REEEEEEEE-WIND!

Fish On! Photo courtesy of Rogue Angel Heather

Honestly, you just weren't ready for this Angel. So I broke you in lightly-Small photos forcing you to squint...wondering, trying different angles... Some time has passed... your heart is adjusting....so I now bring you full scale versions of the beautiful and highly skilled fisherman, Rogue Angel Heather! Although we have saved you by holding off on a full assault there will be more to come later..... when you are ready again. ;)

Rogue Angel Heather rocking the browns! Courtesy of Rogue Angel Heather.

Rogue Angel Dawn fishin' in the rain.

The Youngest Rogue Angel...

Named Winter for her parents love of the season, Winter's beautiful mother, Rogue Angel Bam, co-owner of Rising Tools, starts her off early with a trip to the river somewhere in Utah....

photos courtesy of Rogue Angel Bam

Fishing with Rogue Angels...

...takes us to some beautiful places

Steelhead Diner

Steelhead Diner in Seattle, Washington
http://www.steelheaddiner.com/

Michael & Young Spey Day 2009

Michael & Young Spey Day, photo courtesy of Aaron Godis

Saturday, April 4th 2009 - 4th Annual Michael & Young Spey Day

Location: Peg Leg Bar, Fraser River - directions can be found via a link on our homepage www.myflyshop.com
The day will start around 9-9:30am. Breakfast & a bbq lunch will be provided. Day will wrap late afternoon, usually between 4 & 5pm.

M&Y Spey Day is a great chance to test out new rods, photo by Aaron Goodis

This year we have demonstrations from Tim Rajeff, Steve Choate & Steve Rajeff, Tyler Kushnir, Tim Arsenault, Aaron Goodis, and more.

Learn from the masters! Photo by Aaron Goodis

Most local reps such as Peter Morrison and Chris Seipio will be attending, and we will have product available to try from Sage, Rio, Winston, Abel, G. Loomis, Airflo, Hatch, Scott, TFO, Echo, Scientific Anglers, and Guideline.
There will be giveaways and prizes to be won throughout the day. It's a free event, and no product is for sale at the event.

The giveaway tent: where the magic happens! Photo by Aaron Goodis

For more info call 1-800-663-6407 or email info@myflyshop.com

If those are not good enough reasons, maybe the beautiful and talented Rogue Angel Adrienne will be willing to help you with your cast:

Baja Rooster Painted by Yuhina

Guess who is going to be attempting to catch one of these in less than a month?

Rooster Fish Watercolor by Yuhina

I guess Jeff and clients hooked quite a few yesterday! Woo Hoo!

And Mark Yuhina is offering to paint anyone's rooster fish that comes on a trip in Baja with us! Free! Yeah, some things in life are.

Spey-o-Rama 2009: Interviewing Rogue Angel Whit

Spey-o-Rama approaches fast...April 17-19th, 2009, and several Rogue Angels will be casting in the competition!!!!!!!!

Rogue Angel Whitney Gould is rigorously practicing for the upcoming event, so I took some time to catch up with her to discuss the upcoming competition:

Rogue Angel Whit with a hatchery steelhead she landed this winter!

Rogue Angels: What is the competition that you are entering at Spey-O-Rama?
Whitney Gould: The womens distance spey casting competition.

RA: Have you done this competition before?
WG: Yes, I have done it two times before.

RA: How or Who first inspired you to compete?
WG: The guys from the Golden Gate Casting Club, especially Frank Chen. I was living in San Franciso for 8 months....It was a place to get away from downtown San Francisco and 10 hour plus work days.

Whitney practicing her single hand distance casting

RA: How did you meet them?
WG: I joined the club when I was practicing casting my single hand rod. I saw some guys practicing for Spey-o-Rama 2006 and they put a spey rod in my hand. Growing up fishing on the east coast I had not been exposed to two handed rods. It was the first time I had seen one much less casted a spey rod.
I went to the 2006 Spey-o-Rama and there was only one female, Donna O'Sullivan competing. The guys actually forgot about her casting because she was casting after the men and they were totally caught up in the Men's Competition where two guys tied for first... so there was a lot of competition and they kind of well, forgot about Donna casting. She was the only woman that I had known that had competed there. So she went out there and did it regardless and made it happen.

