As time ticks on, many of us often find ourselves astray from where we originally planted our feet. Our home is where we are molded into the men and women that will later be, and shown the paths that we may take to achieve physical and mental maturity. When removed from these places, the friends and family that form the grass roots of our journey are a constant reminder of where we came from and why we are on the path that we chose. Sharing a newfound home with these folk is a practice full of enrichment for both oneself and familiar companions alike.
Having recently relocated to Washington, the Olympic Rainforests quickly became a place of recreation and solitude. The enlightenment found amongst the old-growth forests and moss laden cedar is second only to that of the magnificent waterways that form the veins and arteries of the majestic landscape. Every winter, wild Steelhead undertake a migration from the open ocean, to the places of their own grass roots; the headwaters of their natal streams. In an attempt to bridge the gap between the journeys of two species, Ryan and Evan, two brothers from Connecticut, joined me for a four day excursion to the wild Olympics in search of native Steelhead.
Ryan and Evan were both newcomers to the world of two handed casting, and the mighty Hoh River was going to be their place of “Spey-ducation”. Evan was setup with a Sage TCX 7126-4 (which he quickly dubbed Obi Wan, as a spin-off of its well-known epithet “The Death Star”), Ryan and I both wielded a Sage ONE 7126-4, and we collectively fished an array of RIO Skagit heads. Watching their casting and swing presentation grow as rapidly as it did was certainly a testament to the benefits of fishing the best tackle in the business… In no time, the three of us were en masse, doing our due diligence to put a fly in front of a migrating Steelhead.