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tidal steel

5K views 41 replies 25 participants last post by  Smalma 
#1 ·
Most of the Steelhead topics are on catching in the rivers or as an occasional by-catch on the beach. Is there a reason for no tidal river reports/discussion? Maybe like they're just moving through too fast? Does anyone fish estuarine/tidal rivers for steel if so- any tips on tides or techniques?
 
#2 ·
I would love to be able to target them in the salt, but they seem so elusive.....I guess if I was going to try Id start at the beach at the mouth of the Quilleyute ;) I guess there Id have some confidence that thered be a good # of fish in the area.
Baitfish patterns, or squidros are what Id throw in the salt for steelhead. I guess out there you could have the chance of a nice chinook too
 
#3 ·
Bandy and I killed a perfectly good day flogging the water with hoochies and spin n glows off a 1ft slinky on the beaches of Whidbey island. Ahhh, the yesterdays of ambitious angling.

There' s a pretty strong contingent of guys that fish the beaches for them around there.
 
#21 ·
Bandy and I killed a perfectly good day flogging the water with hoochies and spin n glows off a 1ft slinky on the beaches of Whidbey island. Ahhh, the yesterdays of ambitious angling.

There' s a pretty strong contingent of guys that fish the beaches for them around there.
I Actually caught one at Lagoon point on a hoochie and a spin and glow
 
#6 ·
From what I remember of Dec Hogan's book, it seems that the Steelies shoot through the estuary/tidal areas and cover a lot more water once in the river per day than a school of Salmon.
I wonder where Dec got that information cuz I haven't found good documentation, and once in the river above tidal influence, radio tagging shows about the same rate and variability in migration rate as salmon.

Sg
 
#5 ·
Boot,

My very limited experience with steelhead in tidal waters suggests that the fish are actively migrating, generally on the flood tide. They don't disappear at slack and during the ebb, but neither I nor others I've talked with have any idea where they go. I've never taken much interest in tidewater steelheading because all the estuaries I've checked out get greatly increased turbidity during the flood tide, which facilitates upstream migration, but not fly fishing.

I think, but don't know, that technique wise, one could find a strategic location, and stand in one place and fish, covering the likely water while waiting for migrating fish to pass by. There is a particular spot on a particular river where I have thought about trying this, but it's a long drive, and the flood tide covers it up, so I'm not sure for how much of the tidal swing it might be fishable.

Sg
 
#7 ·
From what I have seen steelhead; unlike salmon, tend to migrate pretty directly upstream through the tidal sections of rivers. Rarely do they mill around mouth of river or nearby marine areas. Rather they ,move directly up the river. Something else to keep in mind is that steelhead tend to be less numerous than most salmon stocks returning to our rivers.

While not tidal steelhead I have had some excellent and consistent fishing just above the tidal influenced section on a couple north Sound Rivers. The trick was one of timing. The best fishing was always in the frist few hours around and after the high tide downstream and seasonally it help to time my fishing during the period when the peak numbers of steelhead would be entering the river (that is before the fishing peaks upstream).

The drill was to fish the traveling lanes; especailly during higher flows. At low flows the fish would tend to stack up to a degree in the first few "holding' ones. The moving fish on larger rivers were typically more accessible thus catchable for the fly angler. Duriing the 1980s and 1990s I focused my efforst in late December and the first half of January for hatchery fish and late February and early March for wild fish.

Wonderful fish!

Curt
 
#8 ·
I have fished for (and done well with) estuary steel in SE AK, but I think that the estuaries in question are so much different from the estuaries in WA, so much so that I think the techniques used to fish them would be totally different.

The fish might exhibit some of the same behaviors, however. I have seen estuarine and near-rivermouth fish in what appears to be "acclimatization mode" - suspended or traveling slowly near the surface, right at the freshwater lens/salt interface. Additionally, the fish I have seen entering the river on high tides seem to move "in and out" as the tide is rising, then make the commitment to fresh as the tide peaks and begins to fall. These are the most skittish fish, IMO, and they are only occasionally caught.

