Trout Fishing With a Little Steelhead Fishing in the Mix Report

I love this time of the year because fish start to become aggressive and they will eat fun presentations you dream about fishing during the cold months. You can fish all sorts of presentations too, and many days lots of them will work. The nice thing is that you can pick and choose your methods too, and lately I have been sick of staring at Thingamabobbers drifting down probable feeding lies; so I opted not to have my clients Dave and Rose throw any full throttle nymph rigs on their day out. The only way I was going to set up a nymphing rig was if it was absolutely going to be needed, and if we were not producing fish on any of the methods we chose to fish. Luckily, the nymphing rig was not needed whatsoever, and the fishing was quite good at times.

Royal Coachman Wet Fly Stuck in the Corner of this Coastal Cutthroat's Mouth

We had a Chubby Chernobyl Norm with a nymph dropped off, and the nymphs we used were Possie Buggers, Prince's, and Zug Bugs. They all worked, including the dry fly; although the nymphs got way more attention. The biggest "catching" contributors of the day were the Muddler Minnow fished on a super fast sink poly leader stripped back in on a down and across wet fly swing. Swinging soft hackled wet flies and also the Royal Coachman wet fly on a floating line were a hot producers as well. We had times when the "bite" was ultra consistent, and other times when it was a fish here and there. The slow times correlated with the sunshine being bright and the cloud cover lacking. When the fishing was hot and fast, it was overcast, and cooler out. The weather shifted back and forth a couple of times, and it was interesting to see the fishing productivity relate to the weather that was happening at the given time.

Muddler Minnow Stripped on a Fast Sink Poly leader took this nice Upper Willamette Trout

We dabbled in a little steelhead wet fly swinging, and Dave had two close ones. The first fish was a few casts into a small short tailout feature, and as the purple and pink Extractor was followed and Dave saw the chromer attack the offering. Unfortunately the fish was practically at the end of the swing; so it was short lived and not much more than a hard grab and line tightening up, to then loosen up again. The second grab was in a super sweet productive steelhead run, and the same fly pattern was intercepted again to see the line tighten up like a clothesline; only to then slacken again. Sometimes the grabs are so close to being the chrome glory, but that is what keeps us coming back for more....

A nice deep bodied upper Willamette Cutthroat Trout during battle

Trout Fishing should remain strong for the next several weeks as long as conditions stay consistent and we do not get any events that will blow the rivers out. Steelhead fishing will continue to get better and better as more fish fill into the Willamette Valley rivers as the summer run continues to show good numbers going over Willamette Falls.

On tight while stripping a Muddler Minnow

Late spring fly fishing is a wonderful time of the year to get out there to enjoy trout fishing. Lots of good fly fishing opportunities of are abound this time of the year; so get yourself out there to enjoy it! When it is raining hard and cold in the winter, we are dreaming of this time of the year; so get yourself out there....

Muddle Minnow stuck in this cutty's grill