GOOD NEWS: FLY FISHING HAS NO AGE LIMIT!

One of my American friends shared this picture with me.  It reminded me that I am 68 and very blessed to still be pretty mobile. 

This week I am off to the States on holiday and "have rod will travel" I will try to keep you posted on my adventures.

EXTREME Fly Fishing at Bewl Water

Well we knew the weather would be wet, so we had the right gear on but it was still a bit challenging and when the heavens opened (which it did every time I said "I think it has stopped raining) it really poured and I ended up operating the bilge pump!
The good news was that Rob Barden (fishery guide/ranger and team England fisher) was on the water planning to fish,  and he offered to show us where it had been fishing well.  He also said the fish were on black buzzers. So we started at the top of Hook Straight.
I learnt a lot just watching Rob and how close he fished to the bank from the boat on the drift. We all found that strong winds and heavy rain put the fish down, but that as soon as the wind dropped and the temperature rose a degree or two, the hatches commenced and the fish were showing on the top.
Rob found it hard too and after a couple of hours he had touched several but only landed one. He had to go but we worked our way around the water looking for signs of fish. By this time we were really damp and a bit despondent. However as the saying goes "failure cannot cope with persistence" and we found fish off of Chingley Wood. So Malcolm caught his first trout from a boat and then got smashed by a monster and I came home with a brace of beautiful fish feeling shattered but pleased I had endured to the end!

BEWL WATER FISHERY WEEKLY REPORT week ending: 27-Mar-14

Janet in the Fishing Lodge has kindly sent me the weekly report, so here it is.

The 2014 fishing season - Bewl Water's 37th - got off to a good start on Friday 21 March, with many anglers catching their limits and very few nil returns. Rod average for the week is 4.86.

A weather change and colder winds just hours before the season started meant some areas on the north shore, such as Seven Pound Creek and in front of the playground - usually opening day "hot spots" - proved to be rather more challenging this year. However sheltered areas such as Rosemary Lane, Goose Creek, Dunsters and Overys Farm have fished consistently well from bank and boat. The far end of Hook Straight is also worth a go. Fish have been feeding on midge and top flies have been Cormorant, Viva, Montana and Damsel.

6000 of the popular Bulldog Trout Farm 2lb rainbows were stocked pre-season to add to a good head of overwintered fish and a further 1500 went in this week. A system has been set up where fish delivered from external farms can be loaded into a holding net allowing us to distribute to all areas of the lake as we always have done and this worked well.

The usual reminder: The more returns we receive, the more accurate the fishing report, and of course the chance to win the monthly prize draw for permit and boat hire vouchers up to the value of £79.50.

 

I plan to be there Monday!                                       

Report on this years first outing to Bewl Water

 

Well I could not wait, so I just had to go to fish Bewl a couple of days after the opening of the new season.  I had three pals, two of whom I had been teaching casting on grass, who I had promised some serious fly fishing.  So Malcolm, Niel and Reece (the latter two from the USA) joined me on a cool but bright morning.  Having given Malcolm and Reece a brief demo of what to do, with their boat moored to the jetty, I let them loose.  When Niel arrived he was glowing having just passed his driving test and we set off after the others. Having been briefed at the lodge and jetty we knew where to go.  Fishing on the drift was a bit tricky because we wanted to be close to the banks and were hindered by the wind shifting all over the compass!

 

 

Still cats whiskers, gold headed daddies (with rubber legs) and even a minkie booby did the trick.  The boys learnt all the things not to do, like fishing slack lines and lots of fish were touched and lost but eight did come to the boats and boy did those fish go.  The fish were nearly all 2lb plus and some were nearer 3lb.

 

 

Let the pictures speak.

 

 

 

 

 

I don't know about the others, but I just cannot wait to get back!  As we are all doing voluntary work at the London Temple, near East Grinstead, we will have to wait till next Monday, as Mondays are our one day off.  Roll on Monday.

 



Boat fishing Bewl, last days this year: The where and the how!

Yes the boats come off the water at the end of November but there are still a few days remaining to hook up from a boat.  I went down today and caught 3 beauties, the largest of which I thought was going to disappear over the horizon! It weighed in at 3lb 8 oz and was perfect in every respect.  The where is: around the cages.  The how is: Cats whisker or simillar lure.  It was overcast and calm and the fish were near the top but only showed when they were on the chase.

