Steelhead Journal

Keeping A Steelhead Journal By: Marty Sheppard My Steelhead Journal was started four years ago to better understand the success and also lack of success that goes along with swinging flies for Steelhead. I was inspired by the thorough data
	compiled in Bill McMillan's book on "Dry Line Steelhead" and the descriptive writings of Roderick Haig-Brown. My hopes are that this article also would inspire some of you to collect memories of you own and find the same rewards as I have by creating a journal of all of your fishing adventures. The journal itself is small enough to carry with me most times and large enough to include photos that go along with technical data, heroic battles with fish, and random writings of the experiences. 10" x 6" is a fine size. Mine is carried in a zip lock bag to keep water out. Photos are a major entertaining factor that are included in my journal. I carry a small digital
camera while fishing (also in a zip-lock). That makes it easily to take quick shots. This allows me to record action that would be missed with a larger camera that was in the car or boat. I download to the computer and print small 2x2 prints that are pasted in the appropriate dated entry. Sometimes the creative writing mood isn't there and I will just enter the technical data, slap a photo in there and leave room to make an entry later. While sharing my journal with friends they mostly just look at the photos. Technical data included is divided into many areas and each entry starts out with the same template. Date: River: Weather: WeatherUnderground Water Flow: USGS Sights Water Temp: Thermometers Flies Successful: Steelhead Flies Flies Unsuccessful: Check our competitors web sites. It has been important to include the fishless days in my journal as well. They are not as fun to write about but still have proved to be a major part of the learning curve. Comparing the good fishing to the not so good fishing and trends start to compile. One things is for sure and that is that I will never figure these fish out 100%. That is part of the fun of it . Just when you get a theory it can can be dashed by some crazy Steelhead out to prove you wrong. One of the best pleasures are the good memories you can document and look back upon later. Writing about the good times had with great friends is priceless. Telling tales in descriptive creative writing is a rewarding hobby. After four years my journal is very much a reference and it has increased productivity of hooking Steelhead.

A Night and Day in Paradise
Bob Larsell

Bachmann's camp.

I had overheard that Mark was going down from Mack’s Canyon the next day to set up camp for a couple of clients. I asked if I could help, since it’s my day off. He says that he’ll be coming by my place around 3:00 and to be ready to follow him down the Access Road. Laura offers to come along and prepare dinner at camp, so it’s all arranged. As we cross White River, we

notice that it's pretty muddy and sure enough when we get to the Deschutes it's slightly off-color. At Mack's Canyon our gear gets loaded onto the Duckworth for the 20 minute ride downstream to set up camp.

As we make our way down, it’s surprising to see how many of the campsites are already occupied, both by jetboats and driftboats, not only are there salmon and steelhead in the river now, but last Saturday was opening day for deer season.

Mark spots an open site, one we’d camped at with him before near Bull Run Canyon, fronted by some very fishy looking water. He pulls up slowly, so as to avoid scraping the bottom on rocks in the shallow area where he was going to moor the jet, but with the added weight of all the gear and the fact that the river had dropped about a foot in the last week, we ended up getting out and bringing her in by hand, pulling and pushing while avoiding the rocks under our studded wading boots.

OK, now to go about the task of setting up: two sleeping tents with cots, a potty shelter, and the cook tent, all of which is hand carried up the hill from the boat, along with the coolers, chairs, personal items, and of course, fishing gear. After camp is set up, Mark uses the built in wash-down pump to hose out the dust from the boat, and he suggests we go see if we might entice a fish or two to our flies. While Laura marinates the fish for dinner, I set up my spey rod and walk upstream a couple hundred yard, leaving her the water right in front of camp.

By now the Deschutes has colored even more, but a fish rolls near the opposite bank. My expectations are high, too high maybe. You know how hard it is to catch steelhead when the Deschutes is muddy. To increase the odds a bright blue marabou spider is attached to my dropper in hopes that it will be seen in the murk. Laura and I fish for the last hour and a half before dark. She gets a pretty good pull, but doesn't connect. I get lots of casting practice.

We get out of our waders in the lantern light. She cooks dinner. It's delicious, a steelhead I’d caught last Friday before work, along with yams and beans, cooked over a Coleman camp stove, there’s just nothin’ better!

OK, I’m on dish duty. Then we all sit in camp chairs facing the river, enjoying each others company and the serenity of the canyon.

Sleeping out for the first time in a couple of years means I sleep very lightly, and since it’s a warm night, I leave the window flap open in our tent. Along about 3 AM, I hear a light rain begin, and head down the hill to the cook tent to put the chairs and waders inside, Mark has also wakened, but I have camp secured. We all go back to sleep with the sound of rain on the roof.

Around six, I hear Mark setting the chairs back out and get up to see if there’s anything we can help with. But he advises that he’s headed to the top of the run and that Laura and I might try the same water we fished last night. As the light comes up it becomes obvious that the water has even less visibility that it did last night. No steelhead come to our flies.

We stop fishing around 8 and begin packing our things for the ride back to Mack’s. Before leaving, we sit down again and all share some banana bread muffins before backing the boat out and heading upstream so Mark can meet his clients.

While we are unloading our stuff from the Duckworth, a couple of hunters ferry a nice three point buck across the river to the boat ramp. They are very excited about their kill. We say goodbye to Mark and drive out the washboard road, trying to decide if we want to try some other water along the way.

There is a certain stretch that I like to fish, so I ask Laura to pull over and we spend some time in our "homewater". About 45 minutes into the run, I hook a steelhead. This fish pulls like a freight train, taking line fast enough to bruise my knuckles with the reel handle and singe my finger on the line. My Redington two-hander is bent a full 90 degrees as the fish holds in the current. Then I’m pulling just hard enough to gain some line back, another run, there, she jumps out of the water and tries to bury her nose again, but she’s getting tired and I’m gaining back line a crank at a time as I move toward shore, going downstream as I do so I can turn her toward me.

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I've had the privilege of reading Marty's Fishing Journals. What marvelous adventures they portray. Pictures of steelhead, salmon and small mouth bass are accompanied with faces of happy anglers. All are back-dropped with beautiful rivers, each in their natural glory. The template is there for each day of fishing. Beyond that there is free-form writing and each adventure takes on a personality personality of its own. Marty's Journals are unique. I have seen nothing else like them. The editor: MB

Steelhead Journal

fishpond Swift Current Thermometer