RA: Obviously that made an impression on you..
WG: Yeah, she basically held court for women. So that inspired me to say, wow, i want to go out there and cast with Donna and any other woman that wants to step in.

RA: What did you do to prepare the first time?
WG: Well, i moved to Portland and tried to hold on to that. I had a rod that was not working for me, so i felt it was not feasible. Then a few months before Spey-o-Rama, my friend Simon Heish who kept encouraging me to practice, introduced me to Brian Styskal. Brian was working in Carnation along with Aaron Reimer and they gave me spey casting classes at the time. Brian also decided to compete and we would practice together. He helped me with all the basics while having fun with it. My main goal became to get through the four casts....accomplish them at least.

RA: What are the four casts?
WG: Two casts off the right shoulder and two off the left shoulder,
"Line from the right – over right shoulder and over left shoulder
Line from the left – over right shoulder and over left shoulder"
The full competition rules can be found HERE.

RA: What did you do after you competed?
WG: I went fishing with the two handed rod!

RA: How do you feel you are more prepared for the upcoming competition b/c of your experience from the past two years?
WG: I fished mostly the North Umpqua this past summer with a single spey off the left shoulder and my two years of experience at Spey-o-Rama has given me confidence in the basics... now i feel ready to build upon them and have more confidence in looking for what works for me.
Kind of like painting.... when i studied the masters and then began to create my own style, but can always look back to the basics, the teachings of the masters. I feel I have enough information and basics under my belt that i can finally be in the game at the starter level. I feel I can only go up from here.

RA: You are Burkheimer Pro Staff, so will you be fishing a Burkheimer rod?
WG: Hell yeah!

RA: What makes a good rod for this type of casting?
WG: One that I like to cast!

RA: What reel do you use?
WG: I got a Loop Megaloop reel on the way! I am sooooo excited!

Rogue Angel Whitney with a tube fly she tied.

RA: When preparing for Spey-o-Rama, one must prepare themselves both mentally and physically... Do you find yourself choosing Lay's Potato Chips or Atomic Fireballs?
WG: I find the combo equally pleasing. Atomic fire balls ground me where a chip slathered in a hot mustard just makes me smile.

RA: Mentally, what songs do you listen to on the way to casting practice?
WG: HMMMMM let me check my ipod. Huh, lately it looks like, Black Sabbath, Cypress Hill, Ike Reilly Assassination, Palace Brothers, Ladytron and weirdly enough the Stone Temple Pilots.

RA: Do you dance and sing along?
WG: Oh yah especially, with red heads and canadians!

RA: What does this have to do with spey casting practice?
WG: Good form, for me it has not about winning the competition, but about completing the 4 casts well.

Whit just takin' a break.

RA: Who has been the biggest influence of your casting exploration and journey? And why?
WG: Brian Styskal, he has always been there for me and he is a great fishing partner, Plus he is kinda cute. He introduced me to people like Kerry Burkheimer and Simon Heish, Wait actually Simon introduced me to Brian.

RA: Who has more recently given you tips and pointers that may have changed nuances in your cast?
WG: Al Buhr, Leroy Teeple and MaryAnne Dozer. Also fishing with my girlfriends has really helped me to accept myself as a fisherman. Not sure if that makes sense but I feel more confident in showing up, and in knowing that we are all there for each other.

Rogue Angels Whit and Mia fishing

Rogue Angel Whit, Thank you for your insights! We look forward to catching up with you each week as the competition approaches! Best of luck!

On a side note, there are several Angels competing alongside Whitney Gould, including but not limited to :
Amy Hazel, Donna O’Sullivan, Siv Anita Eide, & Mia Sheppard

If you are interested in joining these Angels in competing, please check out the Spey-o-Rama website HERE!

photo of Rogue Angel Jenny, courtesy of Jenny

Little Sister...

