Flies from “The February Room” podcast-Episode 14, Jon Hazlett and the Dirk Wiggler

Accessed via private land, our February Room guest, Jon Hazlett, handed me a rod affectionately known as the “Death Star” as we walked to the river. Southern Oregon was parched, in the throes of an extended drought, and fish were few and far between. Successful steelhead fishing is largely based on timing, and the timing of my business trip to Medford didn’t exactly align with favorable fishing conditions. But we were here to fish and Jon was kind enough to take me to an exclusive stretch on a clandestine tributary. I struggled to regain my aged skills with the spey rod, the muscle-memory diminished in the time between my former existence as a steelhead angler from Oregon and my current one, a trout fisherman based in Montana. The Dirk Wiggler, a concoction of marabou, saddle hackle, rubber legs, dumbell eyes, and a purposely-positioned trailer hook, swam through the soft water below me as I fished the hangdown, then began to strip in line to recast. That’s when a chrome steelhead surprised the shit out of me and bit the Wiggler. The encounter was brief and fleeting, but it was the last winter steelhead I have come in contact with and my collection of D-Dubs remains at rest until I can return to Jon’s abundance of home waters that feed the Pacific near the California border. If you want to improve your spey (or single-handed) casting, Hazlett is your man. Check out his You Tube sessions…https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aFHZXp3Lyw.