Headline: I caught not one, not two, but three summer steelhead on the swung fly yesterday.
The fish counts are off the charts this year compared to recent history. It seems fish can be caught when they exist. Is this what it was like in the 80s?
The story - I floated several miles on a well known river. It was my first time fishing it at all, let alone for steelhead. I launched just after first light. It was overcast with a tiny drizzle, and bit of wildfire haze. The high temps were forecast around 80, the clouds didn't break until nearly noon.
There was no one around. I expected people in every run. With fish counts like this, why was it so empty? I'll never know… I got my pick of every run for the first two hours. Eventually I did have a drift boat with gear guys pass me, then hopped them back and forth a couple times.
I came to the first run only about 150 yards below the launch. It was a deep gut that came into a nice little tailout. The outside was heavy current and deep, but tapered out nicely. I had planned to throw a skagit + floating tip + tapered leader + wet fly, but I just couldn't cast it well. I need more practice, so I switched to my other rod which was a skagit + t8 and a hobo spey, black and blue. This fly is now nicknamed the ‘steelie bum’. Sure enough, hooked a nice little hatchery fish in the tailout. I actually thought it was a stick at first, and I pulled up instead of to the side and hooked it in the top of the mouth. Was buried deep, but lessoned learned on the softer grabs. That made my day, I was only an hour in! A no fish day is a good day, so mission accomplished!
Fish number two came in the very next run. It was on a wide sweeping bend, current seam on the far side and a nice cobble beach on the inside. At the far end was a deep pool where the water boiled before the tailout. Casting as far as I could to the far side, letting the fly sink into the seam, then swinging into the soft water. I actually fished it like winter, casting at 90 degrees with a big upstream mend at 45 degrees. This fish came about 60% of the way through the run, was a much better fish than the first and gave me a couple good jumps and alligator rolls.
Another run or two later, the guys in the drift boat passed and I was pleased to report I had caught two already (it was 9 am). They hadn't had any action. Hell of a day already. They headed down the river. I finished up that piece of water and headed on behind them.
In the next run, really long and somewhat froggy, too much water to confidently swing for me, could have spent all day there… they were back drifting plugs on river left. I took the right and was going to pass them all the way to the next run. But the tailout called to me. The next rapid was bigger than the ones before it and I thought just maybe some fish had rested above it. I had caught two fish on one rod already, so I moved the sink tip and fly to my other rod just to see if I could get some action on it too (new rod!). I casted pretty short, I didn't want those other guys to feel like I was fishing in front of them - they were a long ways off and I couldn't have hit them with my best cast, but still, I wanted to play fair. Sure enough, fish number three hooked up and came flying out of the water right away. I heard the boat guys say "woah!". I fought him a good while to tire him out. No net, so all the fish had to be landed by hand - this one was not easy, he didn't want to give up.
Just an unreal day, one that will quite possibly never happen again. I've only ever hooked 3 - (landed one, touched a second, and a third broke me off) - before yesterday. Now I've doubled my count. What the actual hell? The current fish counts are high, but maybe the future is bright? A guy can dream and keep swinging.
The fish counts are off the charts this year compared to recent history. It seems fish can be caught when they exist. Is this what it was like in the 80s?
The story - I floated several miles on a well known river. It was my first time fishing it at all, let alone for steelhead. I launched just after first light. It was overcast with a tiny drizzle, and bit of wildfire haze. The high temps were forecast around 80, the clouds didn't break until nearly noon.
There was no one around. I expected people in every run. With fish counts like this, why was it so empty? I'll never know… I got my pick of every run for the first two hours. Eventually I did have a drift boat with gear guys pass me, then hopped them back and forth a couple times.
I came to the first run only about 150 yards below the launch. It was a deep gut that came into a nice little tailout. The outside was heavy current and deep, but tapered out nicely. I had planned to throw a skagit + floating tip + tapered leader + wet fly, but I just couldn't cast it well. I need more practice, so I switched to my other rod which was a skagit + t8 and a hobo spey, black and blue. This fly is now nicknamed the ‘steelie bum’. Sure enough, hooked a nice little hatchery fish in the tailout. I actually thought it was a stick at first, and I pulled up instead of to the side and hooked it in the top of the mouth. Was buried deep, but lessoned learned on the softer grabs. That made my day, I was only an hour in! A no fish day is a good day, so mission accomplished!
Fish number two came in the very next run. It was on a wide sweeping bend, current seam on the far side and a nice cobble beach on the inside. At the far end was a deep pool where the water boiled before the tailout. Casting as far as I could to the far side, letting the fly sink into the seam, then swinging into the soft water. I actually fished it like winter, casting at 90 degrees with a big upstream mend at 45 degrees. This fish came about 60% of the way through the run, was a much better fish than the first and gave me a couple good jumps and alligator rolls.
Another run or two later, the guys in the drift boat passed and I was pleased to report I had caught two already (it was 9 am). They hadn't had any action. Hell of a day already. They headed down the river. I finished up that piece of water and headed on behind them.
In the next run, really long and somewhat froggy, too much water to confidently swing for me, could have spent all day there… they were back drifting plugs on river left. I took the right and was going to pass them all the way to the next run. But the tailout called to me. The next rapid was bigger than the ones before it and I thought just maybe some fish had rested above it. I had caught two fish on one rod already, so I moved the sink tip and fly to my other rod just to see if I could get some action on it too (new rod!). I casted pretty short, I didn't want those other guys to feel like I was fishing in front of them - they were a long ways off and I couldn't have hit them with my best cast, but still, I wanted to play fair. Sure enough, fish number three hooked up and came flying out of the water right away. I heard the boat guys say "woah!". I fought him a good while to tire him out. No net, so all the fish had to be landed by hand - this one was not easy, he didn't want to give up.
Just an unreal day, one that will quite possibly never happen again. I've only ever hooked 3 - (landed one, touched a second, and a third broke me off) - before yesterday. Now I've doubled my count. What the actual hell? The current fish counts are high, but maybe the future is bright? A guy can dream and keep swinging.
