Steelhead Fly Fishing Schools

	*	Search	Catalog	Trips & Schools	Bargains	SALE ENDED
	Our Waters		Order Info	Steelheadquarters	Events	SALE ENDED

Topics
Steelhead Schools
Sage Says
Powerflex® Core
Fox Tail Scandi
Tibor Spey
All pictures are Mouse-over.

Upper Sandy River, 12/20/08. Photo by: Josh Linn.

Steelhead Fly Fishing Schools: There is no better gift than knowledge. Need a last minute present? Nothing is easier than giving one of our schools! Don't know which to buy - call for help: 1-800-266-3971
“SPEY” Casting / Beginning – Intermediate
Special Discount On Spey Casting DVD For Students
Winter Steelhead Fly Fishing 101
Winter Steelhead "Finishing School" with George Cook
	Because of its unique location, The Fly Fishing Shop is able to offer high quality fly fishing schools. Our shop boasts the most complete indoor fly fishing classroom on the west coast of North America. Our instructors are second to none in their dedication and understanding of the sport of fly fishing. Our community boasts a number of unique man-made amenities that are well suited to beginning anglers. The Mount Hood area has a myriad of small trout streams and lakes that are well suited to both entry level and intermediate anglers. Within easy reach are many fabled steelhead/salmon rivers such as the Sandy, Deschutes, John Day and Clackamas. Each has a different personality and is suited to different experience levels. Take our classes and you will learn a lot in a short period of time. 1-800-266-3971 flyfish@flyfishUSA.com

Fly Fishing: “SPEY” Casting / Beginning – Intermediate Spey casting can be learned quite easily with the assistance of a professional instructor. This class starts with the most basic fundamentals so that you will have a solid foundation on which to build your "Spey Casting Skill Set". Our approach allows you to easily understand the scientific principles of how a rod and line work together to propel your fly to the target. Our crash course starts in a nice warm class room with donuts and coffee. Here rod and line theories are discussed in detail so that before you get to the water, you have an understanding of the principals you are going to use. Then you will ride to the river with your instructors. There your instructors will demonstrate the theories you have already explored. Then you will take a rod into your own hands and be able to practice what you have learned. You will be amazed at how easy it is. All the major Spey Casts will be explored. Both floating and sinking tip lines will be learned. Time: 8 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. (Lunch is provided). Meet at: The Fly Fishing Shop - Instructors: Mark Bachmann and Josh Linn Cost (8 hrs.): $150. You will need the following equipment: Waders, boots, rain coat, hat and polarized glasses. You may bring your own rod and reel if you want to. Properly balanced Spey Outfits will be provided. (6) Students total. First come, first served. Deposits are payments in full. Deposits are non-refundable unless water/weather conditions prohibit class. SEE CLASS POLICY
Item	Description	Price	To Top
SPEY-CL-010308	Spey Casting Class, January 03, 2009	$150	-->SALE ENDED
SPEY-CL-020708	Spey Casting Class, February 07, 2009	$150	-->SALE ENDED

One-Day Winter Steelhead Fly Fishing School
This is Winter Steelhead Fly fishing 101.
Take a pontoon boat ride down a Local River with:
Mark Bachmann and Josh Linn.

Winter Steelhead fly fishing is very practical if you know how. Being able to find fish and being able to present the fly properly are key factors. Save yourself five years of experimenting on your own. We will show you how.
This school that will cover a lot of water and fishing knowledge in one day. Length of the class is 8-hours on the water. All schools conducted on the Sandy River. Big, safe, roomy pontoon boats will enable us to cover six miles of river during the class. Two students per boat/instructor format.

Learn how to locate steelhead water and how to approach it. Emphasis will be on giving you a solid foundation of skills to build on, with a high priority given to hooking fish during the class. We want to give you maximum advantage by having as many fish hooked during this class as possible. Nothing teaches you more about fishing than being where fish are being hooked and landed. Emphasis will be on spey rod use and sinking-tip line fishing. Students should at least have moderate casting skills. This is a fishing class.

