This is my first post to the newsgroup, though I have been monitoring for a
week or two to get the feel of things.
I am a first year CnR fly-fisher. I got turned onto the sport by a friend
in central Oregon and I have the fever, but not much know-how yet. We live
in eastern King county and frequent south-eastern Washington to visit
family, etc. I am interested in productive waters nearby that I can escape
to without committing an entire day to the trip.
In years past I did quite a bit of Stealhead fishing like Mike described
with shrimp on a jig under a bobber or back trolling plugs and I would have
to say we were pretty successful, but my fishing partner suddenly passed
away this spring so now I am trying to test my hand an fly fishing for a
change.
We stayed at the Hells Gate State Park on the Lewiston side of the Snake
over the Labor Day weekend and talked with several people who hit the water
for opening weekend either pulling plugs or jig fishing like Mike described.
It didn't sound like there were very many fish caught. The amount of water
coming over the Dworshak dam on the Clearwater dropped significantly, which
has raised the water temperature in the Clearwater as well as the Snake from
the confluence downstream. The fish there in the confluence seem to have a
severe case of lock jaw.
I believe you are correct about Stealies not all making the trip to salt. I
understand that if they don't make it to salt before a specific time in
their development they will not be able to survive in the salt. I don't
believe it is unrealistic to think some of they stay in the river system. I
am definitely not an expert in this area though.
Unfortunately I didn't get an opportunity to get my line wet this time, but
we are heading to Central Oregon and hopefully spend some time on the upper
Deschutes. I am interested to hear about any closeby trout action for my
5wt. I was thinking about heading up to the Grand Rhonde past Anatone on a
future trip this fall, but I would like to hear more about the no name river
that you found Mike.
Hope your knee surgery went well Mike. I had an ACL replaced a few years
back and now it is stronger than the other.
Terry
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Monday, September 03, 2001 4:53 PM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Final fishing report for a few months-aka Steelhead fever!
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
