Tis the season - for Steelhead

Been a while since my last post.  Business is good and so is the fishing, the two probably go hand-in- hand.  The river is in excellent shape as are the fish.  The river has gone from flows as low as 335cfs to flows over 2000cfs.  The past week we enjoyed flows in the 700cfs range and as I type this the release is 1200cfs and the gauge at Pineville is reading 1480cfs.  This will continue to drop and I'd expect to see it settle back into the 700cfs range by the weekend.

The salmon run was excellent with plenty of fish and happy anglers. In the wake of last years historic run the river was VERY crowded.  Thankfully the boat can alleviate alot of this.  All-in-all it was a great season on the salmon and I look forward to next year. 

A nice King. Look at that bicep, heavy Krista?

I picked up a couple of new Redington 9wts, their Pursuit package (rod, reel, line and leader) to use with customers this year.  As a review, I was disappointed.  The reel seat will not stay locked up and needed to be checked (and  tightened) regularly.  Also the reel was the biggest disappointment.  The drag was weak to say the least, for a big game reel I expected more.  Granted, it's a 'package' reel but I expected more.  Also, the reel is cast, not milled, and on the third day using these, one of the handles snapped off while my client was fighting a salmon.  She was palming the spool and the handle caught her rain jacket, snapped off, cutting the back of her thumb pretty good in the process.  My feeling is that these outfits are NOT up to the task for big fish, both in design and in performance.

Dr. Ciccarelli with a nice chrome fish.

Steelhead fishing has been getting better over the last 2 weeks, alot of chrome right now.  We are indi-fishing for the most part and egg patterns are the fly to go to.  Glo-bugs in chartreuse with a pink or red dot, Oregon Cheese with Steelhead Orange dot and pink or chartreuse estaz is a good choice.  Have also pick a few on some stone flies, tan or yellow #10 and small flash-back Hare's ear, #12. 

Egg fishing is always good right now if your spinning or pinning.  Have also talked to a few guides who are doing well on beads.  Try Glo-roe and the various shades of chartreuse beads, these seem the be favored right now, 8mm and 10mm.

This says it all for late fall steelheading.  Nice job Brian.

The weather is typical for this area and this time of year.  Plan on cool to cold mornings and always plan on some form of 'lake enhanced' precipitation.  

Now is the time to fish steelhead in this guides opinion, nothing like this time of year for steelhead.  Hope you get the chance to come up and enjoy it.

Tight lines.