I have had good luck with floating lines/long leaders/tiny flies for estuary fish - tiny enough to sink very slowly thru the fresh lens, but almost suspend in the salt.
 
#9 ·
It makes little sense to me why a fish wouldn't have to/want to do time in brackish water before hitting fresh. I am presuming though the salt to fresh transition means some adrenal equivalent/kidney gearing that can absorb and excrete salts to a calm homeostasis. (That and the adrenal/kidney equivalent is probablly getting some whacky orders from the pituitary that is otherwise directing the fish to get busy.) In general those systems are very quick to respond to stress, not so quick to respond to a basal maintenance order, the latter presumably being important to an easy transition upriver... that transition would likely require some energy, hence the original question do steelhead bite in tidal rivers...

I guess the conclusion is, try it, get back to us...meanwhile we'll be fishing the happy runs of river ------

alternatively there's a reason why there's forty guys chucking stuff at Reiter, and it's not rocket science to figure it out
 
#12 ·
To add to g_smolt's suspended steelhead comment. I have watch traveling steelhead along the Whidbey Island shoreline quite a few times and those fish even though traveling quite quickly were always suspended. Typically traveling in 8 to 12 feet of water while 3 to 6 feet below the surface. To consistently catch those fish the gear guys would cast hoochie/spin-glo combos across the fish's traveling paths and retrieve their gear staying at about the fish's depth to the shoreline. The steelhead typically follow that gear into the shallows and often grab at the angler's rod tip in as little as 18 inches of water.

It seems reasonable to me that the steelhead would continue to travel in that suspended fashion until reaching shallow water or the river/tidal current pushes them to the bottom or the channel edge. The plunkers in the Snohomish, Skagit, Green, etc consistently catch steelhead in the tidally influence portion of those rivers, often with their gear in that same 3 to 6 feet of water. So the fish will bite.

Boot - I don't know why the steelhead do not need time to adjust to the change from salt to fresh but they do not seem to dally in the lower river like salmon often do. Maybe in the higher flows of the winter they have ample time to adjust by traveling in that salt/freshwater interface.

Curt
 
#14 ·
It's been a long time since I read it, but I'm pretty sure there is a chapter in one of Steve Raymond's books (Steelhead Country maybe?) about fishing for steelhead in estuaries. Not really a how to thing (so am pretty sure it wasn't in the Estuary Flyfisherman), just that he figured it out in one place and had it pretty dialed in. He was pretty coy about where it was as I remember it.
 
#15 ·
...just that he figured it out in one place and had it pretty dialed in.
I think that might apply here. At the risk of sounding over-simplistic, my experience is that AK spring steelhead seem to act the same or nearly the same within a given set of environmental and physical conditions. Figuring out one system with a set of conditions gets you a whole lot closer to figuring out another system with matching conditions, even if it is new to you. However, this also (and always) leads to the steelhead mantra - "Hmmm...never seen one do that before".
 
#16 ·
I've fished SE AK tidal spring steelhead for decades, and have had much success all the way down to "barnacle water" - waaay below high tide influence, a mile or more down from the top of tidewater. I've seen fish hold in many of the same pieces of water that coho do in the fall, and typically fish them with loooong leaders and smaaaall flies on a sloooow swing. Often, an observant angler will come upon them while cutthroat or dolly fishing with smolt patterns on the saltchuck. I've even seen them caught on size 10 and 12 Smolt patterns and 5 wt rods, though I never leave camp without a steelhead rod when cutthroat fishing the 'chuck anymore! On an incoming tide, the current eventually slows to the point where it is not moving at all; at that point, it is time to bust ass up to the next good water with current and hit it again. At the very top of tidewater, fish will often hang out for days, and fresh can be seen moving into the holes on each tide. My avatar is a fish from a SE AK tidewater hole taken on a 15 ft leader and a size 8 beadhead bugger swung agonizingly slowly about 15 minutes before the water started to move upstream. Tidewater is truly one of my favorite places to chase steelhead in SE; I love the hike-and-hunt mode of covering a long estuary - chasing cutthroat and dollies with my 4wt LL, watching early spring bears digging roots and swinging up sea-lice steelhead!
 