If you need basic knowledge or a brush-up on Spey Casting skills, we suggest signing up for the January 3 Spey Casting Class and be ready to use these skills to catch winter steelhead.

What you need to bring:
Bring your own waders and rain gear. Bring your own rod/reel set up if you want to.
A variety of premium quality 2-hand rod/reel set-ups will be available for you to use at no extra charge. Flies are supplied.
A hot lunch will be served on the river.
There will be a very short rest period after lunch.
Meet at The Fly Fishing Shop at 6:30am for half-hour orientation.  Coffee and donuts will be served.

Watch an expert guide as he fishes and discloses the secrets and proven methods that put fish on the beach. Get a lot of hands-on help so that you too can be productive.
Arrive back at The Fly Fishing Shop at 6:00pm.
What our customers say.
A report on a Steelhead School.
First come, first served.
Deposits are payments in full.
Deposits are non-refundable unless water/weather conditions prohibit class. SEE CLASS POLICY

Catch winter steelhead with your Spey Rod...

WST-CLASS-010909

Winter Steelhead Fly Fishing School
January 09, 2009, Sandy River, 2-students per boat, 4-students maximum

$225
Per Person

-->SALE ENDED

WST-CLASS-021309

Winter Steelhead Fly Fishing School
February 13, 2009, Sandy River, 2-students per boat, 4-students maximum

$225
Per Person

-->SALE ENDED

One-Day Winter Steelhead Finishing School
with George Cook as guest instructor.

Take a drift boat ride down a local River with:
Mark Bachmann, Josh Linn and George Gook
The Fly Fishing Shop has a long history of collaboration with the best Spey Casting Instructors in the world. George Cook has helped us with many schools in the past, often in collaboration with other elite instructors such as Simon Gawesworth or Brian Silvey.
He has been anchorman at the last six of the Western Hemisphere's largest two-day Spey Casting Schools:
The Sandy River Spey Clave.

It has always been a goal of ours to offer the widest array of "finishing schools" for the spey casting aficionado. An experienced angler might want to gauge his/her skills against a professional guide/instructor. During a guided trip you rarely see how your guide would actually fish the water because they are helping you fish. During this school you will see how the most experienced anglers would fish differing water types. That is why we have teamed with George Cook for a couple of special days aimed at taking you, the accomplished angler to the next skill level. Mark, George and Josh are the kind of guides that fish on their days off. They live for steelhead fly fishing. George Gook is a special casting coach. George has fished all the great steelhead fisheries of North America and has fished from the Arctic to the Antarctic. He has guided in Alaska and ran Sage's elite casting schools. George's Alaskabou series of flies is (after 20-years) still the standard for steelhead and Alaska salmon. We are very fortunate to be able to work with George in this unique venue. Combined with our unique class room and PowerPoint presentations, we believe that this class offers benefits available nowhere else, and will appeal to any student who has taken any other classes on how to catch steelhead/salmon with two-hand rods. This School will be a lot of fun and a memorable experience for all involved.

George Cook has been a casting instructor at The Sandy river Spey Clave since 2003...

Winter Steelhead fly fishing is very practical if you know how. Being able to find fish and being able to present the fly properly are key factors. We have all heard from clients that catching fish comes easy for guides. This is especially true of certain guides. They are the kind of guides that fish on their days off. They are constantly refining their skills. We are those kind of guides. We find that this kind of guide also make the best teacher. We just have more to offer. George Cook is this kind of guide/instructor and has been part of our team for many

years. In this school you will continue to refine skills in understanding steelhead water and how to approach it. Emphasis will be on refining casting and fishing skills. We want to give you maximum advantage by having as many fish hooked during this class as possible. Nothing teaches you more about fishing than being where fish are being hooked and landed. Emphasis will be on spey rod use and sinking-tip line fishing. Students should have above beginner casting skills. This is a fishing class. This is the third level of class offered this

season.
In preparation for this class we suggest you start with the February 7, Spey Casting School, then the February 13, Winter Steelhead 101 Class.

