I don’t know why but it seems like we were being invaded a bit by the frogs on the river this weekend.

We spent a full day and 3/4 on the water and walked a long way, even for me to get away from crowds. Mission accomplished and we found pods of dropback steel every mile or so.

I was joined by my best friend and roommate from college Darthwader and his neighbor Chris. Chris struggled as this was his secondf time steelheading and his 3rd time flyfishing. Darthwader hasn’t had the time in a while to get to the river often, but he is a veteran of the Salmon River for sure. They opted for the indicator although I had Darthwader spey casting for a while and he is intriqued.

We left a car down at Upper Sportsmen’s and walked from the Pineville Bridge. I figured this was a good 3 mile fish and it took from about 7am to 2pm.

We picked at some fish and Darthwader landed a tired male on a seam. I got to a nice tongue of fast water and put a small black and pink egg sucking leach into the run and got pummelled. The fish twisted and turned, taking drag in spurts as it somersaulted down stream from me underwater. I could see the flashes and whitewater being kicked up and then it was over. The hook popped.

I got Darthwader into that run and he hooked a hot fish on an egg fly. \Zig Zag Jump off…

We fished the run a bit longer and Chris was in a sweet spot by a downed long with no luck. He got out of there and I came down through swinging and stepping. The current was bringing the leech down into the blowdown and towards an undercut and I was anticipating the snag. Everything tightened up, and kept tightening, then bounced once and the drag started singing! Fish on. The struggle was on. She, as it turned out wanted in that snag, but 12lb maxima gave me the leverage to deny that.

I finally got her in, she still retained eggs and was surprisingly chrome, not the milky sheen that droppies usually have. The pic is on Darthwader’s camera so that should come this week.

I think Darthwader hooked and lost another fish in that spot and we moved on. It was quiet the rest of the way to sportsmen’s so we headed down lower in the system.

We decided on another long walk and then had the first 2 pools taken. Halfway through the walk, Darthwader landed 2 fish

He was across the river so I didn’t get a good pic of those. I was doing my thing on the other side of the and got slammed. Drag, jumps and backing all made an appearance. I gained my flyline back and lost it again. This fishb was hot, and surprising because he turned out to be on the smallish side, 28 inches or so.

One of Ginseng Sullivan’s All You Need in Olive and Brown with copper flash firmly secured in the jaw

I think one more fish was hooked after that. A huge hot male that grabbed Darthwader’s wooly bugger dead drifted and made the other side before Darthwader could set the hook and broke off.