#18 ·
Excellent input! It's all hydraulics and conservation of energy. Rivers & tides have a rolling motion, water rolls from the surface down. The sweet spot for the upstream migration is at the bottom of the roll...that's where they'll be when migrating. With tides the fastest moving water is pushed to the surface because resistance is reduced at the air/water interface and the roll is a few feet below. Incoming tide they'll be near the surface, outgoing tide they'll be at the bottom of the roll.
 
#19 ·
Hey Boot! Go to Bush Point on Whidbey Island. Fish the incoming tide in the cove to the right of the restaurant (if it's still there) and in front of the first house if they don't kick you off the beach. Use an intermediate line with a #2 or 4 unweighted Mustad 3407 hook with bead eyes, yellow chennile body with a turn of yellow and a turn of orange hackle at the head (I just made this fly up after I saw a hootchie a long time ago). Don't wade past the middle of your calf. Make long quartering casts across and downtide strip very slowly back against the tide. The fish travel close to shore and quartering casts (not straight out) keep you in the zone. The best times to fish are when the rivers are in spate (high and muddy if you're not Scottish). They're still a fish of a thousand casts, but at least they eat.

Hope this helps,

Leland.
 
#27 ·
Hey Boot! Go to Bush Point on Whidbey Island. Fish the incoming tide in the cove to the right of the restaurant (if it's still there) and in front of the first house if they don't kick you off the beach. Use an intermediate line with a #2 or 4 unweighted Mustad 3407 hook with bead eyes, yellow chennile body with a turn of yellow and a turn of orange hackle at the head (I just made this fly up after I saw a hootchie a long time ago). Don't wade past the middle of your calf. Make long quartering casts across and downtide strip very slowly back against the tide. The fish travel close to shore and quartering casts (not straight out) keep you in the zone. The best times to fish are when the rivers are in spate (high and muddy if you're not Scottish). They're still a fish of a thousand casts, but at least they eat.

Hope this helps,

Leland.
Jesus, Leland. If you aren't going to post anything helpful, don't post anything at all...
 
#24 ·
One thing that I have observed is that quite often there are seals chasing the steelhead at the river bars, or in the lower tidal reaches of a river. One example is the Hoh river, which has a very narrow reach just above tidewater. When the steelhead are coming in at the mouth of the Hoh River they are wasting no time at all. And the seals are right there chasing them. And I have seen the plunker bait guys hammering the hell out of them too. Just upriver of some nets. I have seen this in many rivers, that the fish are very vulnerable at this point. If you get in to a a very remote area, where there may be no nets or masses of meat head fishermen, you may have some undisturbed runs of fish that could well be likely to take a fly. That any fish at all get past the gauntlet of nets, hooks, baits, lures, flies etc, is a miracle.
 
#26 ·
This all reminds me of what I call still-water steelhead. did it for 10 years off the columbia in cold water bays. not salt but still water or very slow moving water. all we ever used was comet flies, I would always fish small sizes like mentioned in 8 or even 10 double bead eyed brown hackle orange body brown tail and the other was a purple, pink body version tied the same way both with maribou tails. s.a. scientific anglers system 2 lines in 8 wt. and when water would be pulling from the columbia (moving water) you would have to use a system 3 for better control of line and fly. long leaders. just like they used to do for chinook off the rouge in the bay, they used to use mostly comet flies out there too. if suspended intermediate clear lines just like lake trout fishing. we fished over stacked fish moving in the columbia that would pull into the coldwater bays that rivers would dump into. working comets slowly with 3 inch strips keeping the flies at the level of the suspended fish. 20 fish days is not uncommon. I would think it would work the same in tide water or salt. good thread!
 
