So to date I’ve spent about 20 days skating dry flies for summer-run steelhead on the North Umpqua River. In June of 2007 I rose one fish. That’s all the action I’ve had. For all my non-steelhead fishing friends, you should know that while this may sound like a masochistic endeavor, it isn’t. Or maybe it is…I don’t know. Anyway, masochism is not the best word to describe it. There is something incredibly important hidden in a fishless day spent on the North Umpqua. The best analogy I can think of is a sexual one: The steelhead are, literally, playing hard to get.

Now, if you’re a river ace like “North” guide, Rich Zellman, however, you sorta defy the norm. Go hang out with him and sooner rather than later you will see an Umpqua steelhead up close.

To raise a steelhead on a dry is one thing, but to get footage of it is kind of a big deal. Make sure you look closely at the seemingly blank swings in the last half. On three separate casts fish visibly dart to the fly and turn away without breaking the surface. If I hadn’t had the vertical perspective, I never would have noticed. Rich certainly didn’t.

Getting to see this behaviour provides no extra clue as to what in the hell the steelhead is thinking.

Book Rich to raise a North Ump steelhead on a dry: 541-890-7084