 Just look at that perfect tail!

The head looks pretty too.

 

I understand that bank fishing will be available right through to February.  You can always check their website (see link at side of page).  Why not join the Bewl Bridge Fly Fishing Club, brilliant value for money and you get the famous magazine with all the marvelous tips.  See the link for that as well.

 

A big thank you to everyone who follows the blog and sends me e mails and comments.

Some tips on boat fly fishing for trout at Bewl Water, Kent, UK, and success with a magic Booby!

Let me start off by saying the best thing you can do is to join the Bewl Bridge Fly Fishers Club (see link at side of page) where you will get loads of help especially via their bi-monthly magazine the “Bewl Angle”.  As you will see if you stagger to the end of this post it was through reading the magazine that my trip yesterday went from failure to success.

On the practical front here are some suggestions you may already be aware of or you might like to try.  Firstly the whole object of having a boat is to have the ability to be mobile (like the fish) and to be able to cover the whole water (except the bird sanctuary where the really big fish hang out)?  If you’re not seeing fish, and catching, then move.

So you have hired a boat and been given a boat number, before you set off, check it out.  The staff are very good but they often get to clean and check the boats just as it is getting dark. 

Look for an anchor (it is attached to a red buoy so that if you get it caught on the bottom you can untie the anchor rope and leave the buoy marking the spot where the anchor and rope are.  The rangers can then try to recover it.  Oars are a useful plan B, although most of us have the fishing lodge number in our phone which is a better plan B.  Many years ago as dusk was falling at Rosemary’s Lane I foolishly let a beginner operate the engine to take us back to the lodge.  John tried the other way of stopping and sheered the pin that holds the prop on, then he announced that he couldn’t row.  Exhausted, I slept well that night!

 Note the small G clamp I have attached to the edge of the front seat, with the drogue rope attached to it (more about drogues shortly).   Note the landing net with the long handle, I got that idea from the competition boys.  If I am on my own in a boat I usually set up two rods (you are only allowed to fish one at a time).  I will set them up with different lines (say a floater and an intermediate) so I can quickly change my method if required.

 

The drogue is an underwater parachute enabling the boat to drift down wind slowly.  It is called loch style fishing and it means that you are covering fresh water all the time and hopefully another pod of fish.  If you don’t have a drogue then you have to anchor, tie up to a buoy (if it’s allowed) or drift free (a problem in strong winds).

The orange bailer is essential for fellers fishing as it enables you to discretely urinate whereas the ladies have to grit their teeth or motor back to the lodge.   The red cord is the “kill cord”, solo anglers are encouraged to attach the end of it to themselves so that in the event of them falling overboard the engine is killed and they a) don’t get chewed up by the prop and b) have a chance of swimming to the boat and hanging on.  I don't have a fancy armchair type boat seat.  What I do have is a foam one that velcros to the wood seat.  An occasional boat fisher could use an old cushion from home in a strong plastic bag.

The bilge pump (black handle on the left) is useful especially after a heavy downpour. You can also see the second G clamp for the drogue in the left hand corner.

So yesterday, having had a chat with Janet in the lodge, paid my dues and been assigned my boat I had a helpful chat with James, one of the fishery rangers.  He suggested I drift from Beaumans to the cages and used very small flies.  He said the fish were on the top swimming around in small shoals and that I should watch for any disturbance of the ripples and cast to them.  I thought that given the time of year the fish would be on hoppers and daddies so I spent the first few hours fishing them to no avail.  Eventually I gave up on what James had suggested as it got quite wet and windy.  I motored over to the corner of Chingley Wood to get out of the wind.  Within a few casts I had my first pluck on the daddy or hopper but did not hook up.  I tried a number of different drifts and even the corner of the damn, where I saw the odd fish.  Eventually as the weather improved I decided to try round the fish cages.  Whilst drifting between the cages and the grass at Ward’s Lane, right in front of me half a dozen fry leapt out of the water followed by a big rainbow and I realised the fish were on the fry!.

It was then that I remembered that Ray French had written in the latest edition of the Bewl Angle that competition anglers were having good success using tiny booby flies.  I also remembered I had tied 2 the night before.  So out they came and on they went and I came away with three nice 2lb rainbows.    Thanks Ray!

 

If you look closely you can see the tiny Booby in the corner of the fish's mouth. Now I am going to try and tie some more.

