need a little help

[JasonB]

Just got back from a week on the Trinity for my now 3rd attempt at salmon/steelhead fishing. Fishing was fantastic... catching was extremely slow (others that I chatted with said mostly the same). Had a blast, learned a ton, saw lots of fish moving upriver (and swerving around my flies). Mostly, each little bit of improvement that I make just manages to show me how much more I've got to learn on this. I'm totally hooked (sts) on trying to fish for steelhead now, but in need of lots of help. I would be REALLY appreciative of any and all advice that the knowledgeable folks of this board could impart to me, particularly controlling the drift speed and depth of the swing.

I am self taught, and am sure that I'm probably doing quite a few things wrong but I feel that I'm starting to get a rough feel for what I want the fly to do at least. I'd love to take some lessons at some point, but right now that's a very tough proposition as I really can't afford to do even half the fishing that I'd like to do, and then there's the constant temptation to get a switch rod too... so most likely I'll opt to spend more cash on gas and supplies to maximize the number of days I can get out and practice. If only my bank account had the same level of enthusiasm I have for fly fishing...

The biggest conundrum to me so far seems that if I really slow the lateral swing speed down I'm pulling the fly up off the bottom. I've found that sometimes I can minimize this by giving a bit of line, or following the fly with the rod a bit which makes more of a diagonal swinging presentation. My fear there is that the takes might be too subtle for me to catch, but it does seem to help keep the fly deeper :-k I usually do ok on the shallower riffles and runs of about 4' or less in moderate current, often feeling little bumps, drags and scrapes of the bottom (and getting snagged a bit here and there too). It's in the heavy current and deeper runs I doubt I'm getting/staying down near enough.

I'm frequently unsure if I'm really getting a solid presentation or not. Since the takes are so few (thus far anyways), it's hard to really build any sense of what's working or not. I've tried all sorts of angles and gear combinations, and I'm not any sort of a purist who can ONLY fish one way or another. So far though, I've been finding that more and more I'm opting to swing a floating line with a 9-12' leader and varying the amount of added weight and/or fly type. At this point I seem to have a lot more success controlling the drift (or at least being able to tell what's going on with my fly) than I do with a sink tip arrangement.

Cheers and thanks,
JB

p.s. in 4 days fishing from DC to Del Loma the raw stats came out to: 1 nice king salmon to hand, 1 big king broke off, 1 accidental snag, and one very nice bright steelhead that wiggled off the hook (I will NEVER fish a dull hook EVER, EVER, EVER again!) Seems to be a lot of salmon in the river and a sprinkling of steelhead from what I could tell, and they mostly seemed to be on the move.

[aaron]

Some general tips based on conditions right now.

Avoid sink tips, water is low and clear and more often than not the tip will swing through before the fly spooking fish. After next weeks storms might be a different story.

In late summer/fall you don't always want the fly to swing slow.

When there's a lot of salmon in the river steelhead aren't always in the normal $ spots.

[JasonB]

Thanks Aaron,
Those are good things to keep in mind. As for spooking fish, THAT part was easy.
JB

[Jed Peters]

Jason:

I think that steelheading anywhere you should be prepared for a bagel!

If you ask me, hooking 3 anadromous fish is a pretty successful session in 4 days!

I recently got back from 3 days of swinging on a river south of the Columbia and managed 3 hookups, landing only one...but I managed to raise about 10 other fish on the dry (so does that count as a grab? LOL).

You sound like you know what you're doing--perhaps I can recommend Jason Hartwick for next season to get on his calendar for a day or two on that river to run you through some scenarios? I know when I go to a river, it's always great to have someone that has intimate knowledge show me the way.

Getting a guide for me is a lot like having a good caddy at a golf club I'm playing for the first time, or having practical instruction.

[JasonB]

Jason:

I think that steelheading anywhere you should be prepared for a bagel!

If you ask me, hooking 3 anadromous fish is a pretty successful session in 4 days!

