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Tylers NF Stilly Wild Summer Steelhead |
Tyler and I made it up to the NF Stilly at the crack of Dawn. We weren't there at first light, but we were easily the first ones in the run. In fact, there was a surprising amount of fog so I am not even sure when the light was on the water. The river was still fogged in, and it was just starting to lift when we left at 7:00 AM. The river finally dropped back into shape after being out all week due to all the rain. The river was flowing at 2000 cfs, the water temp was right around 47 degrees, and the visibility was about 2 feet.
This was Tyler's first time fly fishing for steelhead and the first time with a sink tip, so I started by giving him some casting pointers at the top of the run. I made my first cast just to get some line out of the rod. The fly was in the water just a few seconds then a fish took a swipe at it. I yanked the fly out and continued with my casting instruction. Tyler picked up the casting quickly, so I left him in the good water and I moved upstream so I could fish.
Tyler was about fifteen minutes into fishing the run when I looked downstream to see a fish coming out of the water below him. The next thing I know, he is throwing his hands up in disgust, and I don't see the fish anymore. I made another cast and look downstream again, and there he is fighting a fish again. What the.... As it turns out, he hooked a steelhead, it jumped a couple times, then came right at him, at which point he thought he had lost it. It wasn't until he started stripping the line in that he realized the steelhead was still on the other end. He reeled in the slack line and started fighting the fish again. After a short battle, he eased a small wild steelhead into the shallows. It was a dark fish, so I am guessing it was a downstream fish from last summer.
Chris
I made it out to my favorite run on the NF Stilly on Saturday morning...the first day the river has been open since mid February. Lets just say I was fishing below Fortson...a ways below Fortson. I was hoping to get there at first light, but that didn't happen, mostly because I was too lazy to figure out when sunrise was. To my surprise, I was actually the first one in the parking area and the first one on the water. Based on all the rain we had over the last week, I wasn't surprised to find the visibility was a little over a foot. I started higher in the run than where I knew the fish would be holding. After about five minutes of working my way down the run, another guy walked in. He stopped and chatted, then moved about 50 yards downstream. Its generally not too cool to do this, but he asked, and I said sure. There was a lot of water to fish.
I was about five minutes into the good water when the loop pulled out of my hand and the reel started spinning.....sweet, a steelhead. The fish moved about thirty feet downstream and stopped. I laid into him and nothing happened. My new Z-Axis 7136 was bent in half and the fish was not moving.....oh crap. We played this not so fun game for 2 or 3 minutes. I leaned on the rod with constant pressure, and the fish just sat. Did I foul hook a sucker? Did the line wrap around a rock? Eventually, it started to move, then the deep and slow head shakes started. This is a big fish.
Five or six minutes into the fight I started to gain line. I almost got the sink tip in....then it all went right back out. I didn't feel like I was going to win until it moved upstream in to the fast water. With constant side pressure I knew I could tire it quickly, or sort of. I saw a flash of silver as the fish made a quick roll, then it went down and I didn't see it again for a few minutes. It rolled again a little closer and it was definitely chrome, and I could see the green back and black spots. Sweet, a steelhead. Then I saw the tail. It wasn't a big slab of a tail that it should have been for a steelhead of this size. Damn....not a steelhead. Eventually I got him near the bank, and after two or three tries, I eased him into the shallows. Definitely not a steelhead.
Chris
Phil, Tom, Tyler, and I spent a half day on Pass Lake to fish the mayfly hatch. We were on the water by 11:00 and started off fishing a 4" red string leach on a type II full sinking line. Phil and Tom both had hits in the first five minutes, but the fish did't get the hook. We headed to the shallow point across from the launch to check for mayflies or raising fish, but found no activity. We switched back to trolling leaches and had a number of hits on our way to the shallow bay at the far end of the lake, but once again, none of the fish were hooked.
