OP Trip Chasing SteelHead

Thought I'd share with the collective. I spent a week in the Forks area fishing for Steelhead. 5 days solo and the final 2 days guided by Jim Kerr.
It's my 2nd year trying this out so it's all still very new to me. Finding spots to fish for yourself is time consuming, but I now have a few more tucked away for future reference. Sorry no pics to speak of. Weather was pretty decent and all rivers were fishable except for the lower Hoh and Bogachiel for a couple of days.

The Hoh was crazy busy all week. If you weren't getting out there at first light to pick your spot you were most likely fishing behind someone else.
Other rivers were much better at getting out a little later.

I swung flies for the 5 days solo. I picked up a bull trout on the Hoh and had 2 other bites within 30 minutes of that fish so suspect they were the same.
Finally I did something I have been trying to accomplish for other 18 months... I hooked a Steelhead on the swing... on a fly tied by my own hands no less! That was fun for about 90 seconds before it's second double twist and leap put an end to that! But I hooked a Steelhead on the swing by myself....

The 2 days with Jim were great. Given my lack of action on the swing I was quite happy to do whatever he advised to get into some wild fish. So eggs under indicator were the order of the day. Day 1 was 3 nice fish to hand and another 2 missed/lost. Day 2 was 1 landed and about 4 lost. One of which must have been new in the river... the reel screamed some!

We could see some of fish setting up on the Redds that was really cool to see in the tail outs... obviously we left them to do their thing.

The difference between productivity guided/non guided is huge... having the boat is another big advantage.. Access to spots is paramount.
I'm kinda torn for future trips... it's a lot of time/effort/$ for the return you get. When I've done trips to ID or MT for trout a guided trip gives you all the pointer you need to go do it for yourself and be good at it... I don't think this is going to translate into similar results with Steelhead.
Interested to hear other folks thoughts on such things... Jim felt that if you buddied up with a few folks and shared info then landing a Steelhead every 3rd day would be a reasonable goal. Certainly respect his opinion and experience on the rivers out there.
 
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Just a few thoughts - First, Jim is an awesome guide and if you asked him for the highest return on time investment he's going to hand you an indicator rod with an egg on the end. He knows where the fish are at different water heights and it sounds like you got action both days.

If you enjoy swinging flies, the deal is to cover water efficiently that might hold fish and then move on. The fish are moving, so even if someone fished the same water an hour ago new fish may have moved in. Don't get too hung up on first water, I've caught plenty of fish in the afternoon on runs where countless folks have dredged, bounced, and swung baits before me earlier in the day.

"I'm kinda torn for future trips... it's a lot of time/effort/$ for the return you get." The big takeaway here is if you looking for a return on investment (fish=time/money), Steelhead on the fly is the wrong gig. You better love the process because the time and money we invest is rarely balanced by the number of fish to hand.

You hooked one on your own swinging flies. It took many of us much longer to accomplish that, so you should congratulate yourself!
 
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doublespey said:
Just a few thoughts - First, Jim is an awesome guide and if you asked him for the highest return on time investment he's going to hand you an indicator rod with an egg on the end. He knows where the fish are at different water heights and it sounds like you got action both days.

If you enjoy swinging flies, the deal is to cover water efficiently that might hold fish and then move on. The fish are moving, so even if someone fished the same water an hour ago new fish may have moved in. Don't get too hung up on first water, I've caught plenty of fish in the afternoon on runs where countless folks have dredged, bounced, and swung baits before me earlier in the day.

"I'm kinda torn for future trips... it's a lot of time/effort/$ for the return you get." The big takeaway here is if you looking for a return on investment (fish=time/money), Steelhead on the fly is the wrong gig. You better love the process because the time and money we invest is rarely balanced by the number of fish to hand.

You hooked one on your own swinging flies. It took many of us much longer to accomplish that, so you should congratulate yourself!
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Thanks for the feedback, good points on the covering of water and fish moving in an out of spots.
I've been way too focused on looking at this as a return on what I've invested whether it be time/money/energy... Since I caught my first wild fish this year I've had chance to reflect on what it took to accomplish this.
Really what's struck me and what's been very different is the learning curve... it's on another level to what I've experienced with trout.
I like how you put it... "you better love the process"... indeed!
I'll take the win on the hookup and see where I go next!
 
If I were looking for productivity, steelhead fishing is NOT where I'd look. Even in the years when steelhead were abundant and the fishing was "lights out" good, steelheaders spent most of the day not catching fish. Let that sink in. Then consider it in terms of today's comparatively very low abundance. Then I think you'll understand that productivity is no longer part of the fishing equation.

Good choice to spend a couple days fishing with Kerr. Helps you understand that the first five days fishing solo you spent most of your time fishing water that held no fish. (Don't fret, that's what we all do.) Jim is networked and on the water daily, so he can use the last few days' information to predict where steelhead are today. That, and the switch in method, resulted in hookups.
 
