I have to admit it while I was slow to catch on, I have been seriously bitten by the Steelhead bug. Everything about steelheading calls to me, beautiful fish, especially the remaining natives, beautiful and truly wild country and if you are willing to look for it, solitude. Not too long ago I introduced my friend Colton to this addicting form of fly fishing. For our destination we headed to one of my favorite smaller rivers on the coast. One of my traditions with this river is to always fish at least one new stretch every time that I come, so that I am always expanding my knowledge on the watershed. So after covering one of my favorite runs in the morning and only spotting a kelt and seeing another fish surface, but getting no grabs we decided to do some serious exploring. We decided to put a little leg work in and check out the upper watershed and by doing so avoided seeing anyone else through out the day.
 |
| The upper river |
The upper river had plenty of beautiful water and within the first couple of corners we had spotted a couple of Steelhead redds, but were amazed to not run into any fish.
 |
| Colton fishing a prime spot |
With steelheading just because you are on great water, that doesn't mean you are always going to get a fish. However, after the first few vacant holes I found great looking run and right behind a boulder where I would expect a Steelhead to sit, there was one that seemed to want to play. After a quick yet heated battle I managed land the fish. It turned out to be a hatchery fish that had significantly overshot the actual hatchery and as such I did my duty to remove it from the gene pool.
 |
| BBQ guest... |
 |
| Steelhead water... Anyone home... |
Not far downstream I also found a beautiful little Coastal Cutthroat that proved to be a sucker for egg imitations and had all of the spunk that I have come to expect from these native trout.
 |
| Egg eating Cutthroat |
After covering 3-4 miles of new water, we found one of those spots that pretty much any steelhead traveling through is going stop at. The only problem was that the best seam was on the other side of the river and required a challenging ford. However, no risk no reward and first cast into the hole I hooked into a nice native Steelhead that absolutely went nuts before tossing the fly and giving me a good note to end the day on.
 |
| A great spot to end the day |
Posts
