The Summer Steelhead of Canyon Creek (Film)

jeradjames

jeradjames

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Anyone have any info on this old video? Bob Heirman mentions it in an older Everett Herald arcticle regarding Beaver Ponds but can't find anything online about. I enjoy reading all the old stories of the good old days of Puget Sound fly fishing, although kind of depressing, and wondering if anyone has seen this or if they have a copy they would lend me.

Thanks,

Jerad
 
jeradjames said:
Anyone have any info on this old video? Bob Heirman mentions it in an older Everett Herald arcticle regarding Beaver Ponds but can't find anything online about. I enjoy reading all the old stories of the good old days of Puget Sound fly fishing, although kind of depressing, and wondering if anyone has seen this or if they have a copy they would lend me.

Thanks,

Jerad
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Never heard of this but it does sound like one of those things about our home that is thrilling but depressing at the same time.
Back when some chunks of that were still open to fish I had a hell of a time just finding access to the water with the road closures, private property and topography.
 
Matt B said:
Never heard of this but it does sound like one of those things about our home that is thrilling but depressing at the same time.
Back when some chunks of that were still open to fish I had a hell of a time just finding access to the water with the road closures, private property and topography.
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Neither had I prior to that article I found. Yeah there's tons of private property and development on that creek now so I could imagine it would have been tough going. Also, yes the topography of the places our summer runs live in PS is stunning.

I know there's snorkel monitoring still being done on the NF Sky and SF Tolt summer runs but none that I know of on the Stillaguamish stocks.

I'm surprised there wasn't a more substantial or well known summer run in the Skagit basin. I've been up a lot of the smaller tribs and there's plenty of tribs with smaller falls, deep canyon walls, and what appears to be typical summer run habitat.
 
The Canyon Creek that flows into the S. fork of the Stilly? I used to fish it in the 70’s & 80’s.
Not a lot of access or places that held fish. The best spot was in the canyon that required one to lower yourself down to a ledge using a rope. Great hole that usually held fish. Getting out also required using the rope to pull yourself back up.
 
If interested in Bob's fishing stories and some of his poetry may look for a copy of his
"Snohomish by Beloved County, an Anglers Anthology" Bob Heirman, 1993

He was born in 1932 and lived most (all/) of his life in the family homestead up the hill from Blackman's lake on the outskirts of Snohomish, Washington. A number of stories of plunking on the Snohomish, fishing for Pilchuck winter steelhead and of course the summer steelhead of Canyon Creek..

After pulling the book from my bookshelves for the info above I re-read a couple stories, as entraining as the first time i read them in 1994.

curt
 
I first saw what I assume were canyon creek summers under a log jutting out into the river a little ways above Jordan bridge. 3 of them, the first steelhead id ever seen in person. I was 15 and my buddy had just gotten his license. I had zero idea how to fly fish, and I drifted every fly Ross had past those 3 Goliath trouts mouths with nary a notice. One time one of them moved a couple inches out of the way of my we egg sucking leech.

Fished the fuck out of them and never touched one. Leaving Lynden at 230 am, getting in the river at sunup and wet wading/swimming for miles until it started to get dark. Wed find the road and hoof back up and find the car at 1030 some nights.

I can still see our pullout in the predawn beginnings of light and feel how fucking cold that creek is at 430 am, even in August. In my mind that log is still there and so are those 3 fish. I sometimes wish we would have had any idea what we were doing, but I think it was for the best. It got me hooked on those critters way worse than catching them ever would have.
 
Another interesting read is Enos Bradner's "Northwest Angling", 1950. Some sights into the steelhead rivers and fishing in the 1940s. The Chapter on the Washington (or Oregon) steelhead rivers was of a particular interest to me. The chapters on Pass like, the cutthroat ponds (Dave) and the fly fishing for steelhead in that era could be of interest to many here.

curt
 
Smalma said:
Another interesting read is Enos Bradner's "Northwest Angling", 1950. Some sights into the steelhead rivers and fishing in the 1940s. The Chapter on the Washington (or Oregon) steelhead rivers was of a particular interest to me. The chapters on Pass like, the cutthroat ponds (Dave) and the fly fishing for steelhead in that era could be of interest to many here.

curt
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@Smalma, I still enjoy fishing many of the lakes Bradner talked about in Northwest Angling...Pass Lake, Prices, Lake Isobel, Cottonwood, Knouff. Cutthroat Meadows washed out and is now a long hike behind a gate on Weyerhauser property. I also enjoy Bradner's Inside on the Outdoors, a published collection of his Seattle Times newspaper columns. Some great high lake pack trips in that one in addition to columns about flies and fly tying.
 
