High Water Winter Steelhead Report - (3-18-2012)

This past Sunday, I had a trip booked with two anglers named Taylor and Rob. They were both itching to get out, and had a case of "Cabin Fever"; which can prove to be a widespread ailment in Oregon this time of the year. The weather lately has been nothing short of atrocious, and being outside and being active is the key to treating a bad case of "Cabin Fever". The conditions were far from favorable on Sunday, and I was going to cancel the trip, but the guys insisted that they wanted to hit the river. The assured me that they wanted to learn how to fish for winter steelhead effectively more than wanting a guided trip just to catch fish on. They told me that they would not hold anything against me since I was going to call the trip off, and they just wanted to fish, and learn how to better their angling techniques for getting into winter steelhead.

Rob on tight to a wild Oregon winter steelhead

When we got out there, the river even looked a tad bit more messed up than I was anticipating, but you have to deal with the given conditions. I was showing them the water speed and type of spot you would want to see to try for winter steelhead with a bloated high water river. We hit the first spot, and it did not yield any fish, nor any signs of fish, but you have to fish spots in order to catch anything.

A nice deep bodied wild male Oregon winter steelhead

The second spot proved differently, as Rob stuck a fish within a minute or two of fishing it. The fish took the offering hard, and the Thingamabobber took a savage dunk and Rob struck tight to connect with the wild winter buck. It was a pretty fish with rose colored cheeks, and a super deep body for its length. We admired the fish and sent him off to continue his run upriver to find a hen to pair up with.

Nice shoulders on this wild native Oregon winter steelhead

 Now it was Taylor's turn to get tight to a winter steelhead, as Rob was totally stoked to pull out a fish from the swollen water that the recent weather has pumped into the river. Taylor was fishing hard, and after a couple of spots later his indicator went under showing signs of a take. He came tight to the fish, but the hook did not hold the fish for more than a little while. It was another good sign though; since the water was high, and just getting a fish on was a big deal.

Showing where the fish should be holding in the pool....

 Luckily, the very next cast just a little bit upstream resulted in another take, and Taylor struck hard to see life on the end of the fly line. It turned out that a snarly snag of roots somehow got onto the line, as I scrambled over to wrangle it off. Luckily it worked out, and the line was clear to rip through the guides of the Access Switch rod. The fish ran hard down stream, and it thrashed on the surface only to free the hook.

Pushing a "stack mend" onto the Thingamabobber

This fish ended up giving itself a LDR (long distance release), as we all grumbled a frustrated sigh. Luckily Taylor is the kind of angler who was stoked for the hook up, and not bummed that he lost the fish. So many anglers do not value getting tied into a winter steelhead, and they only care about landing fish, and numbers. Going out and hooking up when the conditions are not in your favor is a treat in itself. Just hooking up with a wild winter steelhead is crazy enough!

On tight to a wild winter steelhead....

Rob and Taylor had a killer day of winter steelheading, and their angling skills soared through the roof on this day on the river. It is always rewarding for me to see people roll cast across a river, and get a several second dead drift to their fly, when it was not in their mind to do that in the beginning of the day. Getting out on the river can always prove to be worth while, and when you hook up with more than one steelhead on a day when the conditions are less than favorable is always a plus.

Working a winter steelhead run.....

You never know what a day of fishing can offer unless you get out there. I often hear people complain in the winter about high water and miserable weather, but it is always better when you are out there. Many times the weather is better out on the river than it can be in the Portland metro area, and you cannot catch winter steelhead on the couch.


Tight Lines!!!!

Quick Video Clip - Trophy Winter Steelhead

This is a quick clip from the other day when I had my client Bob rope into a nice native winter steelhead on a north coast river. The cool thing to think about was that Charlie (Bob's friend) got a chrome bright hen that was blatantly larger than this fish, but the tippet popped when the fish was in the landing mode before I had a chance to put the hoop of the rubber "catch and release" net under that big beauty. We saw it so close and personal though, and it was a dandy specimen of native Oregon wild winter steelhead to see. Watching Charlie battle with it through 500+ yards of treacherous water (stair-step waterfall included) was one of the most awesome angling feats I have ever witnessed! Too bad we did not have that one on film!

Enjoy the video clip, and sorry we have no close up pics of the fish. It was released right after what you see in this clip after a few quick shots and measurements taken with the fish in the water. It never spent more than a few seconds out of the water, and you see it in slow motion on here. Please take care of our wild native fish!!!! They are treasures we need in our future!

Don't Let The High Water Get You Down - Steelhead Still Take Care of Business

Swinging Through Swollen Flows

With all of the recent precipitation, I had come down with a terrible case of cabin fever, and the rains have kept the rivers full. Thoughts of how many steelhead that are just swimming by my favorite waters have been haunting me, and I had a friend visit  for a couple of days who is a fishing freakazoid. I was not going to let the swollen flows keep us on the couch thinking about chrome anymore. There is always a spot that looks like it would hold steelhead no matter how high the flows are, and we were going to put it to the test to find some of these potential spots, and hopefully hook into some winter steelhead.

Winter steelhead boiling on surface during a screaming run

We fished for two days, and the first day the river was 20" above the standard flows that everyone who fishes this river seems to prefer. The water color was a tad bit off of steelhead green, but not brown and blown out by any means. We searched for "steelhead water" and that was the hard thing to find with the bloated flows, but we knew somewhere would have water that was about "walking speed" and somewhere from 18" - 6' deep. It turns out that everywhere that fit into that water classification resulted in having a fish on, or at least a grab. In a funny way it was not to hard to figure out; since most of the water was a torrent of jet wash with heavy whitewater or boiling hydraulic pools that looked intimidating. Steelhead are not going to hold in water that would be too much work to hold in, and the slow water that we found was generally above and below rapids; so you can assume that steelhead should be holding there. Fishing with that equation resulted in 6 hookups, and only 2 fish were landed, but the high water was the reason for all of the long distance releases. All of the fish were hooked on dead drifted presentations under strike indicators, and we did not hook any fish swinging flies on this day.

Angler on tight to a large powerful winter steelhead

The second day of fishing was a totally different story. The water was still about 10" above what would be considered to be the optimal river stage, but after the day before it looked perfect. As for the fishing, it was pretty darn good out there. I hooked up with a beautiful chromer on my second cast in my second spot I fished, and the fish took the fly super aggressively. It was a beautiful wild steelhead on her way to her natal waters before I intercepted her for a brief moment of admiration.

Beautiful coastal Oregon native winter steelhead

The water was producing hookups in just about every spot we probed our flies in, but the swollen flows caused many long distance releases again. We had super amazing fishing for the last 1 1/2 hours of the day, as we both hooked up with a 9 fish, and landed only 3 of them again (one wrapped on wood and straightened the hook). All of the fish again were hooked on dead drift presentations, and none were hooked on a tight line swing presentation. We fished both methods, and the dead drifts were getting all of the attention. The high flows seems to aid in the fish ripping the hooks out during the battles; since the line pressure would be so intense. The best part is hooking up and playing these steelhead, but it is always frustrating wondering exactly what the fish may have looked like that escaped before you got to land them. Luckily, Eliot ended up successfully landing this coastal beauty to admire.....

Angler admiring this gorgeous Oregon coastal winter steelhead - January 27, 2012

The thing that this fish made us wonder about was how many more looked like this that got off.....? That is what keeps us angling for more.....

I Wish Tight Lines for All!!!