Brazda's Fly Fishing

Another season on the coast of Washington has begun with great weather and fantastic early wild steelhead. I generally spend three months a year chasing the wily chromers of the temporal rain forest surrounding the Olympic National Park. This season has the making of another great run with even bigger results, the steelhead have started there migration earlier than in the past few years with the tendency to be larger too. In just five short days of scouting the seasonal changes in the Hoh, Sol-Duc and Bogachiel we have encounterd more than normal sized steelhead with regularity. The first ten fish hooked where simply too hot to handle even on the big Spey rods. Generally these early wild fish run 9-14 pounds but what we encountered had the liking of Chinook with blistering runs and chaotic jumps revealing there shinny sides and white bellies. The Ten day forecast is for normal or average rainfall so with all considerations NOW is the time to fish as the March mob is yet to come and the fish are here now!

I am presently lightly booked in early February and any anglers wanting to jump on this early run of natives should do so soon wile weather is cooperating.

After thirty five years fly fishing in the NW chasing steelhead and trout a guy gets,,, well,,,,for lack of a sophisticated word,,,, bored with it. Now don’t get me wrong I love my job and lifestyle I crave the next big pull from a pissed off steelhead and the painstakingly slow take of a big brown trout to a dry fly. But for one that is in limbo between the peak fisheries I have re-found the passion that has been simmering in me for many off seasons. The same passion that burned so strong when I caught my first steelhead at 13 has been rediscovered on the flats of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. Not only has it re-ignited my desire to fish more but also my excitement for discovery, a thrill I thought scarred out of me on many trips searching for steelhead in SE Alaska twenty years ago. There is a whole world of angling out there that is now newly available to me, a fishery that has eluded my attention for way to long.

Some of it could be the fact that it takes place in a much warmer climate, a habitat as diverse as any on the planet, now instead of grizzly bear’s there are alligators, instead of drift boats there are Pangas, and instead of  driving rain and rising rivers, there are sunburns and north winds, hardly as annoying.

The fine people of the Yucatan are Mexican and Americans, the homes for lodging are mostly Americans and the guides are true indigenous Mexicans. The country of Belize is a short water taxi away, another world yet to be fished on a later date.

I feel the urge to spend days on the flats camping on remote beaches hunting in an all new way, picking through mangrove rivers to undiscovered lagoons where one may find tarpon and snook that have never seen a fly, once again my fishing imagination can run wild.

I can hardly wait for my next trip to the region; I won’t have to wait long as it’s already in the works. The first ten days in May 2010 will find me and whomever I can convince to go along on the search for that next big Permit, Tarpon, Snook or Bonefish.

Any Takers?