 

BEWL WATER FISHING WELL: THE FISH ARE ON THE TOP TAKING DRIES!

 

 

This is the news we have all been waiting for.  Having exhausted myself on the chalk stream over the last two days I thought I would check on Bewl.  I spoke to Rob Dixon, one of the fishery managers and he said a change in wind direction has brought the food and the fish to the top of the water and anglers are catching on dries! Apparently the best action is along the dam and both bank and boat fishers are getting pleanty of action.  My guess is that hoppers and daddies will do the trick.  You heard it here first, now I need to get down there before you do!

Lovely company and dragon boats, but frustrating fishing at Bewl Water.

My internet access at home is down and I am trying to post this from the local library pc. They have just up dated their systems and now I can add pictures.

Tony Hern of Fishability and Ian Thomas of Telereal Trillium



Last Saturday I had an interesting but frustrating day at Bewl Water.  I was supporting a “Fishability” event organised by Tony Hern, the Fishery Manager from Albury Estates (a splendid fellow).  Fishability is an organisation that supports people from the military services who have suffered trauma resulting in mental or physical challenges.  Tony had a dozen or so military or ex-military folk sharing boats with an equal number of experienced guides. 

I drew the long straw having Martha, a charming military nurse, assigned to my boat.  (This was a far more attractive proposition than sharing the boat with some tough and rugged squaddie!) 

 

Having had a bacon bap for breakfast we loaded up the boat and set off, conditions looked perfect, overcast, reasonable breeze rippling the water the temperature of which had dropped to 17 C.  However, Rob Dixon, one of the Bewl staff had warned me that the fishing would be hard.  Apparently, there was a tremendous amount of aquatic insect life in the water and the fish were stuffing themselves with naturals and avoiding anything suspicious!   This was confirmed by the number of house martins working the water.  Rob recommended drifting between the cages and the dam, so that’s what we did.  The good news was that, in spite of it only being her second go at fly fishing, Martha, who was bursting with enthusiasm, could cast quite well, certainly well enough to cover fish on the drift.

Well Martha maintained her enthusiasm and we fished our socks off and all to no avail.  At one point Martha spotted a pike on the top of the water right in front of her, when she moved her rod it spotted her and did an impressive “crash dive”.  We saw fish but in spite of changing flies, lines, locations and speed of retrieve we didn’t even get a touch.  The trout definitely had other things to distract them.

 

However, entertainment was provided by the dragon boat races down by the dam.  We must have heard the Hawaii Five O theme tune five hundred times!  Lunch was excellent, and the whole event was kindly financed by Telereal Trillium, with Ian Thomas signing the cheque and him and Richard Becksmith both from TT also acting as fishing guides.

 

Desperate to provide some excitement for Martha I asked her if she would like to drive the boat.  Well she jumped at the chance and we did a grand tour of the lake at full speed.  She even brought us into the jetty with finesse!   I was sad I had failed to deliver the goods, and get Martha hooked up with bar of pink or blue silver, but she did not complain once.  She has a bright future as a fly fisher.

Saltwater fly fishing report for Solent, Southern UK

I have taken the liberty of reproducing Justin Anwyl's August report here because it has some very useful info.  I have beach fished with Justin but I think now he mainly drift fishes (loch style) with his clients. During the season they manage to catch thousands of sea bass!
When it comes to fishing he is a "top gun!"


"August is here as is the sun. This season has been a complete tail of 2 halves as in May when we last wrote a note, I was in the Solent in a ski jacket trying to keep warm. Water temps were 12 degrees and Bass were still spawning! which is at least 2 months later than normal. Since then, the water temperatures have rocketed to 20 degrees and the sun has come out big time. Over the last couple of months we have experienced some of the best catches in ten seasons and some of the worst - my feeling is with the lack of blanket cloud and very high visibility a lot of fish have moved into deeper ground as it's the first time ever I've seen not only lobster pots from beneath the boat but lobsters in them - I can't imagine what the reflection is like when looking at the hull! - whatever you are tempted to do, i would suggest getting down deep and put on a larger than average pattern aswell as venture out as early as you can before the light is up - many times this season we have been on the boat for 4.30am and had 50-60 Bass by 8.00am, after that, you'll start to dredge the depths as the fish mover lower against the light..

