Help me catch my first Steelhead on a Fly Rod!!!

Well, the wife balked at an impromptu trip to Seiku for Pinks cuz she can't hike so we compromised on long day trip to the OP. A reliable source said "The upper Hoh is just what your lookin for". Can anyone elaborate on that a LITTLE bit? I've never been. Some simple directions, tips, suggestions, admonishments...anything would be great. I have a TFO TiCr 8wt with a floater and a set of sink tips. Bought a a couple boxes of big bushy mouth watering maribou SH flies from guy here a while back. I think I'm ready.

BJ

hire a guide, it will lessen your casting to the "fish of a thousand casts" .

Just not in the budget unfortunately.

A lot of us can't book a guide whenever they want. But you can read; Bill Bakke, trey Combs, Lani Waller, Roderick Haig-Brown, Doug Rose. Learn the different techniques, waking, skating, swinging, dead drift, greased line and apply them as applicable. Join a club. There's no real short cuts, lot's of time on the water and WATCH the guys who catch fish. Ask questions, but return the favors.

BJ,

People make too big of a deal and get confused by too much "knowekdge".

Pick a fly, any fly as long as it is a black marabou pattern. You cann't go wrong with black!
If you access at a boat launch, ALWAYS start fishing up from the launch. Drifters seldom fish the area just up river from a boat launch.

Be meticulous, start fishing in right next to the bank. Even if someone went through in front of you, start close in. Make as many casts as needed to cover ALL the water before stepping down and make several casts into any good lie. Many times it may take 3 or 4 casts to move a fish. Fish slow and don't rush! Be sure to keep a good loop at the reel end of the rod and do not try to set a look until the loop has been pulled out!

Pick a river and fish it hard and learn where fish like to be at different flows. Often it is easier to catch fish at the peek of a high water event as the fish will be litterally right next to the bank. Fish hard right at the peak of a high water event and just after as the flows start to drop.

Low water and bright days fish in the riffles and faster water and the heads of deeper pools. Fish deep pools from top to bottom and cover all of it slow and easy. Learn to fish eddys. They hold fish but are somewhat harder to fish. I have caught a lot of summer fish in eddys.

The main thing is to cover the water and take as many casts as you need to comfortably cover ALL the water presented in one spot.

No I do not believe in taking a step down after nor during each cast. Cover the water! Then take a step or two down. In any given situation, regardless of time of day I will always start off swinging in tight and then move out to the first seam and fish both sides of a seam and then move out my presentation further until I have covered the water and may make several casts into the same water until I am convinced no fish is there. I could recount a day where I made perhaps 30 casts on visible fish until one decided to respond!

Dave

I caught my first stealhead flyfishing on the swing, don't get me wrong, I enjoyed it. After that though I learned that you can catch them watching an indicator and I've never looked back. As you may remember from the chironomid clinic, I love watching the indicator. Other than dry flies, I fish almost every other pattern for steal under and indicator . Starting with an indicator while stealheading most rivers will allow you to understand the river currents better although I imagine some here will disagree with me and that's cool with me.

If you want more specifics, PM me and I'll give up some patterns. I don't want to do it here, because I don't feel like dealing with the fire storm that may follow.

Ira..

Pinned bead and indicator.

Pray and build up some good karma.

BJ,

I read your post and conclude that it totally conflicts (IMO) with your last sentence where you state that you think you are ready. Either your reliable source isn't reliable, or you're just not ready.

You want to catch a steelhead on a fly rod. Well get in line and take a number; who doesn't?

Rule #1: know how to fish for steelhead. Since you're looking for #1, I'm gonna' guess you don't know how, based on your post. So refer to primers on steelhead fly fishing for starters, or feel free to waste your time.

Rule #2: fish for steelhead where they are when they are there. That's so obvious it shouldn't need to be said, but you'd be surprised. Did your reliable source mention that the Hoh is not stocked with hatchery summer steelhead and has only a very small native run of wild summer runs? So you'll be looking for the proverbial needle in a haystack, one of the small number of wild fish or some of the stray summer runs that dip into the Hoh that are ultimately bound for other rivers. That's important because it means fishing for the strays may have been great last Saturday, but they'll all be gone this Saturday or whatever day you go. Reliable information would be a report saying the fishing is hot today, be here tomorrow, and if not tomorrow don't bother unless you get another reliable update. Otherwise you'll most likely end up fishing for steelhead where they ain't, which is a violoation of Rule #2.

