Steelhead and Mia

two very beautiful and wonderful things.

Womans Steelhead Getaway

Womans Steelhead Getaway

photo courtesy of Mia Sheppard

Join Mia Sheppard and Whitney Gould for 2 nights and 3 days of fishing for Steelhead on the John Day River November 14th-16th, 2009.

Our goal is to introduce you to practical applications for catching summer and winter Steelhead in a fun, friendly environment. We will share our knowledge of Steelhead fishing with you and build your confidence as an independent angler. We stress confidence, enthusiasm, and fun in the outdoors.

We will teach you how to read the water, line management, what flies to use, knots to tie for catching Steelhead and how to safely release a wild fish. During the day we will work with you to improve your Spey casting techniques or teach you a new cast with a double handed rod. In the evening enjoy dinner and learn to tie flies for winter and summer Steelhead fishing and make new friend to fish with in the future.

Lodging will be in a rustic cabin, on a private ranch with shared rooms, enjoying a 360 degree view of wheat fields and an endless horizon. We will fish 6 miles of private water 2 days and float the 3rd day.

Mia Sheppard is the co-owner of Little Creek Outfitters with her husband Marty and has been fishing for Steelhead for 8 years with a double handed rod on the John Day River and other rivers throughout Oregon. She is a river steward for the John Day River with Native Fish Society. She recently attended Spey-O-Rama where she placed 4th.Whitney started fly fishing at the age of 11. In the last 3 years she has focused on mastering Steelhead fishing with a double handed rod. This year she placed first in Spey-O-Rama and she is in the process of getting her FFF certification for being a casting instructor. Mia and Whitney are pro staffers for CF Burkheimer.

This clinic is open to beginners and experienced anglers. Cost is $950.00 USD, which includes lodging, meals, and flies. Demo rods are available if needed. Price does not include gratuities, fishing licenses or alcoholic beverages. Limited to 4 anglers, 2 spaces available. To inquire or book a space, contact Mia.

If I Can't Have A Day Off,

Then god bless those clients that hand me the rod for a few casts:

More Than One Angel Hearts Roosterfish

Mini Rogue Angel Baby J has taken a liking to roosterfish....give her some time and then expect to hear the chronicles of her journey running down the man.

photo courtesy of B2

Cash-fer-clunkers

I jus found out that cash for clunkers is just fer cars, not fer husbands er old spinnin' rods er old fishin' gear. What am I goin do with all these old weird jelly worms y'all?

THE END.

Loretta "If yer rated X, yer some kinda gold that even men turnin' silver try to make" Rose Wylie

Big Fatty Silver On the Fly.

me and joe and big fatty coho.

Alaska Fishing Blog

Introducing a new blog by another Rogue Angel, Serena Kraft. Serena grew up in Anchorage, Alaska loving all things fishing where she met her perfect partner, Brian, Alaska Sportsman's Lodge owner. She has spent many a day casting to beautiful Alaskan rainbows with her fly rod...expect to see photos of Serena and I fishing the Naknek this fall.
This summer Serena launched the Alaska Fishing Blog.
This blog showcases great photos from the lodge I work at, Alaska Sportsman's Bear Trail Lodge on the Naknek River, as well as our sister lodge AK Sportsmans on the Kvichak River. Today she posted yours truly on the blog! Check it out. And to stay tuned to Serena's writing look over to the right of this post under "Rogue Angels Rocking It Elsewhere".
-k8

Expensive day.

Our fuel pump the other day.

sockeye

that red mess in the upper left hand corner of the river is sockeye

there is the arial view of the red mess

Mauw

I hiked my clients into a back channel today where the slightest noise made you jump out of your skin in fear of spooking the big beasts.

Sight fishing large rainbows and fatty char in glacial blue pools of water amongst startling reddened sockeye...

I watched two sockeye heads, whose bodies had suffered the fate of the big boy float on past us. As the second one dead drifted along with flesh hanging off it, a twenty-four inch rainbow moved from under a log six feet over to mauw* the flesh. My heart jumped.
I tied a flesh pattern on the line and watched as my newly skilled angler drifted it through the water. The greedy bow wasted no time moving over and I observed him CHOMP the flesh fly like a hungry wolf.
I would have a picture had we not found it necessary to high tail it out of there as Brutus came out of nowhere huffing and puffing.

*mauw, prounounced like its written or like Chairman Mao, meaning to bite the living hell out of something

this is a small one!

Le chien, le poisson, les JoJos et les PBR

"Oui"

"Le chien et le poisson"

"Rogue Angel Kelley avec les JoJo et les PBR"

"Rogue Angel 'Cookie', trés chic"

"J'adore le chien"


FIN

New Kid on the Block

Photo courtesy of Hannah and Flyfishergirl.com

There's a new kid on the block. Rogue Angel Rosie.
Rogue Angel Hannah reports on the Rose over at Flyfishergirl.com

Belly Flop.

We call you ocean.

We call you sea, snow, gulf, strait, bight,bay, lagoon, river, falls, creek,stream, lake, pond, spring.

We call you rain.

Did You Know?

That Dolly Varden are named after a character in Charles Dickens' novel, Barnaby Rudge, who wore a pink polka dot dress?

Like The First Day of Snow.

In early July, the Crumpster and I team-guided a group of four guys, all of whom had barely picked up a fly rod in their lives. We went to "Brooks". You may know of Brooks River in Katmai National Park as the famous place where you see the bears on the waterfall catching salmon. You've seen the pictures:



Brooks can at times be tough for the beginning angler. Due to pressure from other anglers and pressure from bears, the Brooks rainbows can be a touch pickier. So I was slightly skeptical that the day would be amazing.

At Brooks, the bear viewing and fishing is so popular that they employ many rangers to protect the tourists and fishermen. Overzealous at times with their jobs, the rangers will often hold you at bay from crossing bridges or walking trails because a bear is 50 yards away. Granted, they haven't had any serious attacks from bears, so I guess what they are doing works. But all the while a bit frustrating for guide and clients as the rangers ask you to patiently wait for bears at times for over an hour.

This particular day at Brooks held us up for about twenty minutes waiting for a bear 50 yards away to move to 65 yards...we waited our turn behind many tourists and then followed in behind everyone crossing the main bridge. Approaching the water I spotted several nice trout over 20 inches at the gate of the bridge. Looking past those trout my stomach began flipping around as I realized that just beyond those bright beautiful rainbows were several hundred silvery salmon swimming upstream. It felt like the first day of snow...giddy childish excitement. Sputtering out words and pointing I nearly jumped up and down alerting anyone in range to this miraculous event. The Sockeye Are Running!

Flooded with emotion I thought of the journey of these salmon and how far they have come. The cornerstone of the ecological system of Bristol Bay has arrived once again and we can be assured that there will be many big fat trout this summer and fall to catch, bears to keep us on our toes, eagles to fascinate us, and much more wildlife due to the abundance of sockeye present feeding the circle of life. Welcome back Sockeye.

Here are some photos from our sockeye season:

Guide Extraordinaire MJMK with a much smaller sockeye than mine.

Everyone loves sockeye.

The sockeye line up.

Rogue Angel Amy with her first sockeye.

And Rogue Angel Amy cooking us up a shore lunch with her freshly caught sockeyes.

Orange.

Rogue Angel Linda fishing in dangerous waters for serious results:

the release.

It was a good day.

I'll Fly Away.