different, perhaps there will be some similar lessons that can be learned from watershed to watershed.

I will be documenting my experiences though podcasts and photos which you can follow on my BLOG.

First stop: salmon and steelhead in Northern British Columbia.

Hannah is traveling with a few Beulah Fly Rods; a Platinum 12’4” 8 weight Spey and a Blue Water 8/9. After all you can’t really get a feel for the fishing culture without doing a little fishing yourself. More on Hannah’s adventures to come!

Link to Hannah’s Blog