Going East

My good friend Adrian Cortes had hatched a plan to visit a famous eastern Oregon steelhead river after driving by it's lower section with our mutual friend Steve Turner this past August.  Adrian was taken by the beauty of the place and vowed to put a plan into place to make a fall trip a reality.

I had previously visited this river in October 2008 and fished it's lower section with my father in law Jim Jones, his brother Mel and his friend Toby.  Reportedly, the fishing had been good before our arrival, which happened to coincide with a sudden cold snap, which of course put off the fishing.  None of us landed a single steelhead that trip and I only manged to raise one steelhead to the surface.  Not even Mel and Toby dredging with Teeny lines did the trick.

Adrian's and my plan came together in early October with Adrain showing up a day before me.  I used Google directions and got put on a long gravel road.  I'm surprised that the Steelhead Taxi's suspension didn't fall off going through the wash boards, but I managed to make it to the bottom of the grade in one piece and met up with Adrian by 8am.  I was running about an hour behind schedule due to the unexpected gravel delay.  I figured I'd find Adrian to be on the river fishing when I arrived and in fact Adrian was near the top of a nice run when I pulled in.  I waved over to Adrian and he quickly came over to greet me.

Adrian had actually been waiting in his rig since daylight in anticipation of my arrival and while waiting, he got some tying done.  He tied a beautiful Thompson river caddis in hand which he gifted to me shortly after I arrived.  Adrian had only stepped into the run a few minutes before I pulled in when it became apparent that I was delayed longer than expected.

When we greeted each other I told him that I  felt badly for rushing him, but he mentioned that he was happy to wait for my arrival until seriously hitting the water.  After our greetings, Adrian calmly told me about the incredible evening session he had the day before.  The events that unfolded involved 7 to 8 rises, 3 hookups, and two nice wild steelhead landed!  I was tired, but ready to fish!!  Adrian tells the story in words and pictures below:

"First fish on this particular river. Spent all day skating dries with nary a rise. After a beer, I find a run that is tough to wade in...and then it becomes magical...numerically magical."

"The second steelhead on this river was memorable. Big surface crash...and nothing. Dangle...recast...nothing. Shortened up, recast progressively to the zone...Kaboosh! Then nothing. #@$%&*! That fish missed the fly again! Dangle...single spey...in the zone...Kaboosh! ZZZZZZzzzzzzzz......I put the glass to it in a spectacular battle of jumps and runs. Beautifully wild, big, and full of vinegar and piss. Bent out my dryfly hook"

Lemire's Thompson River Caddis tied in hand by Adrian Cortes.  Adrian Cortes photo

Greaselined.  Adrian Cortes photo

Wild and Free.  A hefty buck that ate Adrian's Greaseliner.  Adrian Cortes photo

The result of Adrian's battle with a wild and hefty buck.  Adrian Cortes photo

Wild and Free of another type.  Four legged critters seem drawn to Adrian's presence on rivers.  Adrian Cortes photo

After getting the skinny on Adrian's encounter with the loaded run, I quickly wadered up and we fished the nearby water.  This was a big run and we spread out as I re-fished the choppy head and Adrian went to the lower section of the run.  A couple gear guys ended up between us so I ended up moving towards Adrian in the tailout.  We examined the fish holding possibilities of this water, but with sun directly on it, we decided to move on after fishing it just briefly.

We then headed to camp where I quickly set up my tent so I wouldn't have to worry about it after our day's fishing.  We then hurriedly packed into Adrian's Land Rover and hit some water that Adrian fished the day before.

Adrian and I were blessed to have gotten some intel on spots to fish from our good friend and steelheading icon Bill McMillan.  Bill had lived on and fished this river a good deal back in the early 90's.  Bill was excited to hear of our trip to this special place, a location that has much spiritual meaning to him.  As we drove along we sought out some of the spots Bill described for us.

We hit a spot with three distinct runs strung together.  The short run directly out from the trail called out to me so I waded to mid river to hit the slot on the far side.  In the meantime, Adrian walked upstream to the uppermost of the three runs, leaving the middle one for me to hit after I got through with run I was fishing first.

I quickly fished through this short riffly run with no result and looked upstream to see Adrian fishing the upper run, but with a raft and three guys right by him also fishing the run.  I figured that the raft must have been carrying a guide and two clients and Adrian gave them water to fish.

Rather than heading up towards Adrian, I decided to just re-fish the little run again to kill time.  With all the October Caddis fluttering about, I figured to change to an October Caddis version of my foam skater.  As I got into the lower section, I made a cross stream cast in front of an exposed bankside boulder.  The main current caught my line and leader, causing a belly and pulling my skater briskly down and across the face of boulder.  A small steelhead of maybe 24" launched across the top after my skater.  This little fella missed his target, but I was pleasantly surprised by it's sudden and aggressive response to the surface.  Of course I went through my comeback dance, but no followup  rise came about.

