American 1/2-pounders, where art thou?

[Troutsource]

Fished from 6:30 - 12:00 this morning. Landed an 8" smolt on a beadhead PT, plus the attached salmon on a black bullet-head wooly bugger (hook was in his mouth, but I don't know if I lined him). A few taps from 1/2-pounders (presumably), but not what I was expecting given the slate grey skies, impending storm and 2500 CFS flows. I was also expecting BWO's, but only saw one, plus a microcaddis, and maybe 2 or 3 smolts rising. Water seems warm for this time of year. Ran into two other guys who had some taps but no hookups. Visited the hatchery Friday. Tons of salmon, but no steelhead (and the staff hasn't seen any yet).

[Kyle C.]

I think i've seen some halfpounders out there. Caught a rainbow trout last week on the American but it seemed a little small to be a juvenile steelhead.

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

The flow is perfect.....

I wonder if anyone is getting out there?

[Mrs.Finsallaround]

Paul and I might try our hand at it this afternoon :D

[Jed Peters]

3 tugs and a little dink this morning.

Fun to get out and cast the new rod.

[jlmelend]

Caught nothing but smolts. Some on barbless bwo dries in the tail outs. No real Halfies.

[Mrs.Finsallaround]

Paul and I got out for a couple hours yesterday afternoon and he hooked into and LDR'd a REALLY nice fish - he's guessing around 6 lbs :eek:. We weren't prepared for a catch that big [-( and only had 8 pound test on 6 wt rods!

He's still grumbling about the LDR this morning :lol:

I, on the other hand, got some casting practice in and spent half my time untangling my rig - UGH. I hadn't nymphed for steelies in almost 2 years - I am WAY out of practice! :nod:

[DAVID95670]

Can you fish for steelhead with a 5wt 8' 6" set up and successfully land them or is this set up too small for the job?

I am surprised to hear you say the your husbands set up was too small for the job on Sunday.

[Scott V]

Can you fish for steelhead with a 5wt 8' 6" set up and successfully land them or is this set up too small for the job?

I am surprised to hear you say the your husbands set up was too small for the job on Sunday.

When I caught my 26" wild halfpounder at Watt I was real happy I had a 7 weight, I probably could have done it with a 6 weight but when I tried to turn that fish and make it go upstream it was tough. Anything smaller and I think it would have taken too long to bring the fish in, I prefer to bring them in quick and release them as sonn as possible. You can land them with a 5 weight but it may take too long and stress the fish too much. If you do use a 5 weight I would use a very strong tippet and leader.

[DAVID95670]

Out at watt both sat and sunday and nothing but a smolt how or why this little thing hit that wet fly is beyond me however this aggression would be nice to see in an adult

[pvsprme]

When I caught my 26" wild halfpounder at Watt I was real happy I had a 7 weight, I probably could have done it with a 6 weight but when I tried to turn that fish and make it go upstream it was tough. Anything smaller and I think it would have taken too long to bring the fish in, I prefer to bring them in quick and release them as sonn as possible. You can land them with a 5 weight but it may take too long and stress the fish too much. If you do use a 5 weight I would use a very strong tippet and leader.

While I agree with your concern about stressing fish and don't advocate UL tackle for steel,let it be known Trey Combs & Frank Amato were taking fish on the Deschutes with 4 weights up to 6 weights. To those of you who don't know the D, it's big and when a fish gets into the current it can get into the backing in an instant.
I wouldn't have a problem with a 5 wt. on the A. Of more concern would be the shorter length would be a disadvantage in terms of line control.

[Jgoding]

I used to use my 6wt all the time but after hooking a couple hot fish and toads I switched to my 8wt. Really hot 16"er's were tough to land sometimes and flows were only like 900cfs at the time.