far from the madding crowds, well... sometimes, but mostly not

 
Oddly the start of my fall vacation were oddly mirror images from salt to fresh. The fall striper migration is late and going in dribs and drabs. The fantastic weather also made for some huge crowds on  the  beaches and tons of boats parked along some of my favorite rips.  I caught a dozen or so stripers, all schoolies, but they all took some line and pulled hard and the sunsets were some of the best ever. After a weekend on the salt, we transitioned to the river and a semi-unplanned night at Stoney's camping. Let's just say fireworks were still going off at 3 am, we were still getting serenaded  by a Harley with straight pipes and the only people up at 5 besides us were blowing chunks in the bushes. Great place to party your azz off, not so if you actually plan to fish. I guess the town pool and ball park had lots of rippers arrive  around noon.
Selkirk was much, much better and dead quiet after 10. Our time on the river was highlighted by seeing some good people, meeting some, and some fish activity thrown in. I got to fish with Jack, Clint and Wayne and once again it was an honor and a pleasure. Final tally was 6 fair hooked Kings and 2 steel landed, all on swung flies.  It furthered the fact that I LOVE STEELHEAD!!!!!!!!!!!!   That silly pic with me looking up with the steel, was because it was raining acorns! Deer and squirrels will have plenty of mast this winter. I was hoping for some steel to be around far more than the sharks and  some were. Thanks to Clint and Wayne for being good net men. I owe you both. I also enjoyed meeting Jack's cousin Glen and Wayne's Dad. I hope to fish with them both in the future.  Clint was telling me about getting a pistol permit. Maybe not a good idea, as we may have a new phrase- "going all LFZ on their azz" , after what he went through yesterday. I almost lost it a few times, and the rippers and lifters were out of hand. If this continues we'll have to do something folks. Lets not have the fly zones turn into Dawn's Hole. 
   As for flies, sz. 6 stones with  a peacock thorax for steel, orange comets sz. 4  for the sharks.
I did foul hook a couple dozen sharks, and lost many more, including some nice ho's to operator error and the usual just plain bad luck.  I'll go back when I can, but the next trip I'll be after trout only (unless I can sneak a suicide run/ rain day in next week to fish with Jack and Glen again).  Oh, yeah, I got to yell across the river at a guy that looked like a charter oak snapped off at about six and a half feet.  I hope we get to fish together this fall, 2b, I'm sure I'd have a ton of fun and learn a lot. The final tally leaves this trip  on the positive side. Thanks for the memories, guys.

Fichy, great story and beautiful pictures. Heck, I thought (bet
I'm not alone) I was seeing Uncle Si holding the fish. (lol)

You painted a terrific portrait with your story; making it easy for me to see your adventure with my minds' eye.

Thanks for the memories.

Well Charlie I took the class today for the permit.................
People are just getting there earlier and earlier and staking their claim and  groups feel they can save a spot for a guy gone sometimes an hour.
L well said and it is just not worth the hassle to argue with these type of people. Last year a group of drunkies came on my nephew was fishing with me and was relying, he left his coat on the ground right where he was standing. Guy literally came in and stood on his jacket and took his spot.
All that said Charlie has it right we put up with it because we love the fish especially the steel.
 
Charlie I am sure you will return the net later this winter.

My point is, I'd rather see the problems addressed before they become the norm. Fists weren't flying and no one was even threatened within my hearing. Just  some disagreements and tension. The LFZ is still not the trestle and attracts a lot of good people who respect the river and those around them. Just like many of us, they love the fishery. The good thing is steelhead are  much, much harder to snag and landing them on 4 lb. flossing tippet is tough. Not that the jerks have that kind of skill.  Most of the azzhats won't be back later in the season, and those that persist in their new found love of chucking weight on a fly rod will get a thorough skunking.  I put up with a little crap to fish great productive spots. I'd put up with a whole lot  more  crap to land those steel again, but that's just me. When those bullets were  bouncing around on the end of my rod, I wasn't paying a bit of attention to the crowd. other than to avoid them.  I never saw one person cross someone while they had a fish on and  almost all  carried their garbage out. Some of the  good people around them rubbed off a little, I think. Accentuate the positive.  I was being more than a  little tongue in cheek and using hyperbole about the pistol permit and use of force. If the fish had been dispersed throughout the river, this would be much less a problem, as Lucky pointed out. I have very good memories of this trip.  I never raised my voice in anger and had zero confrontations. I walked away when people did stupid things around me.  I got mad, but saw it as pointless to react.  I just don't want to see the bad behavior escalate. By the way, Wayne and I took turns at the spot we fished. Sometimes I roamed and fished an opening, sometimes I wandered back and took over for a very accomodating Wayne.   It worked. I yanked up a  a number of 1/0 est(in the)azz  flies out of some hairball snags. I laughed every time I did.