I ended up fishing the middle run and it swung my skater really nicely, but no foam eating steelhead appeared.  Adrian and I caught up with each other shortly thereafter and Adrian reported that indeed, the folks in the raft was a well known PNW steelhead guide with a couple sports.  Apparently said guide liked the run Adrian was fishing well enough to have been willing to park and wait until Adrian fished through.  Rather than looking over his shoulder while the guide and sports waited on him,  Adrian let them have the water and then fished through behind them.

Adrian then took me to another spot he fished the day before.  This was one of the spots that Bill had described to us.  Adrian reported that he had raised a steelhead low in this run but did not hookup.  I started at the head of the run and Adrian walked further up and fished the run above me.  As I got about a third of the way down, a steelhead came up with an aggressive rise to my skater.  Again, this steelhead responded to a fast swing facilitated by a cross stream cast bellied by the main current.  I made the same cast and this steelie actually came up a second time but the hook point didn't find purchase in steelhead matter.

At the next run, I started at the riffly top end and worked my skater along the broadening seam as I got into the heart of  this fishy looking piece of water.  About a third of the way down, a steelhead came up and charged up after my skater as it came out of the chop into the seam.  I shorted up and started back in with my foam skater hoping for a come back and just then, the famous guide we saw earlier came through the top of the run with his two sports and politely rowed his raft quietly behind me as Adrian had been able to alert him that I had just raised a fish.

As I went back with my October Caddis Wang, the guide and sports also watched the bright "indicator post" of my skater as it came through the choppy main flow.  After a couple casts, no return appearance of steel appeared.  As the guide and sports were getting past my position, the guide remarked to Adrian with a wink "steelhead on this river think foam is gay".

I changed over to a riffle hitched greaseliner and gave it a go.  On the first cast with the greaseliner, the steelhead returned with a bulge at the fly as it came into the soft seam.  Unfortunately, further comeback attempts were unsuccessful.  I continued down the remainder of this beautiful run with no other feedback to my surface presentations.

We concluded our day at Adrian's "loaded run".  Being the gracious friend that he is, Adrian insisted that I go through first.  Adrian grabbed an IPA and took a seat on an exposed boulder as I started up high in the run.  I decided to give my Fenwick 8.5' 6wt glass rod and 6wt Ambush line some air time.  I was getting back into the rhythm of single hand spey casting as I chatted with Adrian about the potential of this juicy run.  We noted current seams created by the bouldery structure and commented on how all that structure provides great cover for steelhead while also providing for the difficult wading I was experiencing.  These characteristics probably attributed to Adrian finding multiple steelhead holding in it the evening before.

The upper section of the run called for short, controlled casts in the conflicting currents.  I was casting the Ambush head with maybe six strips of running line and was just starting to step down the run.  Adrian and I were both watching my baby blue foam skater coming across the current when a steelhead made a broadside launch across the surface and solidly grabbed the skater.  I simply did nothing and the steelhead came tight on the line and began making some short powerful bursts on runs that made my cheapo ebay special (battered Shakespeare Beaulite 3.5") create a joyful blue collar racket.

Fish on!  Adrian Cortes photo

Taking a load off while Ms. Surface Steelhead bores down stream.  Adrian Cortes photo

The hook held and I eventually got this beautiful little hen to shore.  Adrian and I high fived and Adrian got some photos of a happy Asian holding a steelhead.  We were delighted that both of us had the blessing of witnessing a beautiful surface steelhead grab and I thanked Adrian for his generosity in putting me through his new found loaded run.

Chunky hatchery hen that obliged to a "baby blue" wang.  Adrian Cortes photo

Baby Blue Wang does the trick.  My angry hen chewed hard enough to open up the stinger hook a bit.  Adrian Cortes photo

I was quite surprised to find that this perfect steelhead was of hatchery origin.   It just happened that an ODFW creel checker was driving by when I had the fish on so she stopped to check in.  I decided to harvest this steelhead so she took down data that she needed and returned my fish in a tidy plastic bag.  When Adrian and I commented that we were impressed with this steelhead even considering it was a hatchery steelhead the creel checker responded "of course, they're all from native stock", reminding me that the hatchery program there comes from wild brood stock.

ODFW creel checker taking stats on my steelhead.  Adrian Cortes photo.

We went through the remainder of the loaded run and we were surprised to find no one home as we fished in to evening's darkness.  We then headed back to camp where stories were shared and a few more foam skaters tied as two crazed surface steelheaders ruminated over the wonder of steelhead that come to the surface for our chosen patterns.  Gourmet dinners that came out of cans and packages were prepared and eaten before we turned in for the evening.

We spent the next morning fishing some of the same runs and we also walked into another run described to us by Bill McMillan.  We had an enjoyable morning expoloring new water and I bid Adrian farwell by mid day.  I fished the evening session and a quick morning session the following day and continued to find surface steelhead elusive.  Such is the surface steelheading game, you may not get into topwater steel on every outing, but the journey is always satisfying.

