Steelhead

Got out of town last Wed and headed 300 m over the mountains to SW
Washington. Just got home, . . . from some good fishing, lots of iced
up line and a little work. I'll do a trip report in a day or two but
here are the basics:

One 18-20+ inch wild steelhead released on a #14 green beadhead (from
fly exchange). One at least 24-28" wild steelhead released on a #8,
mottled green brass conehead bugger, (fought for 25 plus minutes
before I could release it), and another steelhead hooked/broke off on
same conehead bugger pattern. Finally, one very fat Brown (about 18")
released, on a size 8, mottled green conehead bugger. All taken late
afternoon/early evening. How truely strong and wonderful these wild
fish are.

The river had serverly flooded in early January. Lots of changes. Very
cold camper at nite. This is the best I have ever done with steelhead.
The river is the Touchet, a few miles below Dayton.

Dave

DaveS wrote:
.....the basics:

One 18-20+ inch wild steelhead released on a #14 green beadhead (from
fly exchange). One at least 24-28" wild steelhead released on a #8,
mottled green brass conehead bugger, (fought for 25 plus minutes
before I could release it), and another steelhead hooked/broke off on
same conehead bugger pattern. Finally, one very fat Brown (about 18")
released, on a size 8, mottled green conehead bugger. All taken late
afternoon/early evening. How truely strong and wonderful these wild
fish are.

Look forward to the report. You nymphing the beadhead and swinging the
bugger?

- JR

On Feb 23, 6:09*am, JR wrote:
DaveS wrote:
.....the basics:

One 18-20+ inch wild steelhead released on a #14 green beadhead (from
fly exchange). *One at least 24-28" wild steelhead released on a #8,
mottled green brass conehead bugger, (fought for 25 plus minutes
before I could release it), and another steelhead hooked/broke off on
same conehead bugger pattern. Finally, one very fat Brown (about 18")
released, on a size 8, mottled green conehead bugger. All taken late
afternoon/early evening. How truely strong and wonderful these wild
fish are.

Look forward to the report. *You nymphing the beadhead *and swinging the
bugger?

- JR

Yes, per the beadhead nymph, but that take was after I had run the
nymph thru the pool and out to the tailout where i let it hang for a
bit.

The bugger I was swinging, then in the end of the swing letting it
bounce along the bottom in a circling eddy where the bottom is deep
but the edge is an abrupt root wad that I climb up into.

Dave

On Feb 22, 11:57*pm, DaveS wrote:

Got out of town last Wed and headed 300 m over the mountains to SW
Washington. The river is the Touchet, a few miles below Dayton, on a
little farmland I own. The river had severely flooded in early
January. We needed to re-cover a neighbor's main irrigation pipeline
and fix breaks in the road on my sugar dike. We cleared the permission
hurdles so we could correct the situation, Thursday AM was spent
marveling at how much work a big Cat can do in a few hours. Need to
plant some wheat bunch-grass there before Spring.

Bad news/good news. So where did the water over-top my dikes? Right
next to my camper. It chewed into the dike side but luckily only came
up 2 of the 3 RR ties I put the camper on. Come summer the camper goes
up on the sugar dike.

Thursday evening I fished the nearest pool, with a Coal car, and then
some big wetside jointed barbell things in pink and in black. Nothing.
Tried orange. Nope. Then said screw it, At least I can get a trout,
and went to a #14 green beadhead (from fly exchange). The head of that
pool had changed a lot from the high water. Too much tree debris piled
up to work it like I did last fall, so I needed to roll cast it lots.
The take was after I had run the nymph all the way thru the pool and
out to the tailout where I let it hang for a bit. The take was soft,
and the fish was easy to fight and release in the shallows of the tail
of the pool. The fish was a 18-20+ inch wild steelhead, good looking,
but tired I think. Retired for the day to cook some food, warm up and
get some sleep.