The website has some larger 4/0 deceivers in white, red and cockroach - try drowning them and you will get pulled! http://www.bass-fishing.co.uk/en/all/c-accessories/f/

Red Cockroach Deceiver 4/0

I've just had delivered the new Seawolf 8/10 "S" series of reels which are based off the original design with the addition of a closed face drag, this makes them even more robust and easier to maintain - they will all be going to Connecticut this year for a good work out as well as Christmas Island to hunt down big Bonefish and GT's. http://www.bass-fishing.co.uk/en/seawolfslargearborsaltwaterflyfishingreel-p-9001.html

New Seawolf 8/10 "S" in Gunmetal Grey

Re the fishery, it is obvious to me that there is pressure on the brood stock as we are hooking up to mid gauge Bass and there seems to be a lack of quality in the usual areas in the early part of the season, as well as a lack of the smaller Bass showing in the harbours - I would be interested in your thoughts to see what your experiences have been like to date this year.
One thing which I have noticed, especially when traveling east is the amount of food in the water, tonnes of bait, either sandeel or mullet fry and this has only just started to attract large shoals of mackerel and Bass - this is the latest I have know this to happen, so maybe if we have a very clement summer/autumn our lines may be graced with a pull into November - fingers crossed. .

This is Good!

This is better! (J McGill)

I have since the last newsletter put up a Facebook page, which you can access via the link on the homepage - a good way to ask questions and keep track of daily catches and experiences.... if you have a question, i'd be happy to help.

For now, the season is in full swing and hopefully we can fish into latter part of the season if the summer extends as we expect it to. Pray for heat, cloud and low wind - not too much to ask!

Tip down and hold!"

Justin
Kind Regards

Justin Anwyl
IGFA Captain/Guide UK/USA
Email info@bass-fishing.co.uk
Tel: 07767 820268 or Tel: 01243 785496 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 01243 785496 FREE end_of_the_skype_highlighting

www.bass-fishing.co.uk

STEELHEAD ACTION ON THE SKYKOMISH

With the decorating nearly complete and already two thirds of the way through my six weeks here in WA, USA I was starting to get desperate to catch something worth boasting about, so I decided to have a go for summer steelhead.  Lonnie had shown me the car park by (the) Big Eddy just up the Reiter Road Junction on State Route 2.  So I paid a visit on the 2^nd July with my fly rod.  Near the road bridge the water was ripping through and the Big Eddy was in full swing.  I followed Lonnie’s advice and walked up river pass the following sign and along the bolder-strewn beach, close to the water.

I think I had read somewhere that if you were in the water you weren’t trespassing!

 

 

 There was a lot of water coming down and I wished I had checked the river flows web site before I drove the forty miles!  So I moved upstream and when I got above the white water I waded out and had a few casts.  It immediately became clear that:-

1.       My nine foot eight weight rod was not really man enough for the job of launching a sink tip and a steelhead fly as far as I wanted it to go.

2.       I really needed a wading stick.

3.       I should probably have a pfd (personal floatation device) on.

4.       I had forgotten anything I ever knew about spey casting (and all the American derivatives, snap T, circle C etc).

I was also concerned that I was not getting the fly deep enough, but I had no idea of what deep enough was.   Anyway after an hour or so I chickened out and went exploring.

I decided to try and find the steelhead hatchery which I had been told was just upstream of where I was fishing (and confirmed the night before using good old Goggle Earth).

So I drove up Reiter Road and just as I was about to give up I came across all these vehicles parked up at the gate of the hatchery.   I walked through the gates and there was one of the amazing phenomena of fishing in the US a sign inviting you to fish at the hatchery where all the returning fish congregate!

 

 

I walked the bank, spoke to a few friendly guys and checked out their techniques.  They were all gear fishermen spinning, float fishing and plunking! I watched for an hour, apparently some fish had been caught earlier but now things seemed to have gone quiet.

 

That night I dug out an old telescopic spinning rod and some spinners and resolved to join them.  So this morning having woken at 6am I hit the road arriving at 7.30 to find fourteen vehicles outside the gate.  As I was walking in a chap called Brian had just wrestled a steelhead on to the bank and he kindly let me take his picture.

 

I found a spot between two nice guys and commenced fishing a rooster spinner under a float.  Avoiding hooking up is a bit challenging as everyone is using different methods and trying to avoid casting across each other.  This is made more difficult because the float men like to let their lines drift as far as possible.  Anyway I only got caught up with others twice and everyone was very amenable.