Young Rogue Angel "Little Sister"...Gun Slingin', Rod Bearin', Fish Catchin' Machine. 'Nuff said.

Rogue Angel Andrea...

freezing but catching steel on the swung fly, somewhere in British Columbia.

Rogue Angel Jenny's Fish Art II

They are Angels

An excerpt taken from Salmon Crazy Forums.com:

"The hens are pretty. The bucks are cool, in the warrior way.

Confession: I had to take a presentation training class. So I grabbed some photos from this site, males and females from each prevalent species. I referred to them as he and she. That begged the question, "How do you know which is male and which is female?"

Which is what I wanted my audience to ask. My second to last view side was called Fish Heads, wherein I gathered clipped off heads all of the females and males from the previous slides and separated them into two parts.

"It's easy," I explained. "The females are prettier than the males."

And you know what? They are. Go look closely at some of those silver female steelheads in the photos section. They look like angels. They do. They are angels. I really fall for them."

The countdown.....

...has started. I leave to Baja, Mexico in less than a month!

Though the steelhead season is just reaching full swing, all I can think about is the warm sun, green water, and grande Rooster Fish that will be cruising the shore lines.

A group of nice sized Rooster Fish surfing the waves on Baja's East Cape.

We will be loading up the truck, tightening down the camper, and hitting the road.... heading south nearly 2000 miles to the East Cape. Our travel plans are relatively loose, but we hope to make it south in one piece. Actually, hope is an understatement, we are determined!

Once we arrive, we will rendezvous with Jeff deBrown from The Reel Baja, and try to get a handle on the local scene. Throughout our trip, we will be working with Jeff and his company, hosting trips, and doing anything else we can to help him out along the way. For now though, we are tying flies, packing our gear, and making sure everything on the truck is in full working order.

Having never been exposed to saltwater fishing, I am estatic! I mean, I am a steelhead fisherman-come hell or high water we go fishing! it comes with the territory ...subjecting my hands to ridiculous temps until they turn a weird purple-blue color and resembles my late grandmother's hands....layering up into massive amounts of Patagucci gear until I no longer have a feminine form....wearing warm hats to cover my ears until the hair on my head begins to hurt...running around gravel bars just to get the blood in my toes flowing again...this picture of me sums up the often extreme conditions:

I look like a martian.

You get the picture...it is time for warm sunshine, tropical paradise, and bikinis....(sigh) I think I could fall in love with this fishery too. I mean just look at those rooster fish:

Jeff with a Rooster that was teased to the boat

I am particularly excited about hosting trips! Hanging out with other fishermen and cooking some good food for all while watching the waves splash on the beach sounds inviting! I am finally going to confess that I actually CAN cook...my secret is out. As much as I have tried to deny or hide it, I love to eat extremely good food and cook it for my friends. I believe it boils down to providing good food which in turn sparks laughter, happiness, and conversation with my friends.

So, if you want to come eat some good food, have some laughs, and catch some amazing fish in the warm sunshine, email me at rogueangels@gmail.com. Some of you may have noticed a banner over on The Chum about a trip to Baja at the end of May - we will be hosting this week and this is prime time for big roosters and a host of other species. I believe there are one or two open spots for those Moldy Chum dates, as well as several dates open throughout late April and the month of May.

Happy St. Patty's Day

If you don't see us on the river this holiday, maybe you will find us here....

...enjoying some scotch and cigars...


...caught on tape...


...refueling...

Rogue Angel Kelley...

...hearts Steelhead flies. Here she is with one of her recent tube fly ties:

Plunkers Paradise....stepping it up

Someone sent me this from ifish.net, a pretty stellar plunking station...

Rogue Angel Nicole Parks....

...shows that if there is a big fish of any species out there, she is willing and capable of bringing it to hand. Prepare to be bombarded with big fish and beauty.

Rogue Angel Heather

Hailing from Grand Rapids, MI, Heather is an avid outdoorsman with skill, talent, and beauty. These photos prove it all:











Photos courtesy of Heather Reynolds.