Catch steelhead...

WST-CLASS-022709

Winter Steelhead Finishing School
February 27, Clackamas River, 2-students per boat, 6-students maximum

$250
Per Person

-->SALE ENDED

WST-CLASS-022809

Winter Steelhead Finishing School
February 28, Clackamas River, 2-students per boat, 6-students maximum

$250
Per Person

-->SALE ENDED

WST-CLASS-02272809B

Winter Steelhead Finishing School
February 27 and 28, Clackamas River, 2-students per boat, 6-students maximum

Both days
$450
Per Person

-->SALE ENDED

	Rio's Modern Spey Casting, (3)-DVD Set, 4-hours Cast of Characters: Simon Gawesworth, George Cook, Mike McCune, Scott O'Donnell, Dana Sturn, Ed Ward. The most comprehensive film on spey casting ever made. This triple disc DVD from Rio stars the notable team of experts listed above. Not only learn from these masters the classic Single Spey, Double Spey, Switch cast and Roll cast, but also the modern spey casts such as the Snake Roll, Circle Spey, Snap-T, Snap-Z, Wambat cast, Underhand cast, Spiral Spey, Spiral Double Spey, Jelly
Roll, Perry Poke and Skagit casting. This film also teaches the viewer the most common faults to recognize and avoid and has superb bio-kinetic footage so you and study the hand, arm and body movement of each cast. There is also great information on casting sinking lines, saltwater spey casting and trout fishing spey casts with single hand rods.
Item	Description	Price	To Top
260695	Rio's Modern Spey Casting, 3-DVD set	$49.95	-->SALE ENDED
Special Discount On Rio Spey Casting DVD For Students Learning to cast well is serious business. Learning to cast really, really well takes time devoted to study and practice. Study demands that the student have the best reference works available for direction and re-enforcement. Rio's Modern Spey Casting DVD is the best reference work available on the subject of spey casting and referring to it often will help you become a better spey caster. We want our students to have the most advantages. That is why we are offering a 25% discount on this 3-DVD set if it is ordered with any of the schools listed on this page.
260695	Rio's Modern Spey Casting, 3-DVD Set, if ordered with, SPEY-CL-010308, SPEY-CL-020708, WST-CLASS-010909, WST-CLASS-021309, WST-CLASS-022709, WST-CLASS-022809, or WST-CLASS-02272809B	$37.46	-->SALE ENDED

Sage Says Get Involved
If you haven't taken a look at the 2009 Sage Company web site , we suggest you do so. You will notice an emphasis on stewardship of the fisheries we all love. Remember Sages are built in the Pacific Northwest where stewardship is a way of life. Our way of life too. That's why we live here!

Sage is the leader. Sage is the company that all other fly rod makers would like to be. They are the leaders in both technology and personal reputation. They have the best team in the game of producing, delivering, and warranting cutting edge fly rods. Four of the rods that will be showcased during our on the water schools with George Cook are the 7136-4 Z-AXIS, 8129-4 Z-AXIS, 8134-4 Z-AXIS and 9143-4 Z_AXIS. Within this four rod set, the 7136-4 Z-AXIS and 9143-4 Z_AXIS have similar traditional progressive actions. These rods have plenty of power to reach all of the water your skills will permit. They have compliant manners and actions that are easily mastered. They allow you to concentrate on fishing, rather than on casting. For that reason the 7136-4 Z-AXIS is my go-to rod most of the time. Most of the time it will deliver the fly to the target with the least amount of energy drain. The 9143-4 Z_AXIS is for bigger water like B.C or the Clearwater. On the local rivers water conditions can dictate that you have got to get your fly down deep. Sage's new super-sticks make it easy. They are the 8129-4 Z-AXIS and 8134-4 Z-AXIS . They could be termed European Action or fast action rods. I would term them progressive tip power actions. These rods excel in the winter where raw power is sometimes needed to combat inclement atmospheric conditions (wind). Each rod likes short heads and big flies. They have the backbone to deal with large steelhead, and larger salmon. These rods can impress even the most jaded spey rod guru elite...even to the point of awe and wonder. Check out what Simon said about the 8129-4...

