I am off to the hospital in the morning for a major knee surgery that will
put me out of fishing for at least 3-4 months so this will be my final report
for awhile.
On Sat. I went Steelhead fishing for the first time with a friend. He uses
shrimp under a bobber so I played along figuring it was better to fish the
experts way and maybe get a steelhead my first time out vs. not having a clue
and watching him catch fish.
We fished the Snake/Clearwater confluence out of the Clarkston area and found
it pretty slow going. Lots of fish were breaching but we only saw two fish
caught. We had 7 strikes. 4 of which were good ones but for some reason we
didn't hook up. However, it was more then enough to give me Steelhead fever
and I had to find a way to get back out and take a crack them with a fly rod
which leads me to todays report.
My friend is well connected with a DFW Biologist and he had told him about a
little river in S.E. WA that has a tremendous Steelhead run. I also recalled
a cousin talking about it so I rolled the dice that I would get lucky and
headed down there early this morning. It was basically a blind shot in the
dark since this stream is so small there are no fishing reports on it. It
sat downstream of the Clearwater so I was hoping that I would find fish.
To make a long story short, I was too early for the run. I talked to one of
the guys at the fish hatchery and he said that only one fish had made it so
far and that was back in July so obviously a misguided fish. Thinking my day
was ruined, I headed back downstream to a likely looking hole to see what
kind of non-migratory trout I could find. Boy was I pleasently surprised.
I pulled off by a bridge in a little no name town and waded down to the first
deep hole. Second cast, nice little rainbow of about 12 inches. A few casts
later I pick up a 16 incher hatchery fish (adipose fin clipped) on a nymph
down deep. In about a half mile of river I picked up around 20 fish between
6-16 inches. About half were wild and the other half were hatchery fish. I
did see one fish about 17 inches that I couldn't bring up and had a follow
early on with what could have been a small Steelhead. Its tail was scarred
up like it had been digging in the gravel. Anway, the fish were lots of fun
and they saved the day.
A couple of quick questions for you Steelhead experts. The fin clipped fish
I talked about seemed too large to be small steelhead. Do some hatchery
steelhead never make the run out to see and stay in the river year around? I
would assume that just as every rainbow is not a steelhead, not every
fingerling in the hatchery makes the trip downstream. I will have to profess
my total ignorance on the topic.
Keep up the great reports. I will be living out my fly fishing dreams through
your reports. Now I wonder if I can mount my rod to my crutches:0)
Mike W.
Spangle, WA