Then I got to see some action, I had a fish on but he came off so I had to make do with videoing others in action.  In a way it was good preparation for me because the steelhead I saw caught went absolutely ballistic when hooked.  Also the river is a minefield of obstructions and potential snags. The following video clips try to capture the drama of having a fish on!

 

The next clip shows how feisty the fish is when it is netted.

 

And here is the end product and a very happy man with a big fish!

 

 

So now I am convinced they are there I just have to try harder!!!!

Fly Fishing Afternoon on the South Fork of the Skykomish

Well I met up with Lonnie at the Sultan "Park and Ride" and I parked and together we rode up towards Money Creek.  It was great seeing him again and catching up on what we have both been doing over the last 8 months.  He said we were targeting rainbows this afternoon.

We could not get into our usual roadside trail because a rail track maintenance crew were very much in evidence so we parked at the camp ground in pouring rain and walked in.  Conditions could have been depressing as it was cool, wet and very cloudy, so the bugs were all staying un-hatched!  Also the water was at least a foot higher than we would have liked but it was crystal clear.  However, we were glad to be there.

 Lonnie geared up and ready to fish.

 Yours truly enjoying the moment.

 

We fished nymphs under strike indicators through all the likely fish holding spots.

Having not had a touch we cut our loses and moved down river to a spot where you have to be quite brave just to get to the water.  No, it is not a rocky climb down but a struggle through thick jungle on an almost invisible trail.  On the way in Lonnie very kindly let me lead!

 

Well we tried real hard here fishing the seams and the mid river rocky structure with nymphs and strike indicators and then streamers to no avail. 

 

 On the way out I let Lonnie lead and he nearly led us astray in the jungle!

 

 As we were driving back down we could see the steelhead brigade were out in force by the number of pickups parked up by the side of the road.  Lonnie kindly showed me some likely steelhead waters.

Then we popped into the Wallace Hatchery and I saw my first bear trap and the excellent poster display all about salmon and steelheads which I will feature in a later post.

 

Finally I got all stirred up by seeing the huge fish in the pool waiting to be "processed" by the hatchery experts. You can just see a few in the shadow area.  They were huge!

Rattlesnake Lake, WA, USA: Deep Water Fly Fishing Techniques!

Mark with his truck and "pram"

 

I met a real gent yesterday and he very kindly gave me a “master class” on how to fish the bottom of a deep lake with Buzzers (Chironomidae) using a fly rod.  Mark had responded to my request for guidance on the Washington Fly Fishing Forum and he proved to be a star.  He gave me some buzzer patterns, loaned me a reel with a fast sinking line and gave me one of his special homemade plummet weights.  Now recently Mark had been fishing Rattlesnake Lake regularly and his special method had been delivering the goods big time, which was why he suggested we fished there.

Mark concentrating on catching!

Mark was fishing from his fully equipped 8 foot “pram” and I was in my less fully equipped float tube.  Mark and his pal had developed this particular fishing approach because a bit of arthritis had cramped their casting style and they still wanted to fly fish.  The method was to use a team of two buzzers with a small shot crimped to the leader just above the flies and measure the depth exactly by attaching the plummet to the bottom fly.  Mark had put depth markers on the main line using white nail varnish (his wife’s I hasten to add).  The first thing that rapidly became apparent to me was that you need to be anchored to work this method and keep the flies right down.  Having tried holding position with my fins and failed as it was quite breezy Mark came to the rescue producing a 5lb dumbbell from the bottom of his pram (I said it was “fully equipped”) and I attached that to 45 feet of nylon cord I had brought with me and I used that successfully as an anchor!

Mark gently sucked the stomach contents out of one fish and showed me what they were feeding on.  Buzzers!

Anyway to cut a long story short Mark managed 5 fish and I caught zero.  So how do I explain that?

Well here goes:-

·         Mark had a fish finder

·         Mark’s anchor was a bit longer than mine so he could fish deeper

·         I was using a 6 weight rod and Mark was using a 3 weight set up so his rig was more sensitive than mine

·         Mark really concentrated hard on detecting fishy activity whereas I was distracted by the joy of just being there

·         Mark is well practiced at this method

Mark was disappointed with his 5 as he normally catches shed loads!  Although I was clearly outfished I was delighted with the day for the following reasons:-

1.       I had met a really nice guy

2.       I had been fishing

3.       I had learnt a new technique to try on the deep reservoirs in the UK in the summer when the water warms up and the fish go deep.