7136-4 Z-AXIS			Length: 13' 6" Line: 7 Pieces: 4

A perfect summer run rod that can see duty for big Alaskan rainbows and TDF Sea Run Browns as well. Designed specifically for rivers such as the Deschutes, Rogue, Umpqua, Grande Ronde and John Day, for swinging flies or nymphing, this is the ideal Oregon rod. It has also been recognized as a premier winter rods for rivers such as the Sandy and Clackamas. This rod excels at casting Skagit heads and heavy sinking tips. It has an action that makes throwing larger flies to fishable distances easy. Reel Match: Sage 6010, Saracione 3 3/4W, Tibor Riptide, Ross Momentum 6, Ross CLA 6, Nautilus 12. Line Match: Rio Skagit 500 or Air Flow Skagit Compact 510, no Cheater: with Rio 9-weight, 129-grain tips This makes a 42', 629-grain head. My favorite line for this rod is a 510-Compact, 15' Rio tip, Rio Powerflex® Core Shooting Line. Rio 500-grain Skagit & 510-compact are nearly impossible to tell apart. Rio WindCutter 7/8/9: Sweet, the all around choice for pure floating and sink tip work. Rio Skagit 450 with 5’ Cheater + 15’ tip: The line speed “performance” choice. Rio Skagit 500 with 2.5 Cheater + 15’ tip: A little heavy. Load aspect may work well for some. Sink Tip Use: 15’ 129 grain in type 3, 6 and 150 grain in type 8. T-14 in 9’, 11’ and 13’ Rod weight: 7 1/8 Ounces
Item	Series	Line Wt	Action	Handle	Price	To Top
7136-4	Z-AXIS	7	Fast	D	$800	-->SALE ENDED

8129-4 Z-AXIS			Length: 12' 9" Line: 8 Pieces: 4

Super tactical spey rod. From Kings in Alaska to winter steelhead in the Pacific Northwest, don't be fooled by the short length. Long casts come surprisingly easy with minimum effort. Line Match: 8/9/10 WindCutter, AFS 8/9, Skagit 600 w/out Cheater. Sinking Tip: 15' 150-grain type 3, 6, & 8 as well as T-14 in 9' to 13' lengths. Reel Matches: Sage 6112 , Saracione 3 3/4W, Tibor Riptide, Nautilus 12, Ross CLA 6, Ross Momentum 6. Rod weight: 7 3/8 Ounces
Item	Series	Line Wt	Action	Handle	Price	To Top
8129-4	Z-AXIS	8	Fast	F	$785	-->SALE ENDED

8134-4 Z-AXIS			Length: 13' 4" Line: 8 Pieces: 4

Fast action spey rod. This is a longer brother to the 8129-4. New for 2009, will be a favorite stick Kings in Alaska to winter steelhead in the Pacific Northwest. Long casts come surprisingly easy with minimum effort. George Cook says he likes a Rio 550 Skagit for this rod the best. Some casters like a 540-grain Airflo Skagit Compact even better. I guess I liked the feel of the rod better when it was bent deeper, so a 600-grain Skagit felt better to me. I was using a Rio 15' type-6, 11-weight tip for a total of 766-grains. This combination generates an incredible burst of energy at the end of the cast. However, lighter heads of 669 to 709-grains gave plenty of line speed and offered more finesse. Here's what I wrote last October... Line Match: 8/9/10 WindCutter, AFS 8/9, Skagit 500 to 600 w/out Cheater. Sinking Tip: 15' 150-grain type 3, 6, & 8 as well as T-14 in 9' to 13' lengths. Reel Matches: Sage 6112, Saracione 3 3/4W, Tibor Riptide, Nautilus 12, Ross CLA 6, Ross Momentum 6. Rod weight: 8 3/4 Ounces
Item	Series	Line Wt	Action	Handle	Price	To Top
8134-4	Z-AXIS	8	Fast	F	$795	-->SALE ENDED

