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Onyx 5wt

Deschutes

November 25, 2015 By Eric Ishiwata Leave a Comment

It was day three of a four-day trip and things weren’t looking good. The water clarity was off, weather pattern stale, and salmon were clogging the prime runs. Even with the three other sticks in our group—all of them seasoned locals—we’d only scratched-out two fish.

Ishi DPhoto: Bruce Berry

After tough morning and a tougher afternoon, I started rehearsing those lines fishermen tell themselves when things fall short of expectations: great just hanging out with friends, always good checking out new water, strung together some really nice casts…you know, lies.

 
By 4:00, we were set up on one of the more popular runs but almost everything was wrong—brown water, cloudless skies, and sun shining directly into the fishes’ eyes. Wiser gents on the roadside patiently waited for better conditions but pure desperation drove me to fish. I racked my Onyx 5wt dry line set up and went for maximum confidence: a battle-tested Platinum 12’6” 6wt, 425 Tonic, and 10’ of T-11. Out of charity, Bruce handed me one of his black/purple/red Fish Movers with a set of instructions: “Tie this on and give me a shout when you hook a fish. I need photos of this fly hanging out of a fish’s mouth.”

Ish boatPhoto: Bruce Berry

Within ten swings, I heard a slow click-click from my Perfect and in an instant I was connected to a red hot anadromous freight train. One problem: Bruce had already fished his way around the corner and was well out of earshot. Determined to help him get the proof of the fly mojo, I was faced with the challenge of not only landing a hot fish, but doing so while I rock-scrambled downstream in hopes of grabbing Bruce’s attention. After banging my shins, dunking, and working the steelhead free from not one but two snags, I somehow made it back to boat, netted the fish, and flagged down Bruce in time to snap a couple photos and safely release the fish.

Fish Mover Up ClosePhoto: Bruce Berry

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: flies, Ishiwata, Onyx 5wt, Platinum 6, steelhead

Like Autumn in December

December 16, 2014 By Eric Ishiwata 1 Comment

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The so-called “December Thaw” produced over 1,000 record highs during the first half of this month. It is anyone’s guess as to how it might impact our fisheries, but in the short term, it has made for some pretty unique fishing conditions. Stretches of river that should have been locked under a foot of ice were flowing like it was mid-October. With a Winter Storm Warning looming, I headed north in hopes of making hay while the sun was shining.

On my first day, I was fortunate to fish with my good friend (and chief fly tester) Casey Miller, his brother-in-law Scotty, and Blake Jackson from the Ugly Bug Fly Shop. This is a fishy crew that would be super intimidating to hang with if they weren’t such solid dudes. Luckily for me, we fished a Disneyland stretch of water that is so loaded with trout, it makes anyone look like a “stick.”

Casey 12-12-14

Casey Miller test driving a new cray [photo: Blake Jackson]

Early in the day, I cautiously gave Casey a Protubed Vanilla Bugger–“cautiously” because that fly has a bit of a streak going. I’ve handed it to six other guys and none have gone more than five casts before connecting with a fish. As it turned out, Casey only had to sweat a single swing. He stuck a fish on his second cast. The streak continues.

OProtubed VB

Later that night, the conversation predictably turned to picking the best spot to fish the following day: either head back to Disneyland and hammer the sure thing or “go long” and try a stretch that hasn’t been fishable during December in years. We knew it wouldn’t be frozen, but the odds were that the water would be super cold and it would fish like a barren wasteland. On the other hand, it just might be do-able and, if so, you’d be swinging to trout that haven’t seen a fly in a month.

Casey persuaded me to “go long” and I found runs there were seemingly in prime conditions–ideal flows and perfect color. But, after two hours of fruitless fishing, doubt started to set in. There were zero signs of life and my feet were significantly colder in this stretch than section I fished the day before.

Doubt turned to second guessing (“Man, I should have gone for the sure thing”), which turned to resignation (“I’m just going to cast out the rest of this run and head home”), which turned to… Bump… (“Whaa?? That was bottom. I’m pretty sure it was bottom. I kind of think it shallows out right over…”) Bump… BUMP… Zzzzinggg…

OSpooled Perfect

After a blistering run–the kind where you instinctively pull your hood off, as if that’s somehow going to help–the fish turned, ran straight at me, and the line went slack. A massive brown? An ass-hooked sucker? Whatever it was, it gave my old Perfect its beefiest workout since my last Deschutes steelhead. And, with that single encounter, the run magically transformed from a ghost town to one brimming with players. With renewed hope, I marched back up to the top of the run, baby-stepped between slow, deliberate swings, and ended up beating the odds, hitting fish after fish, in a stretch with no one else around, on a run that should have been a foot under ice.

Thirty-six hours later, the entire region was blanketed in ten-inches of snow with an overnight low of 9F and a balmy high of 16F. Here’s to making hay.

O

Rod: Beulah Onyx 12′ 4″ 5wt

Head: 425gr Tonic Switch

Tip: Airflo FLO tip (T7)

Flies: Protubed VB, experimental cray, and a dumbed-down version of this in tan/red and black/chartreuse

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: flies, Ishiwata, Onyx 5wt, Rockies, trout

Far less cool than steelheading…

October 13, 2014 By Eric Ishiwata 1 Comment

9-21-14 bm aki

…but the fall trout swing has begun. [photo: Aki Koyama]

 

O

This was my first session with the new Onyx 5wt. To be perfectly honest, terms like “high modulus” and “regressive flex” are beyond me. I’m not a rod designer–I just like to fish.

Good news: the Onyx likes to fish too.

It is as light and sensitive as the 5wt Platinum Spey but with enough guts to throw a far heavier payload.  At one point, I was running 8′ of T-11 and two four-inch Grand Master Flashes, both rigged with Medium Raw Weights. The Onyx chucked them to the far bank with ease.

I did find that the Onyx wants to needs to cast itself. When the wind picked up towards the end of the day, I began over-muscling my casts (bad habit), and my loops collapsed. Once I focused on maintaining a compact stroke and allowed the rod to provide the muscle, I was back in business. This should be welcomed news for those with shoulder issues, or anyone looking to feel less wrecked at the end of the day.

And the Onyx’s feel when playing 15-20″ trout? Pretty awesome. I can’t wait to get it into some real bruisers…

O

Rod: Beulah Onyx 12′ 4″ 5wt

Head: 425gr Tonic Switch

Tip: 8′ of T-11

Flies: ProTubed, variable weight Grand Master Flash (black/copper, olive/copper, tan/gold)

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deep conditioning natural hair

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Ishiwata, Onyx 5wt, Rockies, trout

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