Rod Griffin of Griff’s Fly Fishing Adventures guides anglers for trout, steelhead, and salmon in Washington. Griffin recently sat down to take on some questions for the Venturing Angler:
Why do you guide where you do?
I was born and raised in a little farming and ranching community in Southeastern Washington. Pomeroy is located close to the Washington, Idaho, and Oregon borders. One of my rivers the Grande Ronde is a stones throw away, and I grew up fishing it. Guiding east of the Cascades just came natural. I am a river man and chasing steelhead, cutthroat, and rainbows on Eastern Washington rivers is my life.
What is your favorite fish specie?
My passion is chasing steelhead with a swung fly. Especially a dry fly. That is another reason I fish the rivers I do. Eastern Washington rivers are home to summer run fish. No winter run fish here. The Grande Ronde and Methow are famous for dry fly steelhead.
What is your favorite thing about guiding?
I like working with beginning fly anglers and those with minimum experience. Especially youngsters and women. They are eager to learn and attentive.
I have many clients who have fished with me for several years. It is great to watch them progress in their fishing skills and become better and better anglers.
What is the most memorable trip you’ve guided and why?
Most every trip is memorable for me. A couple of years ago I had a half-day trip with a fella I had not fished with before. It was the latter part of September near the end of the trout season on the Methow. I was up front and explained to him that the catching had been slow.
I hunt big cutthroat and especially like twitching big foam dries that imitate hoppers and stone flies. I put one of my favorite big bugs on him and had him dead drifting to the turn and twitching and skating it across to the front of the boat. Late September is also the month that steelhead start showing up in the Methow. On this particular day, this fella hooked 5 steelhead on the dry from my boat in about 5 hours. Almost unbelievable!
What is the funniest thing you’ve experienced while guiding?
When I worked on the Yakima, I had and angler hook 2 birds on the same trip. Both on a dry fly. One – a finch; the other a red winged blackbird. I thought he lost his rod on the red wing. I took him to the bank; he jumped out of the boat and saved it.
What makes your guide service great?
1) Our guests, 2) my son, Clint, works with me and we have an unbridled passion for what we do, and 3) the big cutthroat and the steelhead that we pursue.
If you had only one day off all year, where would you fish and what fish would you target?
The Methow River with my Bob Clay Cane two-handed rod for dry fly summer-run steelhead.
What are your favorite three flies?
1) My peach colored foam Chernobyl, 2) a Markham “Blue Lady”, 3) Green Butt Skunk. I do a fair number of tube flies.
What is the one piece of gear you couldn’t bear to leave at home?
My bifocals.
Do you have any other passions?
The “Cowboy Way.” My two English Setter bird dogs, Pete and Pepper; and my two saddle mules, Kahlua and Boo, are my best friends.
To check out more from Rod Griffin and Griff’s Fly Fishing Adventures, please click here.
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