Here's a shot of my 26-inch-long North Umpqua River summer steelhead.
I was using two-fly rig, with a tiny pink egg trailing behind a big weighted stonefly nymph. I was able to use the weighted fly because we were fishing below the river's fly-fishing only stretch, where weighted flies are not allowed. The fish hit the egg.
While growing up in rural Southern Oregon, Mark Taylor developed a passion for the outdoors while he and his younger brother tagged along with their father on fishing, hunting and camping adventures.
Graduating from Northwestern University in 1988, Taylor spent four years as an officer in the U.S. Navy based in Norfolk before moving into journalism.
After five years writing about the military for a Norfolk-based publishing company, he became the outdoors editor at The Roanoke Times in 1998. He lives in Roanoke with his wife and twin daughters.
