Bushwhacking th Coast Range!

Ran back over the hill to the coast to take advantage of the couple days of dry weather. Once we got over the pass and took a peek at the river, we noticed it was down and in great condition! This watershed has some of the most amazing old-growth timber, including Douglas Fir and Sitka Spruce.


Dylan took this shot of me dropping down between a fallen tree. Definitely a DENSE forest.


These trees were larger than life. We were in the land of the giants.




Dylan, Taylor, and I, geared up to start whackin brush.


This lush rain forest is full of moss, lichens, mushrooms, and other forms of life that need this moist, thick, dense forest to survive.



At one point, we came across an old road.


This helped the bush-whacking for about 100yds... At the end of the road, we noticed an old bridge crossing the creek.


We walked down the creek, took some pics, and kept on scaling the river banks.



Here, I was just playin with how long I could leave it open without ruining the shot...


We made our way up, from hole to hole, and finally Taylor hooks into one. It looked like a good head-shaker at first, but then......We got to see it. . . Poor little Boot! However, we made SURE that Taylor got a picture with his prized catch!


I mean, this was a pretty nasty-looking fish. Along the river rocks, I think I noticed his last Spawning buddy! ...they looked about the same! hahaha!


The hike itself was a good couple miles through some of the thickest coastal rainforest. I admit, I'm a little sore today in the legs! Crawling up and over downed trees that are larger than cars in diameter can do that to ya! But its SOOOO worth the solitude!! Fish on!



Looks like its time to start gearing up for Winter Steelhead! We saw a couple of those caught. Time to scale down the gear and start targeting the Steel!

Coastal Chinook

Bolted over the hill early in the morning with Dylan to a quiet creek and tried our luck for some fall chinook. We hiked through some awesome older-growth forest areas. We found this giant Sitka Spruce.


Amazing to think of the storms they've weathered, as well as the the stories they could tell. These things wouldn't budge!!



All of the signs were there for fish... The water had risen, but was on the drop.


I put a nice silver-dollar sized clump of eggs on my hook and through the offering up in the hole. The bobber floated slowly down the seam of the current until it just turned and went under as if it were stuck on the bottom. I knew it was only set at 6ft and the hole was about 12 feet deep. So, taking what seemed to be an eternity to realize I should set the hook, I reeled up and let 'em have it. Bobber Down!!! I felt a couple strong head-shakes and could see him flash back and forth as the the fight began. He jumped more than any chromer, coho, or steelhead that I've seen!


Once I got him in, we tailed him and realized it was a hatchery fish. One more fish that needed to come out of the system. Soooo, we bonked it.


I made good use of this guy and smoked him up. Turned out to be one of the best smoking jobs I've done yet! (I've only done two)...but I'm progressing fast, so look out!


We had battled thunder, lightning, hail, pouring rain, and torrential winds, but prevailed. We also landed a nice chrome native coho that we quickly released, and a couple other dark fish. We were pretty proud that we had prevailed and endured the storm, but came away victors. We made our way back over to the valley meeting up with the back edge of the rainstorm, with the one fish, but many memories.



The sun began to come out just before sunset giving us a 'thumbs-up' with a rainbow. Was a great day~ Sure beats sitting at home!