4.       I didn’t sink and have to swim and I learnt that I can anchor a float tube and fish provided I have a dumbbell with me.

 

 

And when it was time to go and I got cramp in my right leg (and could only paddle round in circles) Mark came to the rescue and towed me back to the launch ramp!  A real star!

 

Some of the buzzers in the plastic container were still alive, have a look at this short video clip.

 

 

 

 

Now to get on with stripping “popcorn” off of 300 square feet of ceiling!

Fishing Excitement on the Snoqualmie, WA, USA

Having got on well with my chores I finally went fishing today,six days after I arrived.  The chaps on the Washington Fly Fishing Forum had given me lots of useful tips on where to fish and I plan to follow that advice as much as I can.  However, I thought I would make today a practice run and fish somewhere familiar to me, so after I had laid some mortar in a remodeled fireplace I headed up to the Snoqualmie. 

 

I found a promising spot and waded out to a gravel bar that had a perfect seam running along it. Second cast and my copper john was hit by an 8 inch little feller, then I realized that not only had I forgotten my hat but I had also left the camera with my wife who was reading on the bank 50 yards away.  Still I thought there are going to be others to photograph so no problem.  So everything was quiet and peaceful and perfect. 

Then it happened, a helicopter suddenly showed up and started circling right above me, making a hell of a racket (sorry of that is swearing, it isn’t in the UK)!  It was so persistent hovering overhead I started to wonder why it was there.  My guesses were as follows:-

·         Someone knew I had arrived and they wanted to film me fishing

·         The pilot had it in for fishers and he was trying to scare the fish and me

·         A rooky pilot was practicing turns

·        Then I noticed someone standing on the under-carriage skid and I thought I was about
          to see a spectacular suicide attempt.

·        The auto pilot was stuck

Anyway after about an hour I was getting a bit fed up with the noise so as the chopper came round again, I put my hands on my hips and scowled at it.  I was rewarded with it flying off to try and land on the face of the adjacent large mountain (Mount Si of Twin Peaks fame)?

Meanwhile having thought my wife was completely safe round the bend sitting on the gravel bank I found her in the company of two charming Park Rangers dressed in attractive orange waistcoats!  She insisted in having her picture taken with them. 

About this time the helicopter reappeared and the Rangers advised that it belonged to the Sherriff and they tactfully pointed out that it said that clearly on the side.   I expect the Sherriff is a charming helpful person but I could not help the words of a song involving a Sherriff and a Deputy running through my mind.

Armed with the knowledge that my wife was safe in the company of Rangers and with the local Sherriff keeping an eye on her from above I wandered upstream to try and find an undisturbed seam.  At a tempting spot I noticed what looked like several brown torpedo shapes in the current.  Weed?  Logs?  Both seemed unlikely given the speed of the current.  They reminded me of what I had seen a few years ago downstream of the Wallace Hatchery.  My fishing buddy had pointed to them and I in my ignorance said ‘“what are they”?  He replied by catching one and it turned out to be a rather large steelhead!   So I decided to wade out towards the torpedo’s because they just couldn’t be big fish.  As I got about six feet from the nearest torpedo it moved sideways further out by a foot or two!   I walked back to the car and tooled up with a small selection of steelhead flies.  I then proceeded to cast my selection of flies at them from all angles other than the optimum one as there was a large tree/bush in the way.  I tried going up stream through the jungle to the other side of the tree/bush but the bank there was steep and straight into what looked like deep water.  I didn’t want my last glimpse of my wife to be as I drifted downstream to the falls!

Eventually feeling rather tired I gave up but it was a hard decision to make.  The questions are:-

1.       Have I gone mad because of the noise of the helicopter?

2.       Did I really see fish?

3.       Were they steels?

4.       If the answer to 3 is Yes, how should I have tried to catch them?

If you have any suggestions they would be gratefully received.

Embarrassing footnote: A real gent on the Washington Fly Fishing Forum has gently suggested that even steelhead would find jumping the Snoqualmie Falls a bit too demanding.  Blogger has egg on face. So what fish were they?