I recently got back from 3 days of swinging on a river south of the Columbia and managed 3 hookups, landing only one...but I managed to raise about 10 other fish on the dry (so does that count as a grab? LOL).

You sound like you know what you're doing--perhaps I can recommend Jason Hartwick for next season to get on his calendar for a day or two on that river to run you through some scenarios? I know when I go to a river, it's always great to have someone that has intimate knowledge show me the way.

Getting a guide for me is a lot like having a good caddy at a golf club I'm playing for the first time, or having practical instruction.


Actually I totally agree about the bagel part, and if I sounded like I had expected to do any better... I didn't. Hoped for more action mostly just to confirm that I was doing some things right. I might mention that all that action happened latter in the trip; the first grab and hookup was morning of day 3 everything else happened the morning of day 4, the first 2 I didn't get one single grab (that I could count for certain). It took some will power to not just drive to the pit and go fish for trout on that 3rd day, but I'm glad I stuck with it.

As for knowing what I'm doing :lol: Well so far I've distilled it all down to one basic goal that I got from a line out of Steelheaders Way by Lani Waller: get the fly down and keep it there as long as possible. That's about it honestly, but that sounds so much easier than it is to do. Oh well I continue on a happy student.
JB

[Rick J]

There are some pretty good videos out there on fishing technique for both single hand (Lani Waller) to 2 hand - Skagit master II, John Hazel and others you can probaly rent - the techniques presented can be used with any type rod system - single, switch or 2 hand - but it does sound lke you are doing ok - you really do not need that fly on the botom- especially this time of year - those fish will move to a fly.

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

On the Trinity River in the fall I would swing a dark fly like a #6 Silver Hilton really early in the day on a floating line with a 9' 2x leader with no weight.

Local guide Herb Burton likes to wake a Muddler Minnow right on top this time of year.

Sunlight on the water is not usually good for swinging in the surface.

We fish early and late for the low light or in the shade of the canyon walls.

If it is overcast that is good too.

I would swing flies early and late in the day then either take a break mid-day or use a sink-tip and bead head fly like a Mossback in the deeper faster runs or indicator fish with a nymph and egg combo in the deeper runs in the day time.

The fishing is just OK on the Trinity right now but two old friends of mine were there a week ago for a week and averaged a fish a day. Some days they did nothing, one day they hooked 6 and 2. Mostly swinging dark flies on a floating line. They have fished it for decades though........

I would highly recommend that you get out with a guide so you can learn very quickly what water to fish and what water to not fish.

Steelheading is hard enough for those who are experienced.......

Watch this video on the Trinity River:

http://vimeo.com/51300149

I would go for a week to hook one nice fish....

[timmosazz]

Sounds to me also that you are doing good to. Just a suggestion, a few years ago I was looking for help also and took a steelhead clinic held at kienes shop it was put on by Jeff Putnam. Covered all the basics and helped me out quite a bit. Found some bad habits, some things I was doing wrong that I thought I was doing right. It was only like $35.00.
It was about 2 hours at the shop and a few hours on the river. Best $35.00 I have spent in a long time.

[JasonB]

Thanks guys for the helpful tips and ideas, and for the encouragement that I'm not so far off the mark. Keeps me primed to get back after it asap! Keep the good stuff coming, if nothing else it's nice to think about all this stuff while I'm not able to be out doing it on the river.
Cheers,
JB

[Mark Kranhold]

Jason, sounds like the fish you saw that were moving were on the move. When steelhead are on the move they don't want anything to do with a fly. This happend to me and a good friend. We saw pods of steelhead moving up out of a hole through this run ( what a site to see!!) my buddy was up on a cliff and was telling me that here they come and I would cast way above them and let my fly swing down to them , and instantly they would turn around and go back to the hole. The next day day we found a place where the fish were holding and fish on :) When steelhead are on the move .... Good luck!