Unwinding after a memorable day of surface steelheading.  Adrian Cortes photo

The Steelhead Taxi parked along a morning steelhead run

Dry Fly Steelhead Window Of Opportunity

Being in the midst of the fall season, I have gotten into the rushed, frantic mode of trying to get every bit of steelhead skating in that is humanly possible.  It is a mixed blessing to have a hatchery home water in my backyard.  The convenience is great, but it makes me extra obsessive each Fall.  A sense of urgency is felt with the shorter days and with the weather and water temps cooling.  The inevitability of winter coming around the corner puts me in a state of mind where I am always scheming for every window of opportunity  during this most wonderful time of year when steelhead will be most willing to break the surface to grab my weird pieces of foam and hair surfing across my favorite runs.

In my experience, Fall is consistently the very best time of year to get into steelhead with surface methods.  I suppose it is a variety of factors that seem to consistently make fall the prime season to skate steelhead to the surface including the lower angle of the sun, rivers filled with the majority of the summer run, fewer anglers out (on my water at least), cooling water, steelhead secure in their lies, and frequent overcast weather.

I love steelhead rivers in Fall as well with the brilliant colors as leaves turn, softer lighting, and no longer having to deal with the blistering heat of summer.  Fall conditions also allow one to fish throughout the day if one pleases.  Summer tends to be a morning and evening show and with the shorter days of fall, I am able to get a bit more sleep and still make it to the river at sunrise.

However, the shortening days of Fall creates a nervousness in me as I am constantly calculating how much daylight I'll have left when I leave work to get out on my evening weekday sessions.  Wendi has been promoted as a manager at her workplace this past year which has been great for her, but she tends to be a workaholic so she often works late.  This creates more windows of opportunity for me to get out on my evening sessions.

As noted in my prior posts, the numbers of fish around have been small, but it appears that small pods of fish must be coming into my local water which is enough to keep me interested and obsessed.  Since getting the steehead in my prior post, I had a multi hookup session (both got off)  the following day, then things went dead.

I figure the only way to get into surface steelhead is to keep a hook in the water so I've persisted with my efforts even when it seems the few fish around have left town.  Yesterday was a typical day of going to work with my thoughts going on about how to get an evening session in.  Turns out Wendi was not working late, but had errands to do so she suggested I go fishing afterwork - great advice!

One problem, my daughter had texted and informed that her car wouldn't start.  I ran over to check over her vehicle at the end of the day and determined that her starter was binding up.  I did the tapping the starter with a wrench trick and got her car started so she could drive it to my house for me to repair that evening.

With the impending car repair weighing on my mind, I debated on whether to fish for a bit then run home to work on my daughter's car, or forget fishing all together and just get right to work on the car..... of course, fishing won out.

I rushed to my favorite little run and started at the top.  Feeling hurried while fishing is not my favorite mode to be in while pursing the surface steelhead prize, but obviously, I have a problem so I kept at it anyway.  I tried to move through more quickly than I normally do, but there are multiple spots that have given me fish out of this special place so I found myselft having a hard time just rushing through.

When I had arrived at the run, I noticed that the Army Corps had raised the water just a bit, usually a good thing on this river in my experience.  Sure enough, about a third of the way down, a steelhead came up and charged at my skater with a quick rise.  Went through the comeback routine and no sale.

I continued on down the run and as I got towards the bottom I was thinking how the holds through there are filled in now and could hold fish.  As my skater came through the braided currents a steelhead came up to the skater multiple times as if it was a dolphin playing with a ball on it's nose.  I expected my line to come tight, but no.  With a fish this active, I felt pretty confident about a comeback so I cast again, nothing.  I tried a riffle hitched steelhead caddis - nothing, then a smaller skater - nothing, then a riffle hitched wet - nothing, then a wet with no hitch - nothing!

My time was just about up before I had to get home to get my hands greasy, but something told me to just walk back up a little ways and start back through with a different skater.  I had been fishing my current favorite chartruese/purple job and I then decided to tie on my blue/purple skater I call the "Summer's Hope".

As I got my casts back out with the Summer's Hope, I pondered over my frustration that both of the fish I raised this evening were "one timers" and that I'd have to leave after making a few more casts.  When I got back to where I raised the second steelhead, he came back with a confident, porpoising rise and I simply did nothing until I felt the steelhead pulling.  I slowly raised the rod and the steelhead was on and the stinger hook did it's job in taking immediate hold in the jaw of this buck.

This guy gave a few headshakes and like the last steelhead I got, just came right in and then batlled in close with a few short, stubborn runs.  When I got him in, I found the stinger hook lodged firmly in the lower jaw of the fish.  I got a few photos with my phone and felt overjoyed that the Summer's Hope had proven itself for the first time.  Apparantly, that steelhead wanted the Summer's Hope and not my Chartruese and Purple, go figure.  I'm just glad that the dry fly steelhead mystery is one I'll never completely solve.

The Summer's Hope Proves Itself

Summer Ramblings

(Posting this retroactively, meant to put this up in mid August, time just flies by)

It is mid August and as I turned 52 yesterday (August 14, 2015), I meditated on the reality of being a middle aged steelheader as I skated beautiful runs with my good friend Keith Tymchuck.  I'm no spring chicken any more, but I thank God for my health and comfortable life that affords me ample opportunities to chase after the mystical steelhead with my chosen methods.  At my age, one starts contemplating the reality that my number of future days on the river are not endless and I gotta pace myself, be safe out on the river, and that I really should watch what I eat and start exercising for Pete's sake!  Well, isn't fishing exercise??  You mean coffee, chips, cookies, and sandwiches are not healthy??  At least I don't smoke...

Breakfast of champions!

Not a healthy fishing diet??

I've also been contemplating the way my fishing has been panning out over the past several months.  Namely, that I haven't put my hands on steelhead slime since November 1, 2014!!  Aside from a couple brief hookups, I was blanked throughout the past winter steelhead season and aside from a couple brief hookups in June, I've been blanked thus far for the summer season.  Pretty grim huh??

I'm not sure what's going on with the extra long dry spell I'm in the midst of - maybe God is trying to get a  message across to me like "time to seek a better balance in life, bonehead".  True, I do get a "little" obsessive about steelheading where things go by the wayside, like the wood gates that need to be rebuilt ("I'll get right to that, honey!"), not to mention other things that go with being a responsible adult.

Another lesson that God may be teaching me is about contentment.  Who in their right mind would consider chasing steelhead while rigidly adhering to certain methods, without success for so long??  I'm reminded that Jesus assures that His Grace is sufficient and this applies to fishing and life (fishing is life though, right?).

When I am out on the river, the beauty of His creation is always enough.  The fellowship of great friends is always enough and the blessing of having the opportunity to get out regularly is always enough.  I believe that is why I keep doing what I am doing even when my efforts continue to draw a blank.

I keep the faith, knowing that what I am doing has produced steelhead in the past and the flies I tie have drawn steelhead to the top in the past and several of the places I fish have produced memorable steelhead rises in the past.

My Newest and Favorite Color Combo:  Chartruese and Purple

A Day in the Life..........

Needle In A Haystack

It's been a tough summer season on my local ditch, the Middle Fork of the Willamette.  Numbers over Willamette falls has been dismal and the record warm weather in July and August effectively created a thermal block downstream of the falls with literally no fish going over the falls through most of that time frame.  It was a strange summer with water temps peaking over 70 degrees for most of  July and August even on my home stretch of river, and due to these impossible conditions I only got out to fish a few mornings during that period with evening sessions not even worth the time and effort.

I strangely started to get used to coming straight home from work, with no fishing to be had.  Wendi was getting too accustomed to seeing me at home so much,.  It was not like me to be passing up so much fishing time.

As the cooling weather of fall has come upon us, there has actually been some steelhead starting to come over the falls since late August/early September.  A small bit of hope was restored in me and I started getting out on evening sessions after work - I felt normal again.  Water temps have come down to the mid 60's, still a bit warm, but good enough to hope for some hatchery surface action.

My trips out have been typically unsuccessful, but I keep trying anyway, of course with a skater on the end of my line.  My crazy theory is:  "most normal people adjust their methods to suit prevailing conditions, but with me, I prevail until conditions adjust to suit my method!!"

Yesterday evening was a typical opportunistic jaunt to a local run after work.  Wendi was working late so I didn't feel too bad about shirking responsibilities at home.  As I drove off from work, I contemplated over which local run to fish.  Since I hadn't really been getting any fish in any of them it would not really make much difference where I ended up fishing.

I figured I'd just hit the particular run that was most consistent at holding fish last year.  My thought process was that if any fish were around at all, this run would be the best barometer of such.

I started at the top of the run as I usually do, even though it is shallower in this year's lower flow.  I continued on through and thought that if I got done with this run early enough, I'd hit another one that I had not fished in awhile.

As I got to the lower section of the run, I was tracing the swing of my chartruese "stinger wang" foam skater.  The upright umm... indicator post was pretty visible in the softening flows of the bottom of the run in the pleasant evening glow.  As the fly was swinging through the soft transition from the main flow into the inside seam, my "internal dialogue" was going even with my long, long stretch of going without surface grabs.  Whenever I swing through juicy water I find the self-talk happening.  I was muttering stuff like "come on, eat that fly...gotta be a fish there....come on you dumb fish, etc", then as if in response to my utterings, slurp, fish on!

The rise was a rather subtle gulp, but I think after enough time spent chasing surface steel, I immediately knew it was a steelhead, just by the appearance of the rise.  It seemed that the stinger hook on my skater took immediate hold of this fish.  The line came tight and a few headshakes followed, then the steelhead swam towards me and I hurriedly recovered line to keep up with the fish.  It's times like this when I am glad that I switched to reeling with my right hand several years ago.

