The eighty anglers participating in the Friends of Cal-Ore PERC derby converged at the Ship Ashore Resort in Smith River late Thursday afternoon, February 17, 2005, for registration and the orientation dinner. Captain Pete and his four-man crew served up dozens of barbecued oysters during cocktail hour as the anglers checked the standings board to see who they were paired with for teams and who their guide was going to be for the next two days.

The format for the event is two boats with two anglers each, comprising a four man team. One boat fishes the Smith and the other the Chetco on the first day of the derby; then the boats switch rivers for the second day. I was fishing with Ken Hembree, a FishSniffer.com Forum Moderator from Spanish Springs, Nevada, and we were paired with Jim Jones and Judy Arion from Western Outdoor News. Mick Thomas and Wally Johnson were our guides.

Friday morning a hearty breakfast buffet was served at 5:30 AM. Mick told us he had a plan and to make sure we had all our gear in his boat and pickup by the time he got out of the guide's meeting so we could get a jump on the crowd. The anglers were milling around the restaurant parking lot during the guides meeting. At the end of the meeting Mick comes running out of the restaurant shouting, "Let's go! Let's go!" By the time he got to the pick-up we were belted in.

We were hurtling over the speed bumps on the motel access road at 25 MPH before most anglers had even located their guides! Twenty boats and only three put-ins meant there were going to be traffic jams on the river. Mick had gained nearly a ten-minute separation from the nearest boat, which he maintained all morning.

Ken and I fished the Smith on Friday. With the water being so low and "gin clear", as the locals say, the fish really had the advantage. To counter Mick had us using six-pound Maxima leader with ten-pound main line. Mick manufactures his own 1.5-ounce silicon rubber ball sinkers which kept the undyed roe and puffball on the bottom.

The first couple of hours were very frustrating. The rubber sinkers travel extremely well in the cast so the tendency early on is to over shoot your target. More than one line ended up in the brush across the river. Due to the low river level, the slots and channels (casting targets) were small. A couple of feet off on a cast meant you were out of the zone for the drift. With the steelhead being so finicky, there were no second chances!

The steelhead bait pick-up on the Smith is notoriously light and subtle. In the low clear water the pick-up is even lighter. The only clue is a difference in line movement. Ken and I both got robbed early on. After swinging and missing on a couple of rocks, Mick said, "Alves, I thought you knew how to fish. You swing on a couple of rocks and don't even go after the fish."

We drifted into the upper end of "Peacock Hole" right before lunch. There were a few boats working the bottom of the hole. The Cal-Ore chuck wagon was on the gravel bar serving up barbecued tri-tip.

Mick had us cast to the "seam" on the far side of the river, where faster moving water of the main channel meets slower flowing water. Ken and I both landed our casts right on target. I swung at what I thought was a steelhead. My rod stayed bent, the tip twitching as the steelhead took off on a drag-burning run down river.

Mick coached me though fighting the fish on light tackle. The trick is to keep the fish as relaxed as possible. The head shakes and aerials steelheads are notorious for quickly spell doom for six-pound leaders. A rod tip held high above the water encourages the fish to come to the surface, creates line slack, and provides relatively little directional control over the fish.

By keeping the rod tip a few inches off the surface, or actually in the river, the line angle is dramatically reduced and so is slack in the line. This all but eliminates headshake and encourages the fish to stay in the water. Directional control is achieved by pointing the rod tip the opposite direction you want the fish to go. In most cases, the fish will turn facing up river and almost rest. At this point you can very gently move the rod tip a foot or so, still keeping it close to the surface, and reel down on the fish slowly coaxing it toward the boat. We didn't lose a single fish!

Eventually Mick netted the colorful buck. A string was cut to the length of the fish, to record the catch, a quick photo was taken and I gently released the steelhead back into the river.

Mick rowed us back up to the top of the hole. On the second drift Ken hooked up and Mick netted a chrome-bright hen. Two fish in fifteen minutes caught in front of the derby officials and the cameras. "If you're going to show off, might as well do it in front of the cameras," Mick chuckled.