When we got to the shallow bay, we saw a few rising fish, but there were no signs of a mayfly hatch. We switched one of the flies to a #10 olive woolly bugger and trolled about 50 feet off shore and came up empty. We parked the boat in the shallows about 40 feed from shore and waited for some activity. Tom and Phil ate lunch while I started casting a #10 olive woolly bugger on a clear intermediate line into the bank and stripping it back on a fast retrieve. I got a good hit and actually had a fish on for a couple seconds on my second cast. After only a couple more casts I got another good hit and a solid hookset. After a short but hard battle, I landed a fat little rainbow in the 16" to 18" range. I made a number of casts on the opposite side of the boat to work some new water. I slowed my retrieve a bit and got another good hit and tied into a good sized rainbow. This fish didn't come in easy and went to the air a couple times. After a few minutes we netted another rainbow in the 20" range. Once Phil and Tom were done with lunch, I went back to rowing and Tom and Phil started casting the olive woolly bugger toward the bank and stripping it back.
We moved down the lake a bit and talked to Tyler. He saw a number of rising fish, and switched to a floating line with a #14 adams but hadn't hooked anything. We parked the boat about 40 feed from the bank in the shallows just out from the tules. Tom had never fished a dry fly before, so I greased up the #14 adams on Tom's floating line, cast it out toward the bank, stripped in a little line to straighten out the line and leader, and waited. I told Tom he needed to let it sit for a couple minutes and about 10 seconds later there was a big splash and the fly disappeared....but there was no fish on the other end. I wasn't expecting a rise that fast and wasn't even watching the fly when the fish hit, so I didn't set the hook. I handed the rod to Tom, he cast the fly out, let it sit, and about 30 seconds later there was another big splash. This time the fish got the fly and and fight was on. After a couple jumps and dives toward the bottom, Tom was able to lead a fat 16" rainbow into the net. The biggest fish he had caught on a fly. Tom and Phil continued fishing dries for the next hour. We had a few rises, but no more hooked fish. While they fished dries, I made a few casts with the intermediate line and olive woolly bugger. I managed to raise one more nice fish that turned away from the fly in a big splash within only a couple feet if the boat, but it never touched the fly. By 2:00, the surface activity had died down. We switched back to leaches and sinking lines and headed back to the launch. Phil got a couple hits on the red string leach, but never got a good enouth grab to actually hook the fish.
The mayfly hatch on Pass Lake is not a spectacular event like you will see on Chopaka or some of the other Eastern Washington lakes, but it is one of the few opportunities to catch big rainbows on dry flies in Western Washington. Here are a few tips for fishing the mayfly hatch on Pass Lake. 1) Look for shallow areas with tules growing on the bank. This is the one to two foot tall green vegetation that sticks straight up from the ground and is pointed at the end like an inverted ice pick. It grows a couple feet into the lake. For some reason, mayflies seem to hatch near this stuff. 2) Look for weeds growing just under the surface. You can't fish a wet fly in this stuff, but dries are no problem. Trout like to hide in the weeds and grab the mayflies when they float into the openings in the weeds. 3) Look for surface activity. Don't wait until you see an aduly mayfly sitting on the surface. If you see surface activity in the areas described above, tie on a #14 adams, parachute adams, or cripple calebatis, straighten your line and leader (use florocarbon tippet), and throw it out there. 4) When the fly lands, slowly pull your fly line to straighten the line and leader without moving the fly. 5) Let fly sit for a minimum of 30 seconds and preferrably at least 2 minutes. You need to give the trout in the area time to see the fly. If the wind or currents blow a big bow in your fly line, recast the line and set it up again. 6) Watch the fly closely and set the hook quickly when a fish takes the fly. If you wait, you will miss the fish. The mayfly hatch should last a couple more weeks, so if you haven't fished it yet, now is the time to get out.
Chris
All of the rivers I fish closed in the middle of February due to low steelhead returns. This is bad deal all around....especailly for the steelhead. Hopefully the closure helps them recover.
I took over a month off. Mostly waiting for the lakes to warm enough to produce some good trout fishing. I finally made it out to Lone Lake for the unofficial Evergreen Fly Fishing Club Lone Lake outting. There were a lot of people on the water, but I didn't recognize most of them, so I don't think many from the club made it...which was too bad. Gary, Mandy, and I had a great time fishing Lone under nearly ideal conditions. The surface water temp was 52 degrees when we started in the morning around 9:30 AM and it warmed to 54 degrees when we left the water at 4:00 PM. We had overcast skies and off and on light wind for most of the day.