Learn the river trails and hike in locations. Find river sections where you can effectively swing flies at fishable flow levels. Study river flows at home and go hit your researched swing spots whenever possible. With a little bit of effort you will develop a circuit of fishable spots at various flows and start catching.

Even if you don't fish, the forest and rivers out there are so rewarding to visit in late winter and spring. Up high you can just enjoy watching them spawn in peace.
 
I think I remember reading on Doug Rose's old blog, I've read his Color Of Winter book so maybe it was in there, but basically he recommended 4/5 days on a westside OP river to give yourself the best chance of hooking a fish if you were making a trip out there.

He passed in 2013 so I'd imagine now with even less opportunities in the state and increase in pressure, you'd be better off planning on a full week on one river only to give yourself a chance to feel a yank.

So, in my amateur opinion which means nothing, you beat the odds. Nice work 👍

I spent two days on a different OP river 2 weeks ago and got skunked but had a great time hanging out in the pain forest. Like you, I also put eyes on 2 different groups of fish doing their thing deep in tailouts. Lots of big redds all throughout the river which was also cool to see.
 
Just being there when the water is fishable is a win, especially for preplanned trips. When i went up there last year it rained 6"(yes, 6 INCHES!) the first day we got there. Kind of saw it coming but friends were flying in so we just went anyway. We spent a couple days around the campfire and then a couple swing the brown water. Nobody touched any fish but we had an absolute blast, maybe even more than if we had been fishing hard each day.

The more I fish for steelhead, the less it has to do with catching fish.
 
Salmo_g said:
If I were looking for productivity, steelhead fishing is NOT where I'd look. Even in the years when steelhead were abundant and the fishing was "lights out" good, steelheaders spent most of the day not catching fish. Let that sink in. Then consider it in terms of today's comparatively very low abundance. Then I think you'll understand that productivity is no longer part of the fishing equation.

Good choice to spend a couple days fishing with Kerr. Helps you understand that the first five days fishing solo you spent most of your time fishing water that held no fish. (Don't fret, that's what we all do.) Jim is networked and on the water daily, so he can use the last few days' information to predict where steelhead are today. That, and the switch in method, resulted in hookups.
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totally correct on the network... we changed rivers based on recent Intel and it worked a charm. the thought process Jim goes through to decide where to fish and which river is worth it on it's own. it's like he's summoning 20 yrs of experienced and processing it in light of correct conditions..
 
Yard Sale said:
Just being there when the water is fishable is a win, especially for preplanned trips. When i went up there last year it rained 6"(yes, 6 INCHES!) the first day we got there. Kind of saw it coming but friends were flying in so we just went anyway. We spent a couple days around the campfire and then a couple swing the brown water. Nobody touched any fish but we had an absolute blast, maybe even more than if we had been fishing hard each day.

The more I fish for steelhead, the less it has to do with catching fish.
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Six inches of rain can wreak havoc on a fisherman's liver.
 
After retiring to Oregon seriously chased coastal steelhead for at least 30 days a winter, usually more, either hiking or drifting on my Clackacraft High Side and later a WF.
Routinely targeted multiple rivers bigger and smaller, a couple of them one could drive right by without realizing they held the goods. Before I would put a boat in I would first bank fish it, driving it's targeted length multiple times, getting out and hiking, building an understanding of the river before ever drifting it. A couple I never drifted, just boot packed them after finding the productive runs, one such required use of the rope locals kept hidden behind a large tree for descending down a short cliff to superb upstream water. Never would have found that run or the rope if not out of the truck and probing around.
My explorations found good upstream coastal swing water to be a limited supply and not necessarily particularly effective, often spent hours and hours without a take.
Then I joined Rich Younger, who I had taken a fly tying course from, on a guides day off in which he introduced me to eggs under an indicator, which opened up all the water I had been bypassing in favor of swinging, and it proved highly effective resulting at times in multiple take down days,.
On one river I found a section of it it to be fairly dependable for hatchery fish, and loving to eat fresh steelhead, if I ran through it with pink worm under a float it almost guaranteed a fish on if they were in.
Fishing steelhead is a game of hours both learning a river's holding water and how to best fish it.
 
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^^This!
I've known and fished with Jim for almost 20 years and Ryan for at least half that long. I also have a house on the Sol Duc and my own little fleet of boats. Given those factors, I know that river pretty well and at least for the half day float stretch that ends in my back yard, I know every rock in the river pretty much. If I took one type of rod, I'd have the wrong gear for a significant portion of the fish holding water. I usually have a fly rod and a float rod with me and sometimes two float rods so I don't have to re-rig to fish suspended jigs instead of a bead. Sometimes the fly rod turns into a spoon rod if the water is high and fast, and so on. It pays to be flexible and at least competent with different tackle.

And... if only swinging flies (or whatever) regardless of the more limited prospects of catching a steelhead is what makes someone's life more enjoyable, that's awesome too.
 
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