Nice read brother . Glad you played with some fun, salt and fresh. I miss the tug of a shark in moving water. Maybe another time for me.
Hope to share some trout water together . .. Remember brown town is coming up and might suite some of us just fine now..
Great day here for a fire:
Thanks for sharing Charlie

hot tuna
Hope to share some trout water together . .. Remember brown town is coming up and might suite some of us just fine now
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Seems to be some good movement from them already. I'm hoping.   Be great to  make some more  memories. Sorry you couldn't make this round, but you would have been a little turned off.  Save your time for the really good stuff. 
 
When I was on the coast, I had another wonderful  Orvis wading gear failure. This time a pair of boots that are a year old went the way of the waders that were a year old. A sole peeled off and is totally unfixable. Of course it happened with fish in front of me and I was standing in clam mud and had to abandon ship.  These were freebies that acted as a replacement for the horrible failure of their Boggs bootfoot disaster. I went to a great shop on the coast of Maine and bought some Simms boots as a replacement. Last pair of those lasted me 3 years, or about 200 or so days. I walk a lot, so they get USED.
My Simms G3's are still going after 6 years and have had one tiny leak I repaired 2 years ago. I bought the Orvis bootfoots because they were designed to be warmer in the winter. I bought the boots this time a size  larger for more circulation room. I know I could go into Orvis and get another replacement from my friends with no questions asked, but I figure there's no use.  I really need to rely on good waders in the winter and when I travel, not so much now. Still annoying to have your **** soaked out and a wet wallet from waders that are a year old and were priced over 300. Or the boots at 179.  Maybe there's something to be said for Made in America. Simms just plain rocks.  I have nothing against a lot of the cheaper brands of waders. It's the expensive ones that perform no better than them at 3 times the price that gets to me. 
      Friday morning Jailwater had a total of 10 cars in all the lots combined at 4:30.
That kind of numbers won't even pay for the fence. Must be nice to have the  wherwithal to lose money like that and the political pull to wriggle out when you need to. I think HT's prediction will stick just like the name he gave them. The SR is not going to be the Miramichi or the Skeena any time soon , which means I can keep fishing it. On Jack's recommendation we ate at Eddy's one night (we've gone their about 6 times, now) and the food was great and low priced. We ate early, and it was filled with locals. That tell you something?  If you want to make a joke about them having no taste you can stick it.....
 

I see where lifting is now referred to as "bottom bouncing with estaz" on the Douglaston site.  Too late for me to get a day for this week, but I may try for the following week, although I 'm off Monday.
 
L13

I'm  sitting inside doing material lists and schedules. That's my birthday week and I'll break some tradition if I don't go. Boo! to the azzhats and trick or treat to the steel and browns.
I hope we can plan something, bro.

Numbers were a bit lower this week, but still pretty high. Ellis lot was full to the brim

And has unrealistic expectations  regarding being thought of as more than an azzhat. The only thing you can do with  tiny drifts in the midst of snaggers is snag. In order to use the legal weight and set up a good drift it requires more space than you think is reasonable. If you're windmilling with the rest of the holes, you fit right in. I rotated a specific spot with a friend to give us the space we needed to fish legally and ethically,  you have no aspirations of doing either. You could see the salmon resting in the slow seam tight in front of the north bank and the line of holes ripping into them.  They belonged in the ball park, where I told you, Chartist , you belong.  They'll  even boot you out of the DSR , so you might as well find a comfortable home. You also might consider the fact your a pariah here and are as welcome as Ebola.

Those 2 at the bottom with wire body will be killers. I lost a beauty Friday on one just like that. I like a peacock hurl head with  brown hackles or just use brown estaz for the head. TB I am almost definitely fishing on Wednesday unless it is pouring. Let me know where you guys will be. Worse case we could meet at Melinda's or something for a minute. 

One point chartist does have though is the angler to drift length ratio. It is a tough and inevitable bout to say the least. From what Ive seen in the zones(mostly lower zone) lately coupled with the now facts of natural reproduction, I am almost on the fence of saying they should close it on up as it used to be. If people want a perfect fly fishing setting this river would really have to go to an Atlantic fishery with no weight... But that's not what it is... Its just a river getting filled up with oldy moldies at this point and the same crowds that have always come to catch them every year . I rarely see a fair hooked fish off the rt. 52 bridge even in steelhead season. This is not a post targeted towards anyone. Just an overall opinion based on what I see. One hope I have is high water soon to protect the steelies from ThE now "annual" slaughter that takes place when they run the lower river in recent years