The conditions were great, but the fishing was not red hot. However, we were able to catch fat rainbows on a variety of flies including #14 red holographic ice cream cone chironomid, a #16 grey holographic ice cream cone chironomid, 4" long red string leaches, and pheasant tail emergers. We caught fish throughout the day, starting around 10 AM, but the fishing was slightly more productive in the afternoon.
Look for fishing to improve on Lone Lake as the temperature warms and we move on in to April. You have to keep an eye on the wind forecast if you plan to fish Lone Lake. The wind blows in from the straights, and it can really blow! If the forecast is for 20 MPH winds or highter, forget it!
I have heard a number of reports that Pass Lake is fishing well also. I like to fish Pass a little later in the spring when I can get rainblows to take buggers and leaches on a fast strip retrieve...its a blast!
Spring is here and now is the time to get out on the water!
Chris
Doug and I spent the day on the middle section of the Skagit River. After a week plus of extremely low and clear water and tough fishing conditions, the rains came and the river rose. When we started the day, the flow at Concrete was 8000 CFS. The river rose during the day, and by the time we were off the water, the flow was at 14,000 CFS. The conditions were almost perfect with 3 to 4 feet of visibility and overcast skies and rain through out the day. The rain part made fishing a bit uncomfortable, but that’s all part of winter steelhead fishing.
We attempted to fish some great steelhead water on the far side of the river above the creek, but the creek was so high from all the rain, we were unable to cross. We even tried using the drift boat to cross, but the river and creek were just moving too fast. Instead of fishing above the creek, I rowed the boat back across the river and we fished some great steelhead water on the launch side of the river. We couldn’t find any takers here.
As we drifted down to the next run, I had Doug cast and swing a sink tip with a purple/black marabou streamer to a long boulder patch in the middle of the river. He was fishing out of the boat as I slowed the boat and held position. Doug wasn’t really paying attention and he got a grab and had a small fish on as we worked toward the end of the boulder patch. He didn’t get a good hook set and the fish came off after a few head shakes.
We spent the next half hour swinging sink tips at the top of a long gravel bar on river left. Doug hooked a lost a number of dolly varden in the 16 to 20+ inch range on his purple/black streamer.
As we floated down to the next run, Doug fished out of the front of the boat casting to the edge of the river along the high bank. He was fishing an egg pattern with an egg dropper under split show and a strike indicator. He hooked and released a 16” cutthroat.
The next run down had great bottom structure and a pretty fast flow at the top of the run. The water slowed to deep frog water after a couple hundred feet. Above the top of the run there is a side channel below a creek that was pumping in some color due to all the recent rain. I was swinging a 4” long white marabou streamer. It appeared that the dolly varden were stacked at the edge of the clear water in the main channel and the colored water from the side channel. Every time I swung my 4” long white marabou streamer into from the clear water to the colored water, a dolly would smack it. Some of the fish just grabbed the end of the fly, and some got the hook. I lost most of the fish, and landed a couple that ranged in size from 12” to 20”. Doug didn’t get any hook-ups until he tied on the deadly white streamer.
There were quite a few guys on the water so we didn’t get to fish all the usual runs on the way down. I was a little bummed to see guys in the run were we caught a steelhead a few weeks earlier.
We continued down and stopped at one of the islands that has good water on both sides. I headed to the bottom end of the island were we hooked a really big dolly a few weeks earlier. I started at the top of the run in the shallow water. By the time I worked my way down to the deeper slow stuff, I started getting hits on a regular basis. The first hit was from a good sized fish, but not the monster dolly I was hoping for. I hooked the fish on the next swing and landed a fat 20” dolly. I either got a grab or a hook-up about every five casts for the next ten minutes. Most of these fish were smaller.
The last run we fished was across from the plunking shack. It also has great bottom structure, but the flow is much slower than traditional winter steelhead water. In fact, it can be tough to swing a fly when the river is low. Often you have to start stripping the fly before line is downstream to keep from hanging it in the rocks. Doug had a field day in this run with his purple/black streamer. None of the dollies were that big, but he hooked over a half dozen in about 15 minutes.
We were off the water about 4:30, and the rain continued through the rest of the evening.
As I write this, the Skagit, Stilly, Skykomish, and a number of other Puget Sound rivers have closed due to extremely low predicted returns of wild steelhead. Hopefully the closure helps. I am happy to report that the Upper Skagit tribe has agreed to stop netting the Skagit for the remainder of February and all of March. Unfortunately, they will be back at it in April for a Chinook test fishery. The other tribes that fish the Skagit and Sauk have not posted their fishing schedule or advertised their intention to stop fishing.
