Open Week on the Bulkley River BC

I got the word recently from BC Steelhead guide Andre Laporte that he has an open week this fall on the Bulkley River. Andre has been guiding the Bulkley River for over 20 years and is also well known for tying the famous Bulkley Mouse dry fly. He is one of the best guides in the valley and knows how to find fish in low or high water, and everything in between. 

The week is 6 days of fishing from September 30th through October 5th. This is an absolutely prime week of Steelhead fishing on the Bulkley. Water temps are typically in the low - mid 50s, making all swung fly presentations -- including skated dry flies -- very effective. Andre specializes in fishing the remote canyon stretches of the Bulkley that receive very little pressure. The fish counts on the Skeena river are looking exceptional this year and good number of steelhead are already being caught in the Bulkley. Fishing should be fantastic by late September!

The cost of the trip is normally $3300 per person for the week, but is being offered at $2900 per person and there are 2 spaces available.

This includes:

6 days of guided Steelhead fishing on the world famous Bulkley River

number of hours at clients discretion

(typically 10 hour days, 7:30am to 5:30pm)

Ground transportation to and from the Smithers airport

Ground transportation around Smithers for supplies and incidental items

Ground transportation to and from your hotel to the river for each day of fishing

Fishing from a new & modern Wooldridge jet boat

Spey casting instruction if requested

Shore lunch on the river each day

home made soups

fresh sandwiches

fruit & snacks

beverages

Souvenir digital photographs

Addition items that are not included:

Fishing License, Steelhead Stamp and Classified Permits

Ground or air transportation to Smithers

air transportation available through Air Canada

Hotel accommodations

Recommended accommodations:

Hudson's Bay Lodge

Storks Nest Inn

Morning and evening meals

If you are interested in this rare opportunity, please contact me via email at mark@confluencerods.com.

To help sweeten the deal I will offer a 15% discount on any of my own custom bamboo spey or single hand rods, or custom reels ordered when booking.

The Bulkley is truly an amazing river and Andre is an equally standout guide. If you've ever thought about taking a British Columbia Steelhead trip, I'd strongly encourage you to consider this great deal!

Cap and Ring Reel Seats Done

It has taken me a while but I have finally finished a new batch of my cap and ring reel seat hardware.

This should be enough to last a little while...

For more information on the reel seats or to order some visit the website Reel Seats.

http://confluencerods.com/

Sneak Peak!

Here's a sneak peak of a really cool project I am working on with my good friend Shawn Bratt.

Once this reel is finished (which is should be by mid September) I'll post a full write up on the very cool story behind this awesome reel.

The Confluence Rod Company

Photo Essay

I just got home last night from an awesome trip to Seattle. I got to watch a good friend get married on a beautiful boat in Puget Sound, spend some time with my sister, and fish for steelhead. All good things.

I spent a few days fishing the Cowlitz river in SW Washington and a few late evenings/ early mornings fishing the Skykomish river north of Seattle. The Skykomish river holds a very special place in my heart as it is the first river I fished for anadromous fish many years ago. While fishing with my good friend Ben Grady, we snapped a few photos. This is a photo essay from the trip. Hope you enjoy.

The Confluence Rod Company

Back in action!

OK Folks, so I slacked off pretty seriously with the blog. For which I apologize. But I am back at the keyboard and intend to update the blog on a relatively frequent basis.

First off I would like to announce that I have finally gotten off my duff and created a website for my business the Confluence Rod Company. Please stop by and let me know what you think.

The website is far from complete. I still have a great deal of content to add which will happen slowly over the coming weeks.

To kick off the blog, lets start with a video. I'm still very new to this editing business so don't beat me up too bad.

Spey1 from Mark Shamburg on Vimeo.

Perfect Conditions

When it seems every river in the state is blown out or about to be, it's nice to see that the North Fork of the South Platte is still in great shape. And fishing at Rowdy Trout Ranch has been Lights Out!

Thursday I fished with a couple serious outdoors-men from Wisconsin. Both were serious fishermen, but this was their first fly fishing adventure in Colorado, and I'd have to say it was a resounding success.



Don't let John's big Bear paws fool you, that fish stretched the tape at over 26" long!

Not to let his boss outdo him, as soon as John landed the monster above, Joe hooked one of his own.



If you're looking for some fishing during runoff there's a chance the North Fork will be in shape and Rowdy Trout Ranch will be fishing well. So give me a call and lets spend a day at Rowdy that you won't forget!

Weather Beat Down

Sick as a dog, but desperate to get out of the house, I decided to make a quick run down to Deckers Wednesday afternoon to fish the South Platte below Cheesman Canyon. As I got about 10 minutes outside Denver the drizzle turned into an outright deluge and then came the hail. The hail stones pounding my tin can of a pickup made an absolutely deafening ruckus. The highway was covered with about 2 inches of white by the time it stopped. As I weaved my way into the mountains I passed through a few more storm cells and a lot more rain before finally reaching the river.

When I got there I was surprised to see that Horse creek was not puking mud into the Platte. So I suited up, ate a sandwich and walked down to the water. Standing on a high bank I could see several fish spread out on the shallow flats darting back and forth. I watched them for a few minutes and spotted a few fish sporadically rising to the surface. As I slowly made my way to the water I could see a handful of clumsy BWO mayflies fluttering off the surface of the water. So I rummaged through my boxes and picked out a nice looking dry fly, rebuilt my tattered leader and set about to catch a fish.

And catch a fish I did. A nice brown. Then another. And within an hour had caught a handful of nice browns - all on the dry. As I finally got to the top of the pool I was fishing, I spotted a few larger rainbows sitting on the shelf where the riffle above dropped into the pool. They were sitting in about 18" of water and despite the choppy water over the top of them you could clearly see them darting around to pick up food from the drift. I spent several minutes trying to coax them up to my dry before finally conceding that these fish would probably be easier to catch if I tied on a dropper. So I dropped an egg off my BWO dry and after just a minute or two was hitched up to a really good rainbow.

As I worked my way up river I watched a procession of cars leave. "Strange" I though, as I spotted fish in every corner of the river I peered into, some of which I even managed to catch. But then it hit me. At first I figured it was the deeper water I was fishing that made spotting the fish harder, or maybe my glasses had fogged up. But when I took the glasses off it was suddenly apparent. In front of my eyes, the river was starting to blow out. Over the next 10 minutes the clarity continued to drop until it looked like Guiness pouring from a tap. It was about then I decided a beer sounded really good and it was time to call it a day.