Evolution of a Steelheader...........

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Phase One:

Easiest way to get into Steelheading is to hire a drift boat guide on a river like the Klamath and pull plugs. You can actually leave the rod in the poll holder and wait till the fish starts jumping. This take little or no skill but is fun.


Phase Two:

You start casting and drifting lures or bait for Steelhead. This actually takes skill and is pretty exciting. This can be on your own or with a drift boat or jet boat guide.


Phase Three:

You switch to indicator/nymphing with a fly fishing outfit. With a guide and drift boat it is easier than wading on your own. Very exciting and a great way to get higher numbers of hook ups daily. Wonderful fishing.....


Phase Four:

You try casting and swinging flies for Fall Steelhead. It is much easier to make this transition with a guide's help. When you hook those first fish on a fly you cast and swung down stream it is really exciting. You are now more concerned with the wading, reading the water, casting, line control and the grab than you are about hooking high number of Steelhead.


Phase Five:

You evolve to using only a floating line, tapered leader and unweighted fly, except in the winter, and you are finally there........you are now considered a true commando Steelhead fly fisher.

Phase Six:

This is the level for the insane who swing flies with sink-tips in the cold of winter for the large wild winter Steelhead.....be careful because this can take over you entire being. I am too old to do this anymore but use to enjoy this grueling fly fishing.

Phase Seven:

Your so old and screwed up you are just happy to be going fishing to a nice place with old friends and don't care if you hook anything as longs as you don't go under and drown. This is where I am now at 70........



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* In my teens I fished American River Steelhead with night crawlers I caught myself around 26th & C Street at night on my knees with a flash light in my mouth. I use a spinning rod I built myself with the same spinning reel that Lefty Kreh and Mark Sosin where using in Florida at the time for Bonefish. I thought the fly fishers on the river at the time were just in my way and did not seem to catch near as many fish as I did.

**Over 50 years later I only fly fish in the summer and fall for Steelhead and I only use a floating line, a tapered leader and unweighted flies. I love to cast a floating line....it is all about nice casting for me. I fish for the grab.....and hopefully the jumps.

.

[Sheepdog8404]

Interesting post, Bill. But what happens if you completely bypass phases 1-4 and jump straight to Phase 5?

[itsbenlong]

That's funny Sheepdog......I'm right there with you.....well maybe #4 minus the guide. However, lately I have found myself trying other things just to see what it all about, but i never last long and go back to swinging only w/ the occasional fast sink tip.....

Bill......that is what it is all about for me too.....The grab and the jumps!

As a matter of fact, I don't even care anymore if they get off and most of the time I am relieved when they do. However, when they are big ones, I do at least like to get a glimpse of it. lol

[Larry S]

Ben,
Did you ever get ahold of Gordon regarding the Rogue?
Best,
Larry S

[itsbenlong]

Ben,
Did you ever get ahold of Gordon regarding the Rogue?
Best,
Larry S

Larry,

I totally meant to get back to you. I had a great conversation with him and wanted to thank you for reminding me that he lives up there. He is a really great guy and I look forward to meeting him someday.

Ben

[Rick J]

Bill - Phase 6 might be just being happy to be out in these wild and scenic places and if you get a fish it is an extra. I can think of very few trips where I have had a bad time and wished I had not gone and many of those trips have been fishless and grabless. But that pull, in whatever form is truly awesome!!! At the end of the year I will be able to do it full time!!!!

[itsbenlong]

Bill - Phase 6 might be just being happy to be out in these wild and scenic places and if you get a fish it is an extra. I can think of very few trips where I have had a bad time and wished I had not gone and many of those trips have been fishless and grabless. But that pull, in whatever form is truly awesome!!! At the end of the year I will be able to do it full time!!!!

I'm right there with you on that one Rick! Nothing better than solitude with or without a friend or two on a river. It's those times where you can forget about everything good or bad and live for the moment. Fish or no fish, it's one of my favorite places to be.

[Bwag]

Is Phase 7 wanting a jet sled so that you can stay down low on the Klamath and hook into fresh fish late Summer and early Fall? I completely enjoy Phase 6. I look forward to January 1 every season, if I could spend three months living on the coast chasing Winter Steelhead I'd do it but I'm not as close to that as Rick J I've got about 12 more years!

Last winter I hooked into an absolute beast of a Winter Steelhead on the Mattole, I could literally see the waves crashing at the mouth from where I was. Needless to say in the celebration of hooking into the fish I let it get into my backing on my Hardy... Fish rolled and came unbuttoned, I was literally shaking after that for a few minutes. That fish was so hot that on this most recent trip on the Klamath my springs busted on my reel, thankfully I brought a second one as a back up.

I'm convinced that Mattole fish ruined the springs on my Hardy... Just ordered some stronger ones from Archuleta up in Grants Pass!

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Good one SheepDog........I like the way you think.


All I am trying to do is to get these guys that hook 10 to 20 Steelhead a day on the indo method to try swinging flies in the fall for the first and last hour of the day. If that doesn't work, then it's all good.

I

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

That's funny Sheepdog......I'm right there with you.....well maybe #4 minus the guide. However, lately I have found myself trying other things just to see what it all about, but i never last long and go back to swinging only w/ the occasional fast sink tip.....

Bill......that is what it is all about for me too.....The grab and the jumps!

As a matter of fact, I don't even care anymore if they get off and most of the time I am relieved when they do. However, when they are big ones, I do at least like to get a glimpse of it. lol

__________________________________________________ ______________________________________

Fantastic itsbenlong........

Actually about 10 -20 years ago I was very depressed with the state of trout stream and steelhead fly fishing.

Looked like the indicator crowd was winning the battle.

Then along came two handed / Spey fishing which has "single handedly" change it all back to swinging flies again.

I can die now know that classic fly fishing is alive and well again.

.

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Bill - Phase 6 might be just being happy to be out in these wild and scenic places and if you get a fish it is an extra. I can think of very few trips where I have had a bad time and wished I had not gone and many of those trips have been fishless and grabless. But that pull, in whatever form is truly awesome!!! At the end of the year I will be able to do it full time!!!!

Hi Rick

We just had a lovely trip to the lower Rogue River.

On this message board we got lots of very good recommendations for places to stay, places to eat, things to do and places to fish.

The water was a little warm so I guess the fish were laying deep in the fast runs with the salmon or went upstream.

Even though fishing was slow I enjoyed wading in a beautiful river, casting my 12'6" #6 Spey rod with a floating head, long tapered leader and unweighted classic wