Beulah Blog

So I’d been perched here on the roof of Idaho all winter, skiing and swinging up a few cold-water rainbows and biding my time for a trip south by westwards for some winter steelhead.  My work schedule, I’ll admit, had my style in a cramp for most of the winter…scarcely an original complaint, but when it opened up at the same time the clouds did on coastal Oregon, I took the hint and made a run for it.  At the far end of a long drive, I found river after river running high and colored.  Perfect.

 

I’d swim all the way up from the Pacific just to spawn here, too.

Or at least, perfect in theory.  Clear skies and sunshine made the mid-day fishing feel a little shaky, but the mid-day napping was outstanding.   I hit a succession of rivers while each dropped and cleared, and after a few days, found this bright little hen on a bright afternoon.  She fought as hard as any steelhead I’ve ever hooked, and sent me back to Idaho feeling pretty satisfied.  Thanks, James, for the drift boat ride and photos, and Asa for being a ninja with the net.

 

Doesn’t get much better than this.

I returned home to, ironically, a dropping, clearing river with big native rainbows trickling in.   Most days I’ve found a fish or two willing to eat a swung fly, which is more than enough to maintain my interest.  They’ll be getting their freak on in a month or so, but for now the spawning gravel is empty and the runs and buckets are occupied.  This one was the gem of this week’s float trip, brought to hand by the 12’6” Platinum 6-weight in the last light of sunset.  In the coming weeks, as days get longer and water temperatures climb, I’m hoping for plenty more of the same.

Something I see people do consistently while steelhead fishing is forget to fish the short cast. A lot of the time while guiding, I see people step into a run and immediately start peeling all sorts of line off their reel before they make the first cast. Usually their first cast is at least the length of shooting head plus the sink tip or leader they are using. That means the fly is fishing at least 30 to 40 feet out from the angler on the first cast, leaving the water closer in completely un-fished! Just because your fishing a spey rod doesn’t mean you have to instantly start launching casts out into the middle of the river. I know the urge to bomb it out there is strong, but don’t forget about the water right out in front of you.

Erik hooked into his first ever spey rod steelie on a cast of about half the skagit head he was using.

This winter I’ve seen several steelhead caught with no more than half the skagit head out of the rod tip, and 2 fish caught on the very first cast of just the sink tip! Sometimes this is the only fish of the day. If we hadn’t started short, we would have never found these fish. Which can be the difference between success and a skunking.

Alex got this cartwheeler on his first sink tip length cast!

When steelheading it’s important to remember that the fish can be just about anywhere. Sure, each run has it’s sweet spots or “buckets”, but steelhead (especially winter) are on the move. Obviously there are times of resting or holding, as well as times when they are more likely to be moving around than others. But, in general they are on an upstream migration until they reach they’re spawning grounds. I’ve heard a couple legendary steelhead guides say things like, “they are where you find ’em”. To me this means that where one fish decides to stop and hold isn’t necessarily where the next fish will hold in that same run. So next time you head out to the river and step into your first spot, remember to fish all the water in the run you can. This starts by not forgetting to fish the short cast, you never know where you might find your fish!

The Reward