The Sauk River was in beautiful shape - Preston called the shade - steelhead green. The weather was overcast with just a touch of a breeze that carried the chill of the fresh Cascade snows just to our east. I fished my 6wt. two-hander and on my second cast, I hooked a solid 24" Dollie Varden that came unbuttoned just as I was preparing to beach her for Preston to photograph. "2002 is going to be a good year," I thought. A few minutes later, I landed a second fish of about 18" with beautiful pink spots on a slate gray body.
We drove upriver, crossed a bridge, traveled through a clearcut, turned left onto a logging road under the powerlines, parked, walked down a goat trail and following a stream down to the river, where we turned up and walked another half mile to the bend below the rapids to one of Prestons secret spots. I hooked four more dollies and landed a couple more 18" females before it began to rain. Preston picked up a good fish in the middle of the river near a submerged tree. As he stepped out of the water, he told me that there should be another fish just below the root wad. I placed a cast upstream of the broken water and sure enough, there she was. Hello dollie! Preston is definitely the ace dollie guide. We broke for lunch followed by a couple fortifying nips of Yukon Jack from Prestons flask - or did lunch follow the nips? Anyway, after lunch, we drove downstream to another spot where I proceeded to land the last fish of the day, a real beaut - a big male dollie with a mouth big enough to swallow a softball. Yessir, 2002 is going to be quite a year. Leland.
