Fall

God I love fall. If you're a fisherman and you don't get a special kind of giddy feeling at the thought of fall fishing you better check your pulse and I'm not talking about some baetis hatch on the Yakima here. Fall is when the inland rivers are choked with steelhead, water temps hover in the 50s and fish will move four feet to hammer a number 8 hairwing or skater. Fall is also when huge, prehistorically badass wild chinook salmon enter our rivers, the last of the pink snagging assclowns are off the river and the coho really start to come in in good numbers. Yes, fall is the time when most of us seriously consider quitting our jobs, leaving our women and sleeping under a bridge on our favorite steelhead river just so we can savor every last minute of it.

A sweet fall fish on the dryline, hella manly or something. Hangdown...



Of course fall is poingiant to. The leaves are changing, the river is cooling down and pretty soon those inland rivers will slumber for the winter. When the first snow falls at snoqualmie pass you know it wont be long until the water temps drop below 45 and the dryline game is done. Well, soak it up whlie you can, record numbers of fish in the Columbia ment record numbers of douchnozzles out there flailing around with bobbers but with the weather getting shitty, most of them are home watching the NFL. Me, I'll just keep fishing that floating line, hoping for one more grab to put the icing on whats already been a memorable season.

Check out the photo of Ryans river sleigh and the fall colors post photoshopage. (boat for transport only)