Friday I mostly explored up and down the river with the farm kid,
seeing which holes survived, looking for new holes, and good water,
and trying to puzzle out how the river would settle out. No fish. Went
out again Friday evening, fished 3-4 places. . . nothing, but did see
some possible cougar tracks in the mud left by the flood. Managed to
get really cold and really appreciative of my sleeping bags. Same
story Saturday until evening.

Saturday evening I could do nothing wrong. I tied on a #8, mottled
green brass conehead bugger, with a muddler-type head behind the
conehead. I climbed up onto a couple of logs and a large root wad
where i could short-cast the bugger into the fume at the head of this
very deep pool. No luck, so after a while i started risking longer
casts (lots of long branches and roots to avoid) across the fume, into
an eddy that started a swing downstream and across then in the end of
the swing letting it bounce along the bottom in a circling eddy where
the bottom is deep
but the edge is an abrupt root wad that I had climbed up into. I
covered the water pretty good. Then, when the bugger was in the eddy
there was a take, not a blast, but good and firm. I set the hook and
then started a pulling match, with this fish alternately running out
into the middle of the rushing current, and then trying to knock me
off against various stuff. After a while I started to wonder if I
really wanted this fish to stay on. He didn't come fully out of the
water but his main strong move was to come out of the depths fast,
flap his tail real strong at or near the surface and then powerfully
sound. Over and over. I looked at my watch and 25 minutes later got
the fish close enough to unhook with the tip of my rod. Neither his
ventral or adipose fins were clipped so It was a native 24-28" wild
steelhead. Actually I think it was bigger but fact is I did not
measure so I really do not know. This is the largest steelhead I have
ever caught, but honestly I have caught damn few.

After calling my wife and sputtering gibberish for a while I went back
to the pool and hooked another steelhead same conehead bugger pattern.
This time I was not so lucky and I broke off on one of the brush
tangles. I continued to fish using the same bugger pattern Finally, I
hooked one very fat Brown (about 18") which put on quite an aeriel
show (yeah, I know Browns are not supposed to jump) which I also
released. This fish looked like he had the bulk of a 4x6 beam, but was
not that long. Browns are legendary on this river, not having been
stocked for maybe 10 years, but very rare. I think this might be the
same one I hooked and lost on a mouse or crayfish fly last year. Who
knows.

Kicked back Sunday. Walked the river. Made some plans. Signed on for
half a pig. The Palouse wheat is greening up. Noticed lots of
equipment being worked on. People starting to talk to me like I am a
neighbor. Would I talk to so and so (a wetside Island legislator)
about a farm issue? etc. I like these people. Set out for home
thinking of when I can come back.

Anyway thats my report. For a guy who does't catch many large fish and
damn few steelhead, It just doesn't get any better. I don't think I
could easily kill one of these wonderful wild fish.


Dave

On Feb 23, 5:50*pm, DaveS wrote:
On Feb 22, 11:57*pm, DaveS wrote:

Got out of town last Wed and headed 300 m over the mountains to SW
Washington. The river is the Touchet, a few miles below Dayton, on a
little farmland I own. The river had severely flooded in early
January. We needed to re-cover a neighbor's main irrigation pipeline
and fix breaks in the road on my sugar dike. We cleared the permission
hurdles so we could correct the situation, Thursday AM was spent
marveling at how much work a big Cat can do in a few hours. Need to
plant some wheat bunch-grass there before Spring.

Bad news/good news. So where did the water over-top my dikes? Right
next to my camper. It chewed into the dike side but luckily only came
up 2 of the 3 RR ties I put the camper on. Come summer the camper goes
up on the sugar dike.

