American River Steelhead

[Ryan Miller]

December through March is one of my favorite times of the year to fish in Northern Ca, Oregon and Washington. As winter moves in the weather becomes grim, the rivers appear wild again with roller coaster flows, and the unknown of when or where the next big fish will be found is ADDICTING!

The Yuba is in great shape and fishing well... dry flies in January anyone?

The American has fish,... big fish, they are eating eggs, baetis and swung flies with sink-tips.

Now is the time of year to be out everyday possible looking for the Kodak fish and a great story behind it. If you have a spey or switch rod and are new to the swing game now is the time to start learning it. If you are already a swinger, now is the time to pull out the skagit lines, tips, classic flies, and seek the tug. If you are a die-hard nympher, now is the time to dredge deep and see who's home.

It is all there for the taking, put on the jacket, suit up and fish on.

This fish was taken this morning, she was fooled by a variation of an egg-sucking leech (go to pattern).

http://ryanhmiller.blogspot.com/
Thanks for reading!

[Scott V]

Beautiful fish Ryan, one question from a newbie on the American. I have that type of fly, when I fish it on a regular fly rod would I use a line heavy enough to get to the bottom like a type 4 or more like an intermediate line or type 2 to keep it in the middle of the column.

[wasatch]

Nice fish Ryan. Might have to bail the delta this weekend...

[Ryan Miller]

Scott,

With a single-hand rod I use poly leaders... they are easy to cast and come in different sink rates. The nice thing about them is you can simply attach them to your floater with a loop to loop connection (poly leaders come with welded loops)

It is not necessary to be on the bottom, if you can keep your fly in the middle column you will have a shot...it is more important to control the speed of your presentation than to be deep.

Good luck and feel free to contact me directly for more detailed answers- Visit my blog for details.

Thank you,
Ryan

[Scott V]

Thanks Ryan.

[wjorg]

Thanks for sharing Ryan! Great job. Have to get out with you one of these days......

[BigOkieWhiteBoy916]

I saw you guys out there. I was on the other side with a buddy.

Ended up missing two fish and called it. My heart is still a little bit broken.

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Maybe we need to go out there now?

Hard to catch Steelhead if your not on the river.

What a nice fish....thanks Ryan.