After a quick tasty lunch, we trailered the boat and drove back upriver and again launched at "The Forks". I was fortunate, or lucky, enough to catch a 24" hen at the "Gage Hole," our only hook-up of the afternoon. Scratching out three fish had to be considered a good day's fishing in the low flowing Smith River.

The scores posted on the standings board graphically illustrated just how tough the fishing had been. As challenging as the Smith had proved to be, producing twenty-four fish, the Chetco was near impossible only giving up nine fish to the forty anglers. Our three fish had us in fourth place. Our team partners were skunked. The leaders had caught three steelhead on the Smith and one on the Chetco.

The Ship Ashore served over a thousand pounds of fresh Dungeness crab to the derby participants for dinner that evening, which was followed by the Cal-Ore fundraising raffle.

"I won't know what my game plan is until I take a look at the river." Mick told us over breakfast. So few fish were caught on the Chetco that even the guides who fished it Friday offered few suggestions. Scuttlebutt had it that a few fish were caught at North Fork and a few taken at Mill Creek.

"North Fork" is a popular spot for bank anglers. When we arrived, around 8:30 am, it wasn't being fished. If it was producing, someone would be fishing it," Mick said. Mick decided to work the area anyway so we put in about a mile upriver. We fished for over an hour with the only action being both of us having our bait stripped on the same drift. Chetco steelhead normally aren't as subtle on the take as their brothers on the Smith. However, the low water conditions had turned the bite into a carbon copy of the Smith!

We pulled out, drove upriver and launched again at "Ice Box." We were in for a long drift and would definitely miss the hot chilidog lunch. Anticipating the conditions, the Cal-Ore folks had sent along a snack sack with all the guides fishing the Chetco.

I managed to hook and land a chrome hen in a small channel running along the willow lined bank at the "Culvert hole." It was our only fish of the day. Mick had even tried working hot-shots for a couple of hours to no avail. We headed back to the Ship Ashore to see who had won.

The PERC Derby is a fundraising event for Friends of Cal-Ore Fish. No cash prizes are awarded. The top prizes were custom Rogue fishing rods, derby belt buckles and bragging rights. Wild cards were sold which added to the teams total catch inches. Technically a team could win the derby without catching a fish.

On Saturday the Chetco out produced the Smith eighteen to seventeen. Eighty anglers only managed to catch sixty-eight fish in two days. That's tough fishin'. All sixty-eight steelhead were released.

The standings with the raw catch numbers were on display during cocktail hour. Captain Pete and his crew were again providing oysters to wash down the beer. Our teammates had been shutout again! We would have to wait until after dinner to find out who the derby winners were.

The top individual angler was Brad Rugg, landing five steelhead fishing with guide Jerry Hogan. Two anglers managed to catch four fish and another four anglers, including yours truly, boated three.

The top team, without wildcards was Jeff Grady, Keith Grady, Brice Dusi, and JD Richey fishing with guides Vince Thompson and Kevin Brock. Their total was ten fish totaling 303 inches in length.

The Ship Ashore made a gallant attempt to top Friday night's crab feed by serving prime rib and yet more crab. Tired but well-fed anglers cheered as the seven wild card scores were unveiled by Cal-Ore President Mike Wagner one at a time.

First place honors went to the CM Long Construction team of George Patton, Greg Ivovic, Joe Duran and Lonny Davis fishing with guides Gary Early and Zack Larson.

As a fundraiser, the derby was a huge success netting nearly $50,000 for funding Cal-Ore projects, including the Rowdy Creek Hatchery on the Smith.

The Friends of Cal-Ore Fish host five derbies a year. The fish, the guides, the camaraderie, the food and any other detail you can think of were all first class. If you are interested in supporting Friends of Cal-Ore Fish or participating in one of their derbies, you can get more information at their website: http://www.cal-orefish.org.

If you would like to fish with Mick Thomas, call Lunker Fish Trips. (707-458-4704)

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