Thursday evening I fished the nearest pool, with a Coal car, and then
some big wetside jointed barbell things in pink and in black. Nothing.
Tried orange. Nope. Then said screw it, At least I can get a trout,
and went to a #14 green beadhead (from fly exchange). The head of that
pool had changed a lot from the high water. Too much tree debris piled
up to work it like I did last fall, so I needed to roll cast it lots.
The take was after I had run the nymph all the way thru the pool and
out to the tailout where I let it hang for a bit. The take was soft,
and the fish was easy to fight and release in the shallows of the tail
of the pool. The fish was a 18-20+ inch wild steelhead, good looking,
but tired I think. Retired for the day to cook some food, warm up and
get some sleep.

Friday I mostly explored up and down the river with the farm kid,
seeing which holes survived, looking for new holes, and good water,
and trying to puzzle out how the river would settle out. No fish. Went
out again Friday evening, fished 3-4 places. . . nothing, but did see
some possible cougar tracks in the mud left by the flood. Managed to
get really cold and really appreciative of my sleeping bags. Same
story Saturday until evening.

Saturday evening I could do nothing wrong. I tied on a #8, mottled
green brass conehead bugger, with a muddler-type head behind the
conehead. I climbed up onto a couple of logs and a large root wad
where i could short-cast the bugger into the fume at the head of this
very deep pool. No luck, so after a while i started risking longer
casts (lots of long branches and roots to avoid) across the fume, into
an eddy that started a swing downstream and across then in the end of
the swing letting it bounce along the bottom in a circling eddy where
the bottom is deep
but the edge is an abrupt root wad that I had climbed up into. I
covered the water pretty good. Then, when the bugger was in the eddy
there was a take, not a blast, but good and firm. I set the hook and
then started a pulling match, with this fish alternately running out
into the middle of the rushing current, and then trying to knock me
off against various stuff. After a while I started to wonder if I
really wanted this fish to stay on. He didn't come fully out of the
water but his main strong move was to come out of the depths fast,
flap his tail real strong at or near the surface and then powerfully
sound. Over and over. I looked at my watch and 25 minutes later got
the fish close enough to unhook with the tip of my rod. Neither his
ventral or adipose fins were clipped so It was a native 24-28" wild
steelhead. Actually I think it was bigger but fact is I did not
measure so I really do not know. This is the largest steelhead I have
ever caught, but honestly I have caught damn few.

After calling my wife and sputtering gibberish for a while I went back
to the pool and hooked another steelhead same conehead bugger pattern.
This time I was not so lucky and I broke off on one of the brush
tangles. I continued to fish using the same bugger pattern Finally, I
hooked one very fat Brown (about 18") which put on quite an aeriel
show (yeah, I know Browns are not supposed to jump) which I also
released. This fish looked like he had the bulk of a 4x6 beam, but was
not that long. Browns are legendary on this river, not having been
stocked for maybe 10 years, but very rare. I think this might be the
same one I hooked and lost on a mouse or crayfish fly last year. Who
knows.

Kicked back Sunday. Walked the river. Made some plans. Signed on for
half a pig. The Palouse wheat is greening up. Noticed lots of
equipment being worked on. People starting to talk to me like I am a
neighbor. Would I talk to so and so (a wetside Island legislator)
about a farm issue? etc. *I like these people. Set out for home
thinking of when I can come back.

Anyway thats my report. For a guy who does't catch many large fish and
damn few steelhead, It just doesn't get any better. I don't think I
could easily kill one of these wonderful wild fish.

Dave

Congratulations. Makes me (almost) wish I were back there. Glad to
see there are still a decent number of steelhead getting up the river.
I have heard some horror rumors about walleye in some "lakes" behind
the dams getting to smolts and young steelhead. Any truth to that?

cheers

oz, back from Florida (through Memphis Sat night -- ugghhh)

On Mar 1, 8:59*pm, MajorOz wrote:

Congratulations. *Makes me (almost) wish I were back there. *Glad to
see there are still a decent number of steelhead getting up the river.
I have heard some horror rumors about walleye in some "lakes" behind
the dams getting to smolts and young steelhead. *Any truth to that?