Chris
Terry, Steve, and I floated the middle section of the Skagit River. The weather was ideal for winter steelhead fishing with light rain, overcast skies, and low cloud cover for the entire day. The river was dead low, flowing at 7300 CFS and very clear.....the exact opposite of what I was hoping for.
Just as I thought, none of the runs that held fish last week had much of anything in them, at least we didn't find anything. I tried a little of everything, and to my surprise, it paid off. We didn't find anything swinging flies in the first run. However, I had Steve cast over some great looking water in the middle of the river on the way to the next run. This is a spot where we have hooked fish before and to my surprise, Steve managed to hook what I think was a smaller dolley varden. He had it on for about 30 seconds before it threw the hook.
I had high hopes for the next couple runs because they each produced a number of hook-ups the week before. Due to the low flows, the swinging water was very short and it was even tough to get the fly to swing. There were a couple guys fishing gear in the lower run that produced the most hook-ups the week beofre. They didn't touch a thing. We followed them and I had Steve fishing out of the boat so he could reach the current seam, which was way out in the river. We tried my floating line, long leader, and weighted fly technique that has worked in the past under low water conditions, but to no avail today. We didn't touch a fish either. By this time my hopes were fading.
The next couple runs I was planning to fish were short runs that had produced fish in the past, but more often that not there was nothing there. Steve was about five casts into the run using a 15 ft type six sink tip and a big whitefish pattern with a grizzly hackle tail and a trailing hook. He got a good grap and had a nice fish on, but it didn't do much other than pull and shake its head. A couple times during the fight I saws the tail and it had spots....it was a steelhead. It didn't put up much of a fight and as Steve was attempting to move it into the shallows, I warned him that it turn a make a hard run once it felt the river bottom. Sure enough, a few seconds later it touched bottom, turned, and blasted off about 20 feet of line. This happened a couple more times with the runs getting shorter each time. Eventually I was able to tail a small hatchery hen.
The last run was great! It has decent water, but its hard to tell where to start fishing the run because the head of the run is not well defined. This run almost never produces, but when it does, the fish are pretty big. Sure enough, after about 5 casts using the same set-up as the previous run, Steve tied into another big fish. The water exploded and the fish started doing full body head shakes. And just like that, the hook pulled loose. What a great way to end the day!
Chris
Chris
Eric, Alex, and I floated the middle section of the Skagit River. We had almost perfect conditions with overcast skies, 6 to 8 feet of visibility, and almost no one else on the river. In fact, we were able to fish every run we wanted with no evidence that anyone else had been there.
The first run had near ideal steelhead conditions with big, bowling ball sized boulders, moderate to fast, even flows, and the light was off the water. Unfortunately, all we were able to find was a fat little 18” dolley varden.
On the next run down, we dropped Eric of to fish the high bank with is two hander. Alex and I fished the long gravel bar on the other side of the river. As we walked to the top of the run, we could see the occasional whitefish taking midges in the surface. We had a lot of action in this run. I had one good fish on that managed to throw the hook, I landed a fat 20” dolley, and I had a number of hard grabs. Alex also got a bunch of grabs. Eric managed to tie into a 16” wild rainbow while fishing the far bank.
The third run we fished has really fast water at the top of the run and really slow water in the bottom half. Alex was working the top of the run and got a good grab and also landed a 16” dolley varden. Eric was fishing the middle of the run, and he came up empty handed. I fished the slow water at the bottom of the run. I hooked into two very large fish, both on the retrieve, and both managed to throw the hook. However, I got the thrill of experiencing multiple big fish head shakes before they threw the hook.
All three of us were fishing medium/fast sinking type 6ish sink tips in the 15 foot range. Alex was using a black and blue fly with a stinger hook, Eric tried multiple tube flies, some dark, and some bright, and spent the productive part of the day fishing a red/orange/white baitfish pattern with a 3” grizzly hackle tail and medium gold plated brass eyes.
The conditions on the Skagit below the Sauk and Baker are great right now. The river even dropped today, even after a hard night of rain last night.
Chris
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