As I got tight to the steelhead, I was nearly to the point of having the leader butt at the tip of the rod, then of course Ms. Steelhead decides to utilize her short game fighting tactics with some near shore tug of war going back and forth.  Knowing this was a hatchery steelhead, I backed myself  up the bank and beached her.  I was overcome with feeling blessed by this rare, if imperfect and unlikely prize.  With the small numbers of steelhead around, it felt like finding a needle in a haystack.

Chartruese Stinger Wang does the trick

A Rare Prize

One Timers

Fisherman's Log:  Sunday, August 30, 2015.
Conditions:  Overcast/drizzle
Water Temp:  58 degrees
Species:  Summer Steelhead
Location:  Favorite Oregon River
Method:  Skating Foam Flies
Equipment:  11' 6wt Cabela's TLr, Hardy 3 7/8 perfect, 360gr Airflo Rage, Hand tied Maxima Leader, #4 Chartreuse/Purple wang skater.

I've been getting out regularly after summer steelhead since early June.  While it's always great to be out on the water and taking in the beauty where our favorite gamefish draws us to, the fact remains that I've been having a tough summer season.

With Wendi's weekend plans coinciding with mine, we were able to arrange for our schedules to allow us to both get out to enjoy the respective things that we love - bingo for Wendi and steelheading for me.  It turned out that I was I able to hit the water friday, saturday and today.

I drew my typical blank days on friday and saturday, but things changed a bit today.  I was optimistic with the overcast and drizzly weather as fall is now in view, but my optimism was tempered by the reality of the skunkitis I can't seem to shake off.

I decided to fish runs that I have not been hiting lately as I have gotten into a rut of fishing the same water, even when this strategy has not produced.  I got to a promising run before first light and I sat in my car and dozed off for a few minutes as I waited for daylight.  As I sat there, I pondered over how it seems that the days get shorter more quickly than I realize during this time of year and maybe I don't have to get up so darn early anymore.

I was woken as a car sped by and I idly wondered if that was another fisherman heading to another promising run.  When there was enough light to see in the overcast morning, I lazily got into my waders and gathered the stuff I'd need for the day's fishing:  rod/reel, box of skaters, wheatly clip box containing wet flies gifted to me by friends (or OPs - flies from "other people"),  waterproof point and shoot camera, cell phone.  The box of wet flies is brought along just in case I ever raise a steelhead and need a little sparse wet fly on the "comeback".

The first run fished beautifully in the dim light of dawn.  I was reminded of how nicely this piece of water swings a fly and I also remembered a few years ago, when I stopped my friend Terry Robinson off to fish this spot while I fished a run above and when I returned to pick Terry up, he told me the story of a steelhead that almost pulled his rod out of his hand when it came up for his skater.

I started in the smooth upper section of the run and felt anticipation as I neared the area of Terry's episode of almost loosing his rod to an angry steelhead.  I fished to the bottom of the run and while I was able to get some decent cackhanded single speys out and some nice swings, no steelhead were impressed.

I briefly fished a couple pools upstream, then worked my way downstream over the course of the day.  When I stopped at the pullout of an obscure run that is a bushwhack, downhill slog for one casting station deal, I realized the effects of drinking coffee on my digestive system and decided to head for another spot where an outhouse is close by.  I figured if the runs by said outhouse were open by the time I got done with my "paperwork", I'd fish them.

I got my paperwork assignment done and went out to hit the near-by runs that were open.  These runs had surely been fished earlier in the morning, but on a day like this, you never know when new fish may move in, so I fished the first run with all the confidence a hard luck steelheader could muster.

This pool is a well known producer, but it has yet to produce as much as a single definitive steelhead rise for me.  I worked by way down to the very bottom of this juicy tailout and an unmistakable bulge of water appeared at my fly as a steelhead rolled at my skater.  While the steelhead didn't actually try to take my fly and I didn't get a clear view of the fish, the nature and amount of water displaced on the rise left me confident  that it was not a trout.  I went into "comeback mode":  made the same cast - 0, shorted up, tied on a riffle hitched greaseliner - 0, shorted up, tied on a smaller green/purple skater - 0, shorted up, tied on a small, sparse riffle hitched wet  - 0!!  I went back through with the skater I started with, still nothing, so I finally moved on after giving that fish the best comeback effort I could.

I fished the other runs downstream and came up empty so I drove back to the run I had planned to fish when nature called.  Not surprisingly, it was still open so I took the usual treacherous decent down the bank and slogged my way to the single casting station.    I have raised and hooked into steelhead in this spot before, but I can't say it has given me any consistency.  It has given up rewards often enough to be worth the occasional visit and today was the day, since I haven't been down here in awhile.

I worked my Rage head out and for some reason, found myself using compact double speys rather than my typical cackhanded single speys.  I didn't seem to remember the huge boulder upstream from me that made cackhanded singles difficult today.  I wondered if that boulder had recently fallen into the water or if I had been making adjustments with my casting and forgot having done so.

By the time I was casting the Rage head plus 8 strips of running line out, my fly was reaching near the far bank and I was getting into the "zone".  There is a submerged boulder alongside an exposed boulder where I have gotten rises before.  Apparantly, steelhead occasionally like to rest alongside that submered boulder.  As my skater swung towards the hot zone, a current caught the line and leader and accelerated the cross stream  swing of the fly.  In an instant, I saw the broadside rise of a buck steelhead of maybe 7 or 8lbs.  This steelhead still had some brightness to him with the rainbow stripe still a faint red.  I let the fly continue to swing past the exposed boulder in case my steelhead decided to follow the fly - it didn't.

I went through my comeback routine and same parade of fly changes with no results.  I was thrilled to encounter a second steelhead on this day, but very puzzled with the one time appearance of this fish.  I wondered what would cause these fish to only rise once.  Maybe they are on the move and no time for "seconds"??

With limited time remaining before having to stop fishing by the "2pm emergency closure" (thanks ODFW, but no lethal water temps around here since early July!!), I had a couple runs in mind to finish out the day.  The first of the two is a nice bouldery run with nice structure at the bottom.  As I approached the rocky structures in the bottom of this run, I braced for action as it seems that this is a day that steelhead are willing to rise and I was hopeful to find a steelhead that would actually eat my fly.  No such luck in this locale so I left for my "closer".

I had just over a half hour left to finish out the day at this last run.  I have hooked and landed steelhead in this often overlooked locale (including a hot, mid teens hen in Sept 2011), but I wondered if this year's low water has made it less appealing for steelhead to hold in.  As I got towards the bottom of this run, I watched for a dimple on the surface that seems to indicate some kind of bottom feature that has drawn rising steelhead to hold there in some of my happier moments.  I simultaneously watched for shoreline features that confirm that I am in the zone that I want to be in.

As I watched for the surface texture I was looking for and also surveying the landmarks on shore, I felt like I was starting to get past where I have raised steel in the past.  My skater was coming through the wake of water that signals the structure I've been watching for and the rise comes - a bulge of water at the fly, but no actual take.  I looked at my watch:  1:45pm.  It appeared that the steelhead followed the fly a few feet as I saw another more subtle bulge under the fly.  I let the fly swing all the way in and waited a couple seconds.

Since this steelhead appeared to have followed the fly after the initial rise, I was bracing for the grab on the next cast......it would have been nice, but no, it didn't happen.  Nor did it happen after I went back with a smaller skater, riffled grease liner and sparse, riffled green butt skunk (thanks to Tony Torrence).  By the time 2pm hit, I was still left with the question - "what da...".  I was hoping to close out the day with a bent rod, but raising 3 steelhead to the surface in day's fishing is nothing to complain about, God is Good!

The trill of raising steelhead to the surface is always worth all the time and effort it takes to make it happen.  It can be tough to keep the faith when there is no feedback from the prize we seek, but even during lean times, I try to maintain focus and consistency with my casting and presentation since these are things I do have some control over.

I am thankful for the feedback the steelhead gave me today because it is what I needed as I prepare to leave for BC with friends Adrian Cortes and Steve Turner this next coming weekend.  Consistent casting and presentation are always critical with surface steelheading and I look forward to the pleasant rhythm of skating for steelhead on the big, broad runs of BC rivers.

My favored vitange Perfect sitting on my $79.95 Cabela's TLR.

My chartruese/purple skaters and comeback flies

Dry Fly Steelhead - A Great Lakes Perspective

By Larry Halyk

I’ve been an avid follower of this blog for some time now, so when Todd asked me to offer a Great Lakes perspective on dry line steelhead, I jumped at the chance.   I’ll be the first to admit that there are many skilled anglers in my home province of Ontario who are more dedicated to pursuing steelhead on a dry line than I.   On my home river, I have several friends who will stick to swinging their beautiful gut eyed Spey and Dee flies just under the surface regardless of how many fish we ‘tip dredgers’ are hooking.   

So yes, I admit it.  I spend most of my Great Lakes river time swinging with tips.  However I do love waking/skating  dry flies, and am convinced that Great Lakes steelhead can be caught on the surface  consistently if you pick the right times and locations, are prepared to make more casts between hookups and (most importantly) fish with confidence.  

According to my outdoor journals, I’ve caught 32 Ontario steelhead on waking flies over the last 25 years.  My dry fly Catch Per Unit Effort (CPUE) over this time period is 0.085 (i.e.  it took me on average 11.7 hours to land one fish) compared to 0.208 (4.8 hours per fish) swinging sub-surface.   These hard facts don’t tell the complete story since the data are tainted by a number of factors and biases (yes, being a retired biologist makes me a data nerd).  The main thing is I had modest success on one river in the late 80s and early 90s, then didn’t really fish dry much until I picked it up again eight years later on a completely different river.   

In the early years (1989 – 1992, 6 on a dry) I targeted Skamania strain steelhead on the lower Saugeen River when both Michigan and Ontario were experimenting with a Skamania program on Lake Huron rivers.  After stocking practices changed, Skamania returns fizzled and my dry fly success there went down the toilet.  This early dry fly success started me on a path though.  My first dry fly steelhead was 37” long and took a Waller Waker just weeks after I first watched that famous 3M video featuring Lani on the Babine River.  To say I was hooked would be an understatement! 

The river I now spend most of my time on supports a unique strain of wild fish that are genetically programed to show up as early as Labour Day so they can jump a 9 foot high dam and quickly run 60-80 miles of warm water to stage in cooler holding pools below their spawning tributaries.   These fish are very grabby, and some aggressive individuals will chase waking flies with the same abandon as a Skeena fish if all factors align.  My records show that for two years in a row, I caught dry fly steelhead on this river while practising for my late September Skeena trip (5 fish over 19 hours), yet caught zero dry fly steelhead on the Bulkley those same two years (a total of 29.5 hours on top).  Some of these ‘practise fish’ were real players that came up 2 or 3 times before being hooked. 

The above experiences convince me that on the Great Lakes, both hatchery and wild fish will take a surface fly, but the more important factor is whether or not the fish are in the river at times when temperatures are optimum for metabolism and aggression.   A good start would be to focus on a river that has good numbers of active fish present in the early fall or late spring.    

On my home river, my best dry fly CPUEs are in September or early October when temperatures are in the 50-60 degree range.   By late October, the fish are usually less aggressive and my dry fly CPUE drops – probably due to a combination of lower water temperatures and higher fishing pressure.   My sub-surface swinging CPUE over the years has remained at a pretty consistent level on this river right through to the close of the season on December 31, so I don’t think my dry fly success dropped off due to lack of fish – just lack of aggressive fish.    

September and October is a great time to hunt for aggressive steelhead, but it is also a time when spawning salmon are present on many of our rivers.  I find that I don’t do well with the dry fly or dry line on rivers where spawning salmon are abundant.  I think it has a lot to do with the ‘egg hatch’ on these rivers that may reward the steelhead for looking down instead of up.   My favourite Great Lakes dry line river doesn’t have a salmon run and I don’t think that’s a coincidence.   

 

A completely different time to do fairly well on top (OK not great but possible) is in the late spring during mayfly hatches.  The takers are mostly mended kelts feeding on duns or spinners, and the best technique is a dead drift imitation just like fishing for resident trout.  The best chance of finding this type of ‘match the hatch’ scenario is on rivers with wild fish and good insect hatches.  Wild fish populations have broader migration and spawning windows than runs dominated with hatchery fish, and quite a few Great Lakes rivers have some fish kicking around well into late May.  These fish can be exposed to some pretty prolific hatches.  

Fishing pressure plays a big role in toning down the aggression level of fish that may be vulnerable to chasing a surface fly.   I have no data to prove it, but I suspect that years of heavy harvest pressure over many steelhead generations can exert selection pressure against fish that could potentially pass in aggressive behavior to their progeny.  The stretch of river I fish most has catch & release, artificials only regulations.  That not only reduces mortality and allows ‘recycling’ of fish after release, but also reduces the overall pressure because many will choose to go where harvest and gear rules are less restrictive. 

Pressure is still a factor on this river though.  When I first started fishing there for steelhead about fifteen years ago, the trout/steelhead  season was closed on September 30 and most anglers didn’t even know it had an early fall steelhead run.  I and a few others fished it through the month of September with virtually no competition from other anglers.   When I had a good pool to myself (which was often back then) I had the luxury of fishing through it first with a waking dry, then with a mono leader and wet, then a tip.  Most fish were caught on a tip, but the dry fly was productive enough that I always tried it first if I had the time.  Now, fishing pressure is much greater on these pools and even though most anglers are well behaved and practice pool rotation, I rarely have the luxury of fishing through three times without company.  Now when I find a good pool empty, I’m tempted to go straight to a tip before the competition arrives.  I hate myself for that and long for those lazy days of casual experimentation. 

Regarding flies, I’m not sure if it matters too much.  I tend to use a big buoyant searching fly like a Bulkley Mouse or one of those foam backed thingies, then switch to something smaller, darker or wetter if a fish shows and/or won’t come back.  The closer is usually a dark wet if all else fails. 

If I had to pick the one most important factor that will lead to success on the surface, I’d have to say it’s having confidence in both the technique and the fish.  If you don’t truly believe it will happen, it probably won’t.  That first surface fish is usually a long time coming and it takes perseverance to stick with it.  The second and third will come a bit easier, and part of the reason is you are building up an experience base to recognize when conditions are good for a decent shot at success, and when they aren’t.  For example, I’m not confident fishing dries my home river when it runs less than 3 feet of visibility.  I’ll bet I’m too conservative, but success hasn’t happened for me yet during these conditions and I doubt it will in the future; mainly because I won’t give it a fair chance.    

