Slowly, summer seems to crawl in, and how quickly it fades away into the longer nights of the fall to come. Every year chasing the next, faster faster faster. As the seasons go by at a high step, the game slows down. The subtleties becoming more obvious and the enjoyment of more than just the fish, far more apparent. The fish are what keeps the head in the game but it's the rushing water wrapping round the legs, the trees, twittering birds, crawdads at your feet, young of the year darting form your shadow, "smell that cedar", stoneflies fluttering, caddis crawling, baldy fly-by, a visit with the man at the pool, midday naps, living down by the river, GBH stretched out roosting, the sweet foam line, blackberries ripened in the shade, the moment your new pup realizes there's something alive at the end of the line, cup of black coffee watching the sunrise, going for a hike over fishing, meals of red meat, green bedrock glowing, pissed-off bald faced hornets, #6 with bacon at the Inn, that orange rock one seems to be on every time, trying something new, log jams of winters past, free pumice, butterflies, tiger lilies, pea-blossoms all summer, kingfishers, when-I-dip-you-dip-we-dip of the dipper, the hot-spot no ones caught onto yet, old-growth, shade, swim/guide bath in the creek, sleeping in, the change, the good'ol boys back year after year, Norman and his Koi pond at the Dogwood, goosebumps, cell service at Baker, Little Pizza Paradise, the "steelhead tree", nobody around, thunderstorms, greenness,good friends, and the fish are pretty damn special too…

Damn lucky to get to spend days on end here.

Beauty with the answer to "if you only could fish one fly..." in the corner,

Genevieve Long with the big hen we all dream about. This was Genevieve's first steelhead, that's gonna be tough to beat.

Bruce Moore with a dandy that cleared the water for the dry.

Once had a client get lost on the trail and survived solely on thimbleberries.

Bob McMaster with one we got a picture of from a magical day on the North.

Chris "Tony" Marto, you had to be there...

Fred Pendergast with a nice, bright beauty.

Nobody puts the wood to'em like Jim Ansite

"My fucking legs are shaking!" Jim Ansite

August 1 - February 28, by all means snag away...

Chuck Volkhausen of Wild Waters Fly Fishing grinning with wild XX steelhead

Doug Eisenberg admiring his second steelhead in his first year of steelheading

Big Dave with his first steelhead on the dry. There may have been a little flatfooting on the bank afterwards or maybe not.

Henry Carlile with a nice one, this was the first steelhead Blue paid attention too. He's starting to understand what we're doing out there. No better to break him in than a lab lover too.

Rand Kaplan with just a ripper of a buck, took it running downstream and didn't stop until two pools later and a hairy wade and unwrapping off rocks three times. Sometimes luck is on your side.

What a great few months this has been. Full of all the right stuff, the good, bad and the ugly. One more before I go...

Be good,

Rich