4-5-06 - Dan works over a pod of steelies in the early morning light.

Dan fishes through a tailout on Oak Creek.

We know there are fish here...

Fish ON! Dan hooks up!

9:00 AM rolls around and I get a quick "clutch" steelie before heading back to Chicago. (Copyright © 2006 Dan)

4-5-06 - A rare weekday morning guide for steel!

Waters Fished: Oak Creek
Fish Caught: 1 personally
Outing Date: 4-5-06
Weather: Sunny
Air Temp: 50's
Water Temp: N/A
Water Level: High, around 40 cfs
Water Color: stained, visibility 1'
Fish Species: Steelhead
Pattern Fished: All sorts...
Pattern Color: Hot orange eggs and Red Wooly Buggers for me - Dan had his own chartruese and hot orange killer...

It's early in the morning..I've probably been driving since 4 AM - the mission today is to meet up with Dan who's come up from St. Louis for a taste of steel. We've had a lot of rain and water moving through the streams lately...after looking at flow charts I pick Oak Creek as our ideal starting point. Dan got a little turned around in the twilight, but eventually we managed to meet at Oak Creek around sunrise.

Some folks were already fishing so we moved downstream, slowly looking for fish. We'd made it almost all the way to the downstream bridge when I found a great group of 3-4 steelies up close to the bank in shallow water. Our trip today was a team fish; after a quick demonstration of how to best approach the situation (and likely a lost fish), Dan gave it a shot and lost 2, maybe three fair fish right off the bat. Talk about a good way to start the day...then again landing one would have been even better.

For the rest of the morning we slowly worked our way upstream, not far, chasing fish. A friendly angler walked by and gave Dan more confidence than I ever could have as he shouted, "Hey, there's 3 or 4 fish down there in front of you".

Dan was back at it, and in short order he tangled with two more fish. Things slowed down a bit and I got to working the water as well. 9:00 AM was rapidly approaching and I needed to get back to Chicago to work...lady luck smiled on me and hooked me up with a brilliant chrome hen that jumped and ran downstream...we got her landed, Dan snapped the shot and I left Dan with some parting advice.

I know that advice ended up paying off with a few fish later in the day for Dan! We had originally scheduled a 2nd guide for later in the week, but heavy rains pretty much shut that down. I'm glad Dan got to land a few...just sorry I couldn't stick around to see it first hand!

  MP