#31 ·
The last time I did it was about 3 years ago. the bait bite quit so I got the fly rod out and landed two in an hour. herman creek estuary on the oregon side above bony on the columbia. people do it at drano but I don't think it's as good as herman creek area. they also did it at white salmon before the dam came out but it was fairly easy when you had a few hundred fish swimming around all day long. many people that did it for a long time and would fish flies all day would catch 25 to 35 fish on some days. most of my friends were bait chuckers so I mostly would just have the fly rod in the boat for when the bait bite would quit, the flies could kick some serious butt. my best was some 14 fish in about an hour and a half before I reeled in and put the rod away because my bait buddies weren't catching any fish. sometimes it's the only way to catch the steel when they get spooked or have been in the fishery for a few days to a week. I like just going in the afternoons the last two weeks in Aug. first week of September during the week. the hot sun will drive fresh schools in this arm of cold water from around 3 to 7 pm this fishery gets busy so afternoons during the week are best. kind of hard to beat with 70 to 90 degree weather. it's a great fishery for kids also with the good weather! these limits where with bobbers and bait for my daughter and her friend, they loved this fishery for years!!!
Sky Plant Water People in nature Natural landscape


Already told a friend that took up fly fishing with me last year we will do it this summer. people in this area should take advantage of this fishery. you can fish just outside two points of land in the columbia with a washington lic. and with bigger boats put in at stevenson and come across the columbia. smaller boats can put in at the herman hatchery (at cascade locks) and row out with toons and even float tubes but we like drifters with motors with this fishery.

I'm also trying to get the mouth of the wind river dialed for this kind of fly fishing but for some reason those fish do not like the technique. If anyone needs info this next summer just shoot a p.m.
hope this doesn't seem like a high-jack but it is estuary fishing just off the columbia not the salt. if I did offend "SORRY"

PS. the girls are standing in the gravel ramp (road) at the hatchery.
 
#32 ·
Mark-

When using bobber/bait were you just trying to mark fish, then float a bait through at that zpproximate depth? I've a friend that keeps telling me about fishing lower Columbia sandbars with bobber and bait and using like an 8'-14' leader below his float and having similar success.

Either way (bait or fly) it all makes sense. Find fish that are chillaxin' and offer em' something to chew on.
 
#33 ·
Small slip bobbers with a one once weight. you can fish from 5 to 30 feet with slip bobbers on the main line then a swivel to a 3 ft. leader but at herman it's only 8 to 12 feet deep so it's not hard to target the steelhead. with sinking lines a scientific anglers system two uniform sink (the old ones not the +) it was a 16 to 20 or 22 slow count down then most people would just pull slowly with a steady slow movement. I would do 3 to 4 inch fast strips with a pause in between, working it as slow as others and keeping it in the level of the fish but the short strips would get better takes (harder) if I wasn't catching any I would do the slow retrieve without strips.

If you need more bobber fishing with gear maybe a P.M. would be best.
 
#34 ·
we fished Bush point back in the late 70's. seems i always had to go a little light on the lead or you would hang up on every rock in the water. long hot pink skirt with spin & glow. with the water being pretty clear the colors and flash were to get the fishes attention. and that's the name of the game. they move around and can cover a bunch of ground in a hurry.
it can be a long day out there with the wind and casting your ass off.
i would try the OP if you can. other wise maybe look for Sea lions they might give away a location if there is fish around.
not related really but fishing the lower Washougal in the summer. the summer runs would come in like clock work out of the Columbia to a certain hole near the mouth of the river almost on time every afternoon. they would hang out for a time and then move on. of course the locals were there waiting for them. this was the late 70's & 80's.
 
