Thanks to all my supporters

Dear Friends and Anglers,

I have officially shut down all aspects of my fly fishing business. This blog will remain up as an archive and for when I feel inspired to discuss fishing and fishing related issues. I want to thank everyone who has supported me through this adventure. My clients are incredible people that I really enjoyed spending time with over the years, dating all the way back to 1994 in Colorado. I hope to see many of you out on the river. Feel free to email or drop me a line anytime!

Jason Cross

For local guiding and lessons, please contact my good friend Ed Megill @ cascadesfly.com.

Wednesday, January 9, 2008

January 4, Jason Cross goes fishin'! Plus fly tying fool.

So you would probably figure I go fishing all the time. Well, every chance I get I go. Most of the time I am out with clients teaching them how to do it and helping them catch fish. On Friday, a last minute cancellation opened up the day but I couldn't rebook it. A perfect opportunity to spend some time working on my spey casting technique in which I am still quite green. I spent a little time exploring waters that I hadn't visited this season but in the few early hours of daylight I spent swinging spey flies. Casting a spey rod is so much fun. I certainly can't wait to become proficient enough at it to land a steelhead with it. Doing that arm tuck and dive for your fish looks interesting with a 14 foot rod! I did catch a couple whitefish which is quite surprising on the swing. Water was perfect, just slightly off color.

We have been so lucky this year with water levels and fishing conditions. All of the runs have been slightly late and maybe that is one of the reasons. Wild fish should have flushed into the system in good numbers with the last small water spike. I will be out Friday and Sunday again after the long break.

I am hoping to have a steelhead tying class on the 22nd. Right now I am working with the venue to solidify the date and space. Keep posted. One of my good friends reported catching a nice buck on a spey fly that I tied. It has been a good year to fish smaller flies with the incredible clarity we have seen on the river. Speaking of spey flies. I am now tying flies to order and I am selling what I call the "Winter Steelhead Kit". The kit consists of 5-6 moal leeches, 4 egg patterns, 2 classic spey patterns and 2 marabous. No fly is repeated in the basic kit and thus you can order from the selection that I give you. You may change the order to whatever you want and whatever colors you prefer. The cost for a kit is around $30-$35 dollars depending on your selection.
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Local Information

Nooksack River

The Nooksack is our most Northern Puget Sound river. From the flanks of beautiful Mt. Baker and the Mt. Baker Wilderness the Nooksack River travels 75 miles to Bellingham Bay through diverse terrain. Three forks make up the main stem that locals say starts in the town of Deming. The North Fork provides most of the water in the drainage right off the northern side of Mt. Baker and parallels the Mt. Baker Highway often unseen. The Middle Fork is smaller and faster tributary with a steeper gradient and deep plunge pools. The South Fork, although some 50 miles long that stretches into Skagit County, is only fishable for 14 river miles before it closes to protect endangered Chinook spawning grounds.

The North Fork Kendall Creek hatchery provides a decent fishery for winter steelhead and October salmon fishing. Chinook and coho hatchery returns are mainly from the Native hatchery on the South Fork at Skookum Creek. Salmon fishing opens on the Main Stem in early September and stays good through a healthy chum run well into December. Both forks open in October for salmon but can be fished for sea-run cutthroat trout in September. Thanksgiving brings about hatchery steelhead season which carries through into January. Wild steelhead start trickling into the system in December and really show up in good numbers in January and February. Sadly for the fishermen the river closes in the end of February.

The main stem is a true spey rod river with some beautiful classic steelhead runs that will remind you of other nice places you have fished. The forks are smaller and lend themselves more to the single handed rod or a switch rod. The North Fork Nooksack is a wild and scenic river and boasts an incredible population of bald eagles. The river shifts quite frequently throughout the vast channel as the waters rise and fall with rain. Tree roots and log jams make up much of the excellent fish habitat on this fork. The south and middle forks are more defined channels and runs and holes remain more consistent. Wherever you are on this river the backdrop is spectacular. Around one bend you will look back and see The Sisters and the next bend will offer a pristine view of towering Mt. Baker.

Resident trout and anadromous dolly varden are found throughout the system in small numbers with the latter being off limits to target. The North Fork Nooksack above the 100 foot Nooksack Falls can be fun summer trout fishing with light weight rods and surface flies. Some open tributaries such as Canyon Creek can be great fun on the dry fly in July through September for small to medium sized trout. These tributaries of crystal clear cascading water sooth the sole and bring you smiling back to the roots of fly fishing.

Puget Sound Beaches are fun relief from the river and Stillwater settings. Sea-run cutthroat are available for the catching along several nice cobblestone reaches. The shelter of bull kelp beds provide a great feeding grounds for this fun anadramous salmonid. Late summer sees the arrival of solid hatchery coho fishery easily within reach of shore.

Come on up and get away from the crowds. You wont believe how beautiful it is and you won’t regret it. And, oh yeah, you might catch some nice fish!