9143-4 Z-AXIS			Length: 14' 3" Line: 9 Pieces: 4

The ideal winter steelhead, King Salmon combo rod has arrived (for those traveling to the Kola Peninsula this is your stick). The Clackamas to the Skagit, the Kispoix to the Kanektok, this is the rod to “get-er-done”. Sink Tip Use: 15’ 166 grain type 3, 6 and 8. T-14 in 11’ 13’ and 15’ lengths. Reel Match: Sage 6112, Saracione 4", Tibor Riptide, Ross Momentum 6, Ross CLA 7, Nautilus 12S. Line Match: Rio WindCutter 9/10/11: If you’re in the WindCutter Club-this is your line. Rio Skagit 600 with 5’ Cheater + 15’ tip. Spot on, nuff said. Rio Skagit 550 with custom 7.5’ cheater (from 10’ cut to 7.5’): pretty nice. Rod weight: 8 7/8 Ounces
Item	Series	Line Wt	Action	Handle	Price	To Top
9143-4	Z-AXIS	9	Fast	E	$845	-->SALE ENDED

Rio Powerflex® Core Shooting Lines Improved for 2009! The Powerflex Core shooting lines have a strong monofilament core that results in thin diameters, great strength and durability and a very slick XS Technology coating (new for 2009) for ultimate distance. These shooting lines are available with either a supple coldwater coating for tangle free performance or with a hard tropical coating that will not wilt in the heat. These lines feature a large welded loop at the front end to speedily attach a shooting head. Two densities available: Floating and Intermediate. Each size is color coded for easy recognition.
Rio Powerflex® Core are the ultimate shooting lines when distance and manageability are important, they combine the slickness and suppleness needed for the highest in performance and are virtually tangle free. These lines were developed for fishing with indicators for salmon and steelhead in the Great Lakes and West Coast fisheries, as well as being an excellent choice when used with any shooting heads. Length: 100 ft (30.5 m)

Item	Description	Size/Color	Price	To Top
19030	Rio Powerflex® Core Shooting Line, Coldwater, Floating, Orange	.024"	$34.95	-->SALE ENDED
19033	Rio Powerflex® Core Shooting Line, Coldwater, Intermediate Sink, Orange Tint	.024"	$34.95	-->SALE ENDED
19031	Rio Powerflex® Core Shooting Line, Coldwater, Floating, Chartreuse	.030	$34.95	-->SALE ENDED
19034	Rio Powerflex® Core Shooting Line, Coldwater, Intermediate Sink, Chartreuse Tint	.030	$34.95	-->SALE ENDED
19032	Rio Powerflex® Core Shooting Line, Coldwater, Blue	.035	$34.95	-->SALE ENDED
19035	Rio Powerflex® Core Shooting Line, Coldwater, Intermediate Sink, Blue Tint	.035	$34.95	-->SALE ENDED
19036	Rio Powerflex® Core Shooting Line, Tropical, Tan	.035	$39.95	-->SALE ENDED
19037	Rio Powerflex® Core Shooting Line, Tropical, Intermediate Sink, Tan Tint	.035	$39.95	-->SALE ENDED

Fox Tail Scandi Fly
This style of fly works well in sizes from 3/4-inch to 3-inches. It is especially good in sizes 1-inch to 2.5-nches. It is great for tying mid-size flies for fishing deep in winter and spring.