Pink Nighty -

Assuming that you found your South Fork summer steelhead post late 1970s they likely were hatchery fish. Those hatchery fish were planted in both Canyon Creek and the upper South Fork. During the 1980s there were some exceptional summer fish to be found in both the South and North forks, BTW regardless of the fork (or even the mainstem) those fish would come readily to a skated or drag free dry flies.

Historically summer steelhead comprised a relatively small portion of the north Sound steelhead populations. the following was taken from the Feds Puget Sound steelhead recovery plan.

For the Stillaguamish they estimated there were 33,700 winter fish in the basin, 3,311 Deer Creek summer fish and 530 Canyon Creek summer fish.

For the Nooksack the estimate was nearly 31,000 winter fish, and 1,820 SF summer fish

For the Snohomish the estimates were 57,719 winters, 728 NF Sky summers and 1,655 Tolt summers.

For the Skagit the estimates were just over 57,000 winters, while there were no estimates for any discrete summers though we know there were small numbers scattered across the basin.

Curt
 
Pink Nighty said:
I first saw what I assume were canyon creek summers under a log jutting out into the river a little ways above Jordan bridge. 3 of them, the first steelhead id ever seen in person. I was 15 and my buddy had just gotten his license. I had zero idea how to fly fish, and I drifted every fly Ross had past those 3 Goliath trouts mouths with nary a notice. One time one of them moved a couple inches out of the way of my we egg sucking leech.

Fished the fuck out of them and never touched one. Leaving Lynden at 230 am, getting in the river at sunup and wet wading/swimming for miles until it started to get dark. Wed find the road and hoof back up and find the car at 1030 some nights.

I can still see our pullout in the predawn beginnings of light and feel how fucking cold that creek is at 430 am, even in August. In my mind that log is still there and so are those 3 fish. I sometimes wish we would have had any idea what we were doing, but I think it was for the best. It got me hooked on those critters way worse than catching them ever would have.
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Perfectly written, takes me back to days just like that with a new drivers license and adventures up on Hwy 12.
 
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Smalma said:
Pink Nighty -

Assuming that you found your South Fork summer steelhead post late 1970s they likely were hatchery fish. Those hatchery fish were planted in both Canyon Creek and the upper South Fork. During the 1980s there were some exceptional summer fish to be found in both the South and North forks, BTW regardless of the fork (or even the mainstem) those fish would come readily to a skated or drag free dry flies.

Historically summer steelhead comprised a relatively small portion of the north Sound steelhead populations. the following was taken from the Feds Puget Sound steelhead recovery plan.

For the Stillaguamish they estimated there were 33,700 winter fish in the basin, 3,311 Deer Creek summer fish and 530 Canyon Creek summer fish.

For the Nooksack the estimate was nearly 31,000 winter fish, and 1,820 SF summer fish

For the Snohomish the estimates were 57,719 winters, 728 NF Sky summers and 1,655 Tolt summers.

For the Skagit the estimates were just over 57,000 winters, while there were no estimates for any discrete summers though we know there were small numbers scattered across the basin.

Curt
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Compared with what was seen in snorkel surveys over the last 2 years...

36 total NF Sky Summer Steelhead (124 in 2024)
19 total SF Tolt Summer Steelhead (71 in 2024)
 
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Millsfly said:
oh, while not West side oriented, this to me is the best old film most havent seen. Filmed in 1962, it's incredible and only hosted on this site via Boise State. not even on YT

Ted Trueblood

www.boisestate.edu www.boisestate.edu
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Wow! Ted Trueblood was one of my childhood heroes for all things hunting and fishing. Had no idea such a film existed or was ever created. Gotta' love tying a fly streamside when he already had a box full of the same pattern. Those were some bright Snake River steelhead. The migration timing and patterns were likely different before all the lower Snake and Hell's Canyon dams went in.
 
Salmo_g said:
Wow! Ted Trueblood was one of my childhood heroes for all things hunting and fishing. Had no idea such a film existed or was ever created. Gotta' love tying a fly streamside when he already had a box full of the same pattern. Those were some bright Snake River steelhead. The migration timing and patterns were likely different before all the lower Snake and Hell's Canyon dams went in.
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amazing film isnt it? I have probably watched it 15 times and find different stuff each time to marvel at. Running a prop boat up that water must take BALLS. Coupled with the fact that they brought a whole production crew there.

We catch a lot of fish that look like the same condition in Sept on the CW and then Oct/Nov in GR and Snake. I would imagine the thermal block that happens at the confluence wasnt as pronounced as it is now through Sept.

downriver79 said:
I am 100% going to attempt running line management with my mouth now after watching this! 😁 Thanks @Millsfly!
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also, I tried this. Missed the timing and almost took my teeth out. Be careful I tell ya!
 
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