Adventure Steelhead 1 30 2015

Recently, John and I did some serious bushwhacking/exploration. We had been looking for a new way to get down to the river, and after a failed attempt or two, we found it. 

Steelhead!

 I should say that we found a place where you can park within a certain distance to a river, with public land from the road to the river. Unfortunately, there is no “trail” to speak of, just a poorly used game trail that meanders about 2000’ down a cliff side. It’s not a straight down type of cliff, but a definitely steep slope. I would surely ski it if it was covered in snow.

After an hour of scrambling down this slope, we managed to get to the river right where we thought we would end up (according to our calculations via Google). However, it quickly became apparent that we would not be able to leave the river in the same manner that we went down. Getting up the same way that we descended would not only have been extremely difficult, we would have spent hours climbing up the loose brush and rock. Climbing down had not been that bad, but the thought of going up was pretty much out of the question.

So we fished this run that I had been eyeing for a while. Unfortunately, it was much faster than and not as deep as we had hoped. Bummer dude… Luckily, I am Swiftwater Rescue Certified, and one of the things I learned how to do is cross a river that is moving fast by linking arms and walking in step with a partner while leaning on each other to keep steady. This was really the only way to get across the river as it is fast and forbidding. So we slowly crossed the river and walked downstream along the bank for a while until we found a decent looking piece of water.

So this is where the fish story comes in! 

 I started swinging this run and quickly got my fly into a really nice looking bucket. A fish grabbed my pink bunny leech in mid-swing. It then dropped the fly, and then hit it again even harder on the hang-down at the end of the swing. One head shake and it dropped the fly again. By this point, I was yelling and swearing at this fish. Jon had stopped and was watching the action.

After the second grab (and drop), I quickly stripped the fly twice as it was hanging down at the end of the swing. As if I was trout fishing, this steelhead boiled on my fly and slammed it as hard as possible. I saw all of this as the fly and the fish were in less than two feet of water and less than fifty feet from me. The fish then screamed about fifteen feet of line off my reel and popped off. That fish was hooked and lost. I had never had a steelhead take a fly three times like that in one swing, and never had a winter fish eat a fly on the strip.

So instead of standing there staring at the water in disbelief, I fired a cast ten feet off where that fish popped off towards the deeper side. I mended the line and stripped the fly once. Less that a second later, this fish took the fly again, even harder that the other three times, and proceeded to put me in my backing while going airborne several times.

When I finally landed him, the hook was up in the roof of his mouth, right where it should be. I thought that maybe, just maybe, there were two fish out there that were involved in this incident. When we took a closer look, we could see the fresh hole, still bleeding, in the corner of his mouth from where I had just put a hook in him on the previous cast.

I have been fishing for a long time, and I never had a steelhead ever act that aggressively towards my fly,

especially a winter steelhead. Winter fish are not exactly known for moving a long ways for a fly. Grabbing the fly four times total and getting pinned at least twice in two casts is unheard of. The adventure of getting to the river was totally worth the sweat and soreness, but the fish was a bonus that gave us both a glow and a smile for the rest of the day.

We ended up having to walk down the river for quite a while before climbing up the other bank. We then had to figure out how to get to our car on the other side of the river several miles upstream, but that is a completely different story.

Andrew Perrault | Product Specialist | Steelhead Adventurer 
Gorge Fly Shop
541.386.6977

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Columbia Gorge Fishing Report August 10th

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Fishing Report

Fishing has really picked up on the Deschutesand is primed for some good days on the Klickitat this week.  Get out and fish!  The 2:00 restrictions have been lifted for the Deschutes, but most others remain in place.  Please check with us, Washington or Oregon Fish and Game Departments before fishing if you are not sure about the current regulations. 

Summer Steelhead is generally the fish of choice for most of the hard-core anglers in the area and prospects for a fabulous day on the river are looking really good.  We heard fabulous reports from the Deschutes River last week and expect it to be good this week and next week too.  The White was spilling dirty water for a few days, but it did not stop the fish from snapping.  The dirty water usually just prevents anglers from getting out.  I love fishing when the clarity is 1’- 3’ because the fish tend to be in closer to shore and you can typically fish a light tip as they are sitting in the shallower water than typical. 

The Klickitat Riverhas been fluctuating clarity from around 1’ to 3’ or so (and we love it).  It never quite got to that “steelhead green” color that everyone else likes, but it has been fishing pretty well nonetheless.  The clarity hasn’t seemed to match the temperature as much as typical.  I believe (and I am usually wrong) that the “in-river” work that has been going on is affecting clarity as some natural settling of the dirt is throwing some sediment into the river that wouldn’t be there otherwise.  The work that I am talking about is the removal of an old road above where the Little Klickitat comes in.  This work is a good thing.  Improvement of habitat and returning portions of the river that were altered back into a natural state is one thing that we should all be able to agree on, even if it causes a little extra sediment to flow down the river.  So that being said, the clarity should get better, but I love fishing with it hovering about 1.5’ because I can go wherever I want; there is no one to compete with and there are just as many fish around as when the river is clear. 

Smallmouth Bass fishing has been excellent on the John Day Riverand Columbia Riveralong with many of the impoundments along the freeway on both the WA and OR side of the Gorge.  The Columbia came up quite a bit as the powers that be have been pushing water downstream in a successful attempt to cool down the big river.  It should finally drop below 70 this week for the first time in two months.  This should get the smallies moving and opens up a bit of water as the weeds have not been able to grow up to the surface yet in a lot of spots that have otherwise been really weedy this summer. 

Carp fishing has been good this past week as the rising flow in the Columbiahas moved fish into some new flats that are relatively weed-free right now and holding quite a few fish. 

Trout fishing has been great in most places this past week.  Unfortunately for you trout guys, the reports on trout fishing tend to get pretty sparse as soon as the steelhead start to show up.  As soon as one guy says “steelhead”, everyone seems to forget about the trout fishing.  I would bet that the Crooked, McKenzie, Metolius and Upper Deschutes are all fishing really well.  The upper part of the Lower Deschutes (near Warm Springs) has also been great lately with both Slate Wing Duns and a few early Mahogany Mayflies hatching that have been getting some attention as well as the evening caddis hatch just before dark. 

Lost Lake is still fishing very well, and trout have been coming up to the surface early and late to eat Callibaetis, Grasshoppers and Carpenter Ants, as well as just about anything else including beetles, damselflies and maybe some early caddis. 

As always, we are happy to talk fishing any time.  Give us a call if you have any specific questions on local rivers, gear, and tactics, or if you just want some encouragement to get out of the office.

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