#35 ·
This all reminds me of what I call still-water steelhead. did it for 10 years off the columbia in cold water bays. not salt but still water or very slow moving water. all we ever used was comet flies, I would always fish small sizes like mentioned in 8 or even 10 double bead eyed brown hackle orange body brown tail and the other was a purple, pink body version tied the same way both with maribou tails. s.a. scientific anglers system 2 lines in 8 wt. and when water would be pulling from the columbia (moving water) you would have to use a system 3 for better control of line and fly. long leaders. just like they used to do for chinook off the rouge in the bay, they used to use mostly comet flies out there too. if suspended intermediate clear lines just like lake trout fishing. we fished over stacked fish moving in the columbia that would pull into the coldwater bays that rivers would dump into. working comets slowly with 3 inch strips keeping the flies at the level of the suspended fish. 20 fish days is not uncommon. I would think it would work the same in tide water or salt. good thread!
This sounds awesome

If I ever move south (god forbid) I will likely be doing this a lot
 
#39 ·
I talked to a guy today who claimed that earlier this morning he saw a seal chase what appeared to be a steelhead up onto the rocks just a few yards away from where he was standing on the "wave refraction mound" on the inner tip of the South Jetty here. He said the fish then wriggled down between some rocks and back into the water. If steelhead are entering the Harbor from the south side, then they would probably have to swim right around the inner tip of the Jetty.

I know of a couple of other spots in the Harbor where I could go to cast for in-migrating steelhead, if my arm was in shape for it. But I'm keeping 'em under my hat.
 
#40 ·
Leland et al.

Been a while since I visited this thread and there seems to be some interest in moving out from the tidal portion of the rivers to the open salt.

Steelhead in the salt on the fly has been done and with the developments in the steelhead fly fishing game over the last decades it should be even easier. On the Whidbey beaches the name of the game is being on the beach as pods of steelhead swim by on their way to the rivers. Right now is one of the best times to be attempting that game. For the fly angler going to school on how the gear guys achieve success as foundation for a basic approach. For those that might be interested here are some suggestions as a starting point.

Timing -
as stated late December is a good time. The fish are moving north to south on the island and it seems like the incoming tide moves more fish past a given location per hour so I would target the last half of the incoming tide (though as with any salt water fishing it never hurts to fish other tides).

Location -
the mirgating steelhead (at least those most commonly caught of the beach) are typcially swimming 3 feet more or less below the surface in 6 to 10 feet of water so you want to fish in locations where you can reach that depth of water with a cast from the beach (since most fish follow and take in only 12 or 18 inches of water your do not want to wade past your knees) Becasue the beaches tend to get steeper as the tide rises is another reason to fish around the high. Long time "hot spots" include Bush and lagoon points and Fort Casey. There are several other less know spots along the west side of Whidbey (you want to fish the west side to maximize the numbers of fish moving along the beach - most of the south Sound steelhead, Snohomish, Stillaguamish and a surprising number of Skagit fish travel south along the west side of Whidbey). I think I might start my efforts at Fot Casey (around the point from the ferry - to the NW). You want a spot where you can reach the traveling lanes with 50 to 80 foot casts.

Gear -
I would opt a 7 to 9 weight outfitwith a matching line with fast sink 24 to 30 foot tip. I would probalby use a 8 foot leader with a heavy and log butt section and 8 or 10# tippet.

Flies -
I would start with a large/gaudy/"leggy" fly in the 4 inch range. The intruder type would seem to be a natural place to start though I would use an unweighted fly - the fly line will achieve the depth needed and the unweighted fly in the conditions you will likely be fishing will much easier to cast.

Method-
Remember that with the tidal flow you are essentially fishing a river. Cast straight across the current, make a mend or two to alow the fly line to sink a couple feet. Fish the fly back to the beach with aggressive 6 to 12 inch long strips (think fishing streamers for large trout in stillwater). Remember it is commmon for the steelhead will follow your fly to the beach. As the fly approaches the beach swing your rod the side to finish the rerieve all the way to beach. I would couple a "cutthroat twitch" with that final swing to the rocks.

Line managementcan be a serious issue. Because the mostly like takes will be at your feet there will be 50 to 80 feet of lose line to deal with as a hot fish dashes back to the depths.

Anyway something to mull over on a gray winter day.

Best hoiliday wishes and may the New Year bring you tight lines
Curt
 
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