More in the Tuncannon than the Touchet. The guys who really know
dryside steelhead on this forum are Bob W. and JR. RW seems to have a
handle on the trips in Idaho. Maybe as the political **** calms these
guys will post. It would also be good to get some TR reports on the
Coastal rivers in WA and ORE.

Don't know about the walleye thing. Never caught a walleye, don't fish
lakes much, in fact cannot recall fishing a "real" lake in the last
4-5 year4s. Yesterday i did fish an old sal****er log pond running out
the low tide into Blakely Harbor. One take in the spill pool but then
zip.

What predates on what is a real tangle and what intros do to the
fishing opportunities versus saving indigenous strains is a whole
nudder lebel. Example; when i was a kid my home waters were Farrington
lake and the string of mill ponds along the Lawrence brook, a fresh to
salt trib of the Raritan River in New Jersey. At the top of the quarry
were LM Bass, but the real excitement were the native Eastern Chain
Pickerel, the largest of which grow in the garden State. Pork rind
frogs tossed with my father's Majestic bamboo fly rod from a home
built kayak/Barnegat Sneak-box. Vicious, sharp toothed predators,
found in the Lilly pad/pickerel weed back corners of the ponds and
lake, sure to feed my confidence that I could survive as a north-woods
trapper when high school was over and I left my rural Jersey home,
even then in its death struggle with sprawl.

Now, someone introduced Northern Pike to Farrington Lake. They have
flourished to the extant that a Pike from the lake is now the State
record and . . . you know next time i get back there i want to chase
em. And in case someone says, "...well big deal, that Jersey, blah
blah...." Well i can assure you that fishing is still taken very
seriously in jersey and a lot of work and money goes into keeping a
lot of choice fisheries viable.

I guess there is no easy answer (native vs intro) except maybe that
wouldn't it be special if we could have it all ways; save the natives,
optimize the ops.

Dave

On Mar 2, 1:21*pm, DaveS wrote:
On Mar 1, 8:59*pm, MajorOz wrote:



Congratulations. *Makes me (almost) wish I were back there. *Glad to
see there are still a decent number of steelhead getting up the river.
I have heard some horror rumors about walleye in some "lakes" behind
the dams getting to smolts and young steelhead. *Any truth to that?

More in the Tuncannon than the Touchet. The guys who really know
dryside steelhead on this forum are Bob W. and JR. *RW seems to have a
handle on the trips in Idaho. Maybe as the political **** calms these
guys will post. It would also be good to get some TR reports on the
Coastal rivers in WA and ORE.

Don't know about the walleye thing. Never caught a walleye, don't fish
lakes much, in fact cannot recall fishing a "real" lake in the last
4-5 year4s. Yesterday i did fish an old sal****er log pond running out
the low tide into Blakely Harbor. One take in the spill pool but then
zip.

What predates on what is a real tangle and what intros do to the
fishing opportunities versus saving indigenous strains is a whole
nudder lebel. Example; when i was a kid my home waters were Farrington
lake and the string of mill ponds along the Lawrence brook, a fresh to
salt trib of the Raritan River in New Jersey. At the top of the quarry
were LM Bass, but the real excitement were the native Eastern Chain
Pickerel, the largest of which grow in the garden State. Pork rind
frogs tossed with my father's Majestic bamboo fly rod from a home
built kayak/Barnegat Sneak-box. *Vicious, sharp toothed predators,
found in the Lilly pad/pickerel weed back corners of the ponds and
lake, sure to feed my confidence that I could survive as a north-woods
trapper when high school was over and I left my rural Jersey home,
even then in its death struggle with sprawl.

Now, someone introduced Northern Pike to Farrington Lake. They have
flourished to the extant that a Pike from the lake is now the State
record and . . . you know next time i get back there i want to chase
em. And in case someone says, "...well big deal, that Jersey, blah
blah...." Well i can assure you that fishing is still taken very
seriously in jersey and a lot of work and money goes into keeping a
lot of choice fisheries viable.