My experience learning to have confidence waking dries was similar to my experience weaning myself off my centre pin float rod in the 1980s.  At first I would only experiment with dries when the fishing was slow with tips.  I was setting myself up for failure because if conditions are tough subsurface, they will probably be even tougher on top.  It was only when I started switching to dries shortly after hooking a couple of hot aggressive fish caught on a tip that I started to see some consistency in results.  It takes discipline to abandon a system that works, but fishing dries when conditions are optimal is the best way to build confidence in the technique.

Larry Halyk

My first dry fly steelhead, taken in 1989 on a rod totally inadequate for the job.  I never release hatchery fish.

This early October wild buck took a big Buckley Mouse searching fly on the first pass.

This fresh wild hen showed twice before taking this foam back on the third pass. 

  

The Banana Boat

The Banana Boat

An new era begins...

I just purchased a new/used beater car to get out on my fishing adventures.  Wendi saw this 1987 Chevrolet Spectrum CL with a for sale sign on it a couple weeks ago and encouraged me to take a look at it.  For sure, it's not a Honda, but it only has 80,000 miles on the clock and appears to be in decent mechanical condition.

When I brought the car home, Wendi took a closer look and said eww... as she noticed that the windows were custom sealed with yellow duck tape ( the rest of the roll thrown in for free) and one of the cheap plastic hubcaps were missing.  For some reason she didn't like my idea of just trashing those hubcaps all together so she ordered a new set from Amazon to pimp my ride.

Granted, I needed to put two new tires on the front right off the bat, but still got a decent deal on this car for a few hundred bucks and no car payments.  As an added convenience, there are no power windows, cruise control, and automatic door locks on this bad boy.  No reverse camera either.  Just for my entertainment, I almost immediately started to hear a screeching noise coming from the front, telling me that the wear indicators on my front brake pads were doing their job in conveying the urgency of changing them out.

Okay then, off to the parts store to grab new brake pads and they had to be special ordered since "they didn't make many of those cars".  I picked up the brake pads a few days later and to my joy, I realized when trying to install them, that they were the wrong part!  Back to the parts store........ oh, they did a mid year change in 1987 so my pads are listed with the 1988 model, no wonder they look different.  Again, the pads needed to be special ordered.  Finally, after just a few bad words went through my mind, I got the pads installed and my car stops without sounding like a tire's about to fall off.

The car is adorned with a bright yellow Maaco paint job, complete with some chipping and masking lines still visible.  I decided to call this new fishing vessel "The Banana Boat", but just was reminded today by Josh Browning, via Facebook, that bananas are bad luck as to fishing.  I've been on a dry spell anyway so don't know how things could get any worse, but if my luck doesn't change I may have to change the name to "Yellow Streak".

I took the Banana Boat on it's maiden voyage to the North Umpqua this weekend.  Wendi is off to Strugis with her dad for the week so I took advantage of having no adult supervision.  I'll never get anywhere fast with this beast, but I did make it to the river without incident and found a camp spot for a weekend of solo fishing.

I decided to gut the rear seat out of the car so I could load all of my gear with the convenience of the hatchback for access.  I had room to spare and figuered that I'd bring my generator next time so I can keep my cell phone charged and crank up my coffee maker in the mornings.

I'd have to say that my first fishing trip with the new rig was a success.  I was able to lug all my junk to the river and this little car did great with jumping from me spot to spot.

It was great being out on my favorite summer river, however, due to the record warm weather, ODFW has issued an emergency closure with no fishing allowed from 2pm until an hour before sunrise until further notice.  Apparently, some folks didn't get the memo as I saw a couple guys who had been fishing after 2pm and didn't know about the closure until I told them about it.

Much to my surprise, I fished under overcast conditions most of the time on Saturday and all day today.  There was even some drizzle today, such a nice unexpected change with the scorching hot weather we've had.  Sometimes I'm glad when weather predictions are wrong.

I'd heard that a weather change like this can really turn the fishing on, but apparently that didn't apply to me.  Nevertheless, it was a great reprieve to fish in cool conditions and even having to wear a rain jacket in August.  I always enjoy being in this beautiful place and am always blessed with getting into the rhythm of the river.

I ended up going retro this weekend with equipment and brought out my Sage RPL 9'7wt that I built in 1993 and Lamson LP 3 fly reel bought at around the same time.  I uploaded the rod by two line weights with a Sage Saltwater WF9F line and that combo single hand spey cast just wonderfully.

With more idle time in camp due to the closure at 2pm, I was also able to get some fly tying done.  I was pleased with coming up with yet another color combo for my foam skater, this one incorporates chartreuse cactus chenielle and looks like a winner.  No end to my maddness with foam and cactus chenielle.  I'll post pics of this fly in the near future.

The Happy Zone