Dark Days of Winter

This year has been an ass kicker for me in a multitude of ways and fishing really has been on the backburner for the most part, especially this time of year with the chocolate flows of the last month and the subservient grabs from Chambers Creek and Alsea hatchery fish. Canceling two coastal trips over the last three weeks I have done more Christmas shopping and drinking then I would like to admit. But the other day my good friend Mike Gamby and I trekked over a snowy pass to fish a trout stream. Not casting a spey rod on moving water in well over a month, it was a refreshing reprieve from the rainy days we have been all complaining about on the West side of Pacific Northwest.

















Though the river was still off color and higher then I have seen it in years, we were still able to find some worthy opponents to cast flies to. The descent winter fishing wasn't as revitalizing as just getting out of Dodge and getting off my ass. One of the things I have always enjoyed was the ability to fish year round while here in the Pacific Northwest. Scott Richmond once wrote a book called Fishing Oregon's Endless Season and to this day believe that is true. There is always something you can fish for if you know the lakes and rivers around you and if you are willing to take the time and spend a little gas. It is well worth the extra dollars and taking care of your mental health is one of the most important things you can do for yourself with the Seasonal Affective Disorder that effects us all during these dark days of winter.
















There is hope on the horizon through, the Winter Solstice will be here in just five days and we will start to see our days start lengthen. Cold dark days will continue, but lengthen and warmer weather and grabby native steelhead are on the horizon. Like most that read this blog, I am looking forward to those longer days and less volatile river flows in the next coming months. You will all see this to be true for most fishermen when the bitching and moaning ends on all those fishing forums end and arguments about MOW tips and over prescribed skagit heads end. These dark short days of winter will end soon.