I guess there is no easy answer (native vs intro) except maybe that
wouldn't it be special if we could have it all ways; save the natives,
optimize the ops.

Dave

I agree. If we could have the best of both worlds without the ****
from either.......
For instance, it would seem that the coastal Oregon rivers would be
ideal habitat for smallmouth bass, but would raise hell with the
natives. I have caught a number of stripers from the Umpqua and it
doesn't seem to affect the salmon.
It is hard to tell, in advance, if an intro species will hurt a
native. Rainbows and Browns haven't seemed to hurt natives in the
Rockies. But I wouldn't want to see them come into the Donner and
Blitzen river running off Steens Mt. in Oregon, where there is redband
cutthroat.

Crystal ball?

cheers

oz, doing tailwater later this week

Just to let everybody know... The new line of steelheader floats are here
for you!
If you will be river fishing for Salmon this fall, you may need these as
well. If you
just trout fish hit "Back Page" on the bottom of the page.

http://www.trout-floats.com/big_boys.htm

Thanks, Michael.

"MajorOz" wrote in message
...
On Mar 2, 1:21 pm, DaveS wrote:
On Mar 1, 8:59 pm, MajorOz wrote:



Congratulations. Makes me (almost) wish I were back there. Glad to
see there are still a decent number of steelhead getting up the river.
I have heard some horror rumors about walleye in some "lakes" behind
the dams getting to smolts and young steelhead. Any truth to that?

More in the Tuncannon than the Touchet. The guys who really know
dryside steelhead on this forum are Bob W. and JR. RW seems to have a
handle on the trips in Idaho. Maybe as the political **** calms these
guys will post. It would also be good to get some TR reports on the
Coastal rivers in WA and ORE.

Don't know about the walleye thing. Never caught a walleye, don't fish
lakes much, in fact cannot recall fishing a "real" lake in the last
4-5 year4s. Yesterday i did fish an old sal****er log pond running out
the low tide into Blakely Harbor. One take in the spill pool but then
zip.

What predates on what is a real tangle and what intros do to the
fishing opportunities versus saving indigenous strains is a whole
nudder lebel. Example; when i was a kid my home waters were Farrington
lake and the string of mill ponds along the Lawrence brook, a fresh to
salt trib of the Raritan River in New Jersey. At the top of the quarry
were LM Bass, but the real excitement were the native Eastern Chain
Pickerel, the largest of which grow in the garden State. Pork rind
frogs tossed with my father's Majestic bamboo fly rod from a home
built kayak/Barnegat Sneak-box. Vicious, sharp toothed predators,
found in the Lilly pad/pickerel weed back corners of the ponds and
lake, sure to feed my confidence that I could survive as a north-woods
trapper when high school was over and I left my rural Jersey home,
even then in its death struggle with sprawl.

Now, someone introduced Northern Pike to Farrington Lake. They have
flourished to the extant that a Pike from the lake is now the State
record and . . . you know next time i get back there i want to chase
em. And in case someone says, "...well big deal, that Jersey, blah
blah...." Well i can assure you that fishing is still taken very
seriously in jersey and a lot of work and money goes into keeping a
lot of choice fisheries viable.

I guess there is no easy answer (native vs intro) except maybe that
wouldn't it be special if we could have it all ways; save the natives,
optimize the ops.

Dave

I agree. If we could have the best of both worlds without the ****
from either.......
For instance, it would seem that the coastal Oregon rivers would be
ideal habitat for smallmouth bass, but would raise hell with the
natives. I have caught a number of stripers from the Umpqua and it
doesn't seem to affect the salmon.
It is hard to tell, in advance, if an intro species will hurt a
native. Rainbows and Browns haven't seemed to hurt natives in the
Rockies. But I wouldn't want to see them come into the Donner and
Blitzen river running off Steens Mt. in Oregon, where there is redband
cutthroat.

Crystal ball?

cheers

oz, doing tailwater later this week