Big bushy mouth watering marabou streamers are a good choice for a steelhead fly. But not the only choice. The Hoh is a long drive to not have more than that with you. Take a few Muddlers and Spades in size 4, 6, and 8.

The upper Hoh is not hard to find. But if you drive there from Graham without first studying a map of the river, you really aren't acting smart enough to deserve to catch your first steelhead on a fly. The short course: the upper Hoh is upstream of Hwy 101 and is easily found by driving up the Upper Hoh River Road. You can drive all the way up to the National Park camp ground; from there on up you'd have to walk as the road ends there. However, that represents a lot of miles of very nice water to fish. I'd tell ya' what rock to stand on to catch your first steelhead on a fly, but then you wouldn't deserve it, and we don't want that. Besides, I haven't been there in over a month and don't know which rock. You need today's report for reliable information.

Sg

Crikey Mumbles, sure there are hatchery summer runs in the Bogachiel (heading for the Calawah rearing ponds) and a few in the Sol Duc, but didn'tcha' read, his reliable source said the upper Hoh is just what he's looking for? And he wants to slay the steel, so you advise him to just fish it and have a hell of a good time. That's all well and good, but that is a long ways from the most productive strategy to put one o'them steelfaces in the cooler. Pay attention, this is steelheading, serious stuff, ya' know?

Sg

wet line gave a real nice breakdown without giving up secret spots! Nicely done and well written. I've been out of it for so long (20 years or so??!) I'm probably a bad source for info but the Upper Kalama just below Gobar junction in the canyon area USED to be pretty good sight fishing this time of year (maybe a little later) and going REAL SLOW moving thru the water. Check the regs, I don't know what they are currently.
Used to have one person sight the fish and the other cast to them even though guy casting often couldn't see them. Trick is if you are the spotter don't say the fish has it right away cuz your buddy will often pull the fly out before he gets a good take LOL. And if you don't catch any steelhead, at least you get to have fun in a semi-secluded area flyfishing (at least it used to be).

Back cast is a bit of pain. If you are right handed at least the back cast goes back more over water casting upstream at a steep angle (assuming you are on road/north side of river). Makes it hard though to reach the far bank side. The fish used to spook easily so you had to be patient and had many "^%$#" words happen when a fish spooked after casting over it for awhile.

No idea about the Toutle, been too long. OP rivers are beyond me. Actually, probably everything is beyond me now LOL. Just been too long but thought I'd at least mention a specific area that might be fun to try. No idea if this info helps.
Maybe it'll get someone with better info to step in as to where to fish. Wet line definitely got the methodology side of things down pretty well in his post, especially if fishing unfamiliar water or by yourself. Good luck! You can always get some pinks after getting frustrated not getting steel ;-)

Alright everyone. By "reliable source" I meant someone who has been steelheading for many years and was meeting two needs with his recommendation, my hope to hook fish in concert with my wife's desire to hike and groove to nature with the dog. So that said, sounds, from Mumbles description he was pretty spot on. Really had nothing to do with that days water conditions or yesterday's fish counts. I have copied Wet Line's tutorial to my phone which is always in my pocket. I appreciate everyone's advice, despite feeling a touch berated by some.

Thx
BJ

Great response, you're a keeper.

Sadly Pan, I am not...just can't reach my own adipose with my weak assed short handled dikes...alas, I must be released...

BJ

BJ,

"my hope to hook fish in concert with my wife's desire to hike and groove to nature with the dog. "

Please make up your mind. Now it's "my hope to hook a fish." You started out saying you wanted to catch your first steelhead. I don't know if it's a matter of you not caring, or if you just don't understand what you're talking about. You took something pretty basic - "catch your first steelhead" and qualified it with your wife and dog going hiking. If you don't know what you want, or can't make up your mind, or cannot understand the significance of the difference of including your wife and dog going hiking, you're a damn tough customer to help. While the combo deal is possible, it's far less probable than simply getting you into your first steelhead. Please understand, this ain't Burger King here, and you can't necessarily have it your way. Now let's start at the beginning: What do you want?

Sg

What Steve said (more briskly than need be ) is that you'll probably want to make sure that your wife is happy while you are out there. Steelheading can be an endurance sport (just ask Steve about some of our fishing trips), so unless your wife is content for you to be out from sunup to sundown (which is a long day during the summer), you may want to consider when you want to fish. If I were you, I'd use the hiking during the day along the river to help scout, then head out in the evening.

Ed, that's a felony in every state.