Swing the Fly Issue 3.1 Summer 2015 | Page 85

Adrian tying a Greaseliner streamside. Photo by Steve Turner

Frank (Amato) knew every rock on the lower Deschutes. We would camp at about mile ten from the mouth. Frank knew every place up and down for several miles on that river.

I remember Frank took me upriver one day and said “Do you see those four Desert Junipers over there?’ And I said ,“Yea”.

“Start at the top and when your fly swings by the third Juniper down the fish will eat it.”

I could barely even hold myself in the current at the top. As I looked down I could see this oily slick where there was a soft spot right at the third Juniper. A steelhead about 11pounds looking like a world-record Montana rainbow, crushed the fly and ran out of the run and into the next pool, way down. I almost got spooled because she left the pool and there was no stopping her on that old Pflueger Medalist reel.

We tend to be experts on the water that we get to fish often. Anybody who can cast well and read the water can do fairly well on almost any river. Non-guides usually don’t measure up as well as the guides who are on the water every day.

Having said that, when guys collected in Concrete on the Skagit, Harry Lemire was just one of many, and there wasn’t a lot of water. We fished from Concrete and went up the Sauk a few miles. And of course we fished the Mixer, where the Skagit and Sauk come together and a couple other pools. But there were not a lot of spots. Harry knew some spots “barely the size of this table that might hold a fish.”

Even back then, the Mixer was the O-dark-thirty spot. It was just an automatic place where the fish came up through heavy water and fanned out. At first light they would be holding on the shallow edge.

on the Gaula and Alta, I fished with him on the Dean. He was a phenomenal fisherman. The European guides who fish on their own can’t fish the beats they guide on because it is too expensive.They fish the public water. And if you can catch fish on the public water in Europe you have to be a hell of a fisherman because there is not a lot of it. And the competition is huge. Roland was a master.