Steelhead and our coastal rivers: When is the right time to try?

As anyone who reads my posts this time of year (I realize this narrows the list to probably just myself) knows, I am still stuck on the lifetime skunk when it comes to steelhead. I've been out roughly 40 times over the last three years and haven't stuck a fish since trip #1.

Now I'm no slick, professional caster, but I have become a solid, journeyman-level trout fisherman. I've also caught salmon. I'm comfortable presenting both streamers and nymph rigs. I feel like I have a general idea of when steelhead should be present in a given river. I believe I have the right assortment of flies. I try different rivers and vary flies and techniques when I do so. Despite all of the above, I am unable to catch steelhead.

I know that nobody can solve this for me, but it seems this goes beyond just bad luck. Logic would strongly suggest that such sustained failure indicates a fatal, systemic, flaw or flaws.

One of the areas I feel I may be killing my chances is knowing when our rivers, with their wild fluctuations, are prime to fish. This finally brings me to my question, which will unfortunately be pretty vague... how can I improve when it comes to reading USGS gauges and deciding when and where to fish?

For example, I've been watching OP gauges all week in preparation for Saturday. Long, steady drop for six days. My read would be that the rivers in question will be easy to wade and fish, but low and clear. I would still go, but would expect fish to be very hard to fool under these conditions.

Now, some rain is coming in tonight and tomorrow. Is this good? Bad? How much is good? I know that too much will mean the river blows out and the trip is off.

What am I looking for in reading this gauge over the next 30 hours and deciding whether to drive three hours?

Thanks guys for any help. One of these days...

JB41

We know from reports coming in that steelhead have entered coastal rivers. The heavy rain didn't hit here today until afternoon. Tomorrow (friday) looks like a full-on rain day. Showers on Sat. Clearing and "mostly sunny" on Sunday.

I would avoid the glacier fed rivers for sure. Anywhere where there is a lot of recent clear cutting in the upper watershed will probably muddy up and rise quicker. Some of the lower gradient creeks I know fish better when a little high and roily. I would make plans and go, and have some contingency plans to visit nearby smaller watersheds if the first choice was too high and muddy.

Unless it just deluges for the next 24 hours...

JB41,

If the coastal rivers are going to get more than a half inch of rain, I wouldn't burn the gas to drive over there.

I like the Hoh under 3 kcfs, and less than 2 kcfs is even better in terms of water clarity. Rule of the Hoh and Queets: 18" vis = gin clear. I have a hard time with it, but people really do catch fish when those rivers are turbid. The Bogie fishes well when the gage is 28' or lower, but I don't know what gage height = 3-4' vis. That should give you a start, and keep your own records until you have a sense of which rivers fish well for you at certain flows or gage heights.

Another consideration is that 40 trips over three seasons is still a pretty small sample size. I think you should aim to double that number is less than another three years and see if that doesn't help you develop a better sense for picking the best times to go.

Good luck!

Sg

Plunkin' gear and a bottle of good hootch with which to spike your coffee and make the stink of roe more tolerable!

Gage height stream flow only give you a reference, you have to see it or talk to someone who has. The Sol Duc can take a lot more rain than the other rivers, the Hoh & bogie can go out in a hurry. Call the fly shop in P.A. and ask them.

gauge information is only of value if you are paying attention to trend, up or down. a specific level will only tell you whether or not your favorite spot can be waded too, not much else. i am sure you already know, the big rivers are almost always a crap shoot. the smaller rivers with stable river banks come into shape quickly. as an example, the dungness has been dropping for days now with the water clarity very good for fishing. the rains hit this area starting at about 4pm and my weather station indicated .07". have no idea how much fell at elevation but of course that could blow the dungeness by tomorrow am.

fish are in the west end rivers right now and they will be there through early spring. so the questions in the equation are, as always, weather.

So he was the dude chucking that fist sized spin and glo at Richwine bar??? :rofl::rofl:

Well, Mumbles, I don't have any roe, so that means I'll have to go down on the mudflats and punch out some sandshrimp, which can stink even worse! Or else resort to flies.

I was joking about the plunking, anyway. I don't plunk. The shrimpies would tip a jig or get drifted with a corkie.

Never heard of the place.

I never used anything bigger than a size 8. Black with black wings and phosphorescent green dots and sparkles, with a sandshrimp tail in the bait loop was good to me one year. Or pink size 10 with shrimpietail. Same size in white with pink dots w/sandshrimp tail got a nice one once. Size 1 hooks.

Now, the fish are safe, as I have only flies and some jigs.

I do have one hell of a worm colony under my compost pile, though.:hmmm::hmmm::hmmm:

Guage height is always a factor. One enormous factor however is the undisputable fact there are simple not nearly as many steelhead to be had than there were even ten years ago and a whole lot less than there were twenty or thirty years ago. That is why we have so many steelhead runs listed on the ESA.
Your best bet is to get out as often as you can on whatever viable steelhead river you can. Fish hard and fish often. Catching steelhead isn't difficult -- if you can find them.
Good Fishing,
Les Johnson

I love fly fishing but when it comes to steelhead in my experience I have a 15-1 catch ratio when chuckin bait! I know its a sad story but I love to catch steelhead and when it comes to hatchery brats ive never found anything that works better than spin glo and roe drifted not plunked (how boring is plunking?) when it comes to native steelhead thats when I bring out my fly rod because then its catch and release and im just there for the feel of that one great fish on a fly rod! so my suggestion on catching a steelhead is throw bait at them if your that discouraged.

I believe that in catching a steelhead is being in the right place at the right time. I have caught them while fishing for Cutts in the summer time in the upper reaches of the Sky. Or down by the salt in Pilchuck Creek.

My winter time in/on the "S" rivers used to suck. All I ever got was a lot of lost flies and one 12" Dolliy.

What you need to do is go fish with somebody from this site. Just offer them some dognuts and latte's and maybe some gas.

Jim

If we ever go fishing together, please leave the dognuts at home. That is, unless they're attached to the dog. Thanks. :thumb:

Dognuts(donuts) Just trying to spice it up a little. I usually get those two words mixed up. Here they mean the same. At least in the sentence they do. Helll, I don't know anything anymore.

Jim

so my suggestion on catching a steelhead is throw bait at them if your that discouraged.[/QUOTE]

Gold and silver spoons work great too. Makes C+R possible. And swinging a spoon is similar to swinging a fly.

If one was out just to catch fish, one would use bait or gear. Because it is 10 times easier that way. I believe that people use flies because it is more fun to try and fool a trout into biting. And I don't believe that plastic eggs are flies, or even the glue ones.

Jim

Just get out.

Don't chase reports.

For every day that I hook a steelhead, I run into others who have hooked them as well.

It is hit and miss but sometimes it hits big.

with the exception of the large glacial rivers (Queets, Hoh) I focus on fishing a falling hydrograph whenever possible. As the river drops in from a rain you will find fresh, aggressive fish, and the fish that were already in will become active again. In general, they tend to fish best as the falling hydrograph approaches the median flow. Once things flatten out the fish tend to be tough, they are spread out and don't seem as aggressive. They can still be caught but I fish smaller patterns and focus on water that provides good cover and a sense of security to a large fish in a clear river. I would guess that your lack of fish comes from spending time fishing water that is unlikely to hold fish. Steelhead are much larger than trout and as a consequence they dont hold in many trouty lies. Think of it like this...if you were 3 feet long where would you feel comfortable holding? In general this means large structure, and decent depth (2.5-6 feet deep).

Will