Jack Mitchell covers Olympic Peninsula and Klickitat River steelhead fly fishing in Episode 002 of the Fly Fishing Podcast. Jack is one of the biggest names in Washington fly fishing and runs The Evening Hatch Fly Fishing Shop.
Jack gets into a bunch of great tips on fishing for winter steelhead including some of the patterns that have worked well for him, spey casting tips and setting up a balanced outfit.
Jack has almost 30 years of guiding experience so you don’t want to miss any of the nuggets he shares in this episode.
Listen to the Evening Hatch Fly Fishing Shop Podcast with Jack Mitchell below:
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(Read the Full Transcript at the bottom of this Blog Post)
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The Evening Hatch Fly Fishing Shop Show Notes with Jack Mitchell
- 8:00 – Swinging flies on the Yakima with a seal bugger.
- 9:42 – Klickitat River fly fishing techniques. Nymphing and swinging flies for steelhead on the Klickitat.
- 11:00 – The best rod to get started for swinging flies for steelhead is a two handed rod. For winter steelhead a 7-8 weight, 12.5 t0 13.5 foot rod is best to get started.
- 12:40 – Don’t drag the bottom of the river with your flies. Make sure you are presenting your fly at their face and above.
- 13:20 – Go through a run twice using two different sink tip lines so you can cover multiple sections of the water column.
21:10 – Trey Combs
23:20 – Mudler Video – One of Jack’s favorite patterns.
23:45 – GrabFlies.com and the Moal patterns – This is the site Jack notes having the Improved Methow Moal and the Pink Flash Moal on the Queets.
26:25 – Klickitat Spey Clave
38:00 – Sage 7126-4 Spey Rod
39:50 – The Air Flo Rage Compact line was highly recommended by Jack in this episode. He notes that this is a great all around line for steelhead.
- Jack also noted the Nexcast Fall Favorite line for fishing a dry line
You can reach Jack by going to theeveninghatch.com.
If you would like to get the Steelhead Tips PDF Quick Guide that lists some of the best tips from my guests click on the button below:
Click here to get the Steelhead Tips Guide
Summary
I really enjoyed this episode because Jack covers information for the Klickitat River and Olympic Pennisula. These are two places I would love to learn a lot more about. The Klickitat is cool because of it’s diversity and location in the Columbia basin having both summer and winter fish.
The OP is a place I plan on spending more time this year. If you are familiar with the OP leave a comment below on a few tips to making a good trip out there.
Jack also shared a bunch of great tips for anyone interested in steelhead fishing. Some of these tips can be found in the PDF below.
The Evening Hatch Fly Fishing Shop Conclusion with Jack Mitchell
I wanted to say thanks again to Jack for taking the time to do this interview and for your interest in checking it out. I’ll definitely be implementing some of the Tips that Jack shared in this episode.
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Jack talked about a hybrid MOAL leech-prom dress pattern from Grab Flies that was very successful. i’d love to know the name of the pattern so i can identify which of the lovely Grab Flies MOALs it was.
I’ll check in with Jack and check back here when he replies. Thanks again for checking in!
Gary,
Here’s the reply from Jack on the flies at grabflies. I’ll also update the blog post with links for everyone.
Jack uses the Improved Methow Moal in many of the rivers and on the Queets he uses the pink flash moal a lot.
Check back if you have any other questions.