Pattern: Red Rocket Simple Tube
Tube: Yuri Shumakov Skittle Tube over X-Small
                               Frödin F.I.T.S. Tubing
Hook: #4 TMC 105
Tying Cement: Hard As Hull
Thread: Black 8/0 Uni
Tail: none
Wing, First Layer: Arctic Fox Tail, color King Fisher       Blue with Angel Hair, Blue
Wing, Second Layer: Arctic Fox Tail, color Purple
                            with Angel Hair, Purple
Rear Collar Hackle: Black Saddle Hackle, tied tip first
Wing, top Layer: Arctic Fox Tail, color black
                            with Angel Hair, Black Ice
Flash: Pearl Krystal Flash, Two strands each side
Front Collar Hackle: Kingfisher Blue Saddle Hackle,
                             tied tip first
Eyes: Jungle Cock Eyes (optional)
Head Cement: Hard As Hull

Cut an inch long section of extra small Frödin F.I.T.S. Tubing and insert it in a Yuri Shumakov Long Range Tube. Heat the rear end of the plastic tubing so it will not pull through the brass tube.

Secure the tubes to your tube tying tool and then anchor your thread to the plastic tube and wind up onto the front of the brass tube. A drop of Zap-A-Gap in the windings is a good addition here.

Tie in a sparse wing of Kingfisher blue arctic fox tail about 1 1/2 times as long as the Yuri Shumakov Long Range Tube.

Trim off the wing butts and tie in three strands of King Fisher Blue Angel Hair. Tie the strands in the middle, then pull them back and tie over them so you have six ends.

Trim the ends of the Angel Hair so that they are 1 1/2 times as long as the fox hair wing.

The Angel Hair accent is kept very sparse.

Tie in a sparse wing of purple dyed arctic fox tail hair. This wing should be about twice as long as the first wing.

Tie in a black saddle hackle tip first.

Fold the hackle back and wrap four turns.

Add three strands of Purple Angel Hair tied in the middle and trimmed slightly longer than the fox hair.

Add a Kingfisher Blue Saddle Hackle.

The blue hackle should be slightly longer than the black hackle.

Add a sparse wing of black dyed arctic fox tail hair. This layer should be about 1/3rd longer than the purple hair.

Add three strands of Black Ice Angel Hair tied in the middle to form six ends trimmed to the length of the black hair. Over this add two strands of Pearl Krystal Flash tied in the middle for four ends. Leave them about 1/2 inch longer than the black part of the wing.

Add jungle cock eyes that are about as long as the brass tube. Tie off and whip finish the fly.

Remove the fly from the tying mandrel and trim it about 1/16" ahead of the thread.

Melt the tube to smooth the end. be very careful not to burn the thread.

Ad a drop of Hard As Hull or a coat of epoxy to finish the head.

The finished fly is elegant to look at, is easy to cast, sinks quickly and swims in the currents

Tibor Spey Reel Available Now! This is to cool to ignore. Specifically colored to match Sage Z-AXIS, G. Loomis Roaring River, Winston Boron, C.F. Burkheimer and Beulah spey rods, this reel stands out in any crowd, yet matches the environment that anadromous salmonids live in. Two-handed fly rodding gets a sure-handed Tibor update in this modern spin on one of fishing's most hallowed traditions. Engraved with a Steelhead Trout and a traditional Celtic knot pattern, the Tibor Spey Reel features a modified drag system with a drag knob outlined in "witness marks." These marks allow you to precisely set, loosen, keep track of and then reset your drag for various tippet tensions required while striking, fighting and delicately landing larger fish. The Tibor spey Reel also features a

	QuickChange spool system which allows you to change out spools on a moment's notice. With only a single moving part - the one-piece stainless steel end cap - there is nothing to remove, no loose parts, tricky threading or alignments. Finished in a non-reflective traditional moss green, and featuring its own unique spool design, the Tibor spey is precisely weighted and balanced for heavier lines and rods used in this classic form of fishing. Weight: 12.5 oz. Frame Size: 4 3/8" X 1 3/4" Fits: 8/9/10 to 10/11/12 lines with up to 350 yards of #30 Micron Backing Available: December 15, 2008 Order now for fast delivery.

Item	Description Size	Price	To Top
TIBOR-QC1-GR9	Tibor Spey Reel	$860	-->SALE ENDED

The Fly Fishing Shop, Welches, OR

1(800) 266-3971

To Top

www.flyfishUSA.com

Fish long & prosper,
Mark & Patty