Well winter steelhead fishing is in full swing. I started fishing the Umqpua the last week of November. I was able to fish until the 28th of December when the recent rains began to blow out the river. We faced some very low and clear water condtions over the last couple of weeks. These are a few of the fish we caught over the last month. Happy new year.
These are my new sidedrifting rods for this season. I have been building a bunch of rods for not just myself, but others as well. With the recent rains I have been trying to catch up on some that need to get done. I should be caught up in a few days.
Fall fishing has been great. The Umqpua has been the go to place so far this season. Some of the other rivers are starting to fish, but you don't leave fish to find fish. This is the first year in a long time that we are able to harvest wild coho. Here are a few pictures from the last couple of weeks. 
I had fun fishing smallmouth this summer. I worked for myself, and I also did some work for the Big K Ranch in Elkton. Fishing was good, and we caught some bigger fish this summer. As many of you know we had to sift through a bunch of smaller fish to find the bigger ones. I built six new rods that really seemed to be a perfect match for this fishery.
Here are few pictures from the weekend. I was fishing on the Umpqua with Jim and Diane. Diane caught her first steelhead, and it just turned out to be a great day. We had a bunch of fun. Finally we are back on the Umqpua, and with the hold on the weather it looks like we will be there for awhile.
So here she is "Antone". We've spent 96 days together on the water. She's become a great customer, a dear friend, but most of all she's a great person. Over the years we've gotten to know one another very well, and she's become a great friend of my family. This was the trip we took on our 10 year anniversary last week. She caught three nice steelhead. Antone, thanks for being who you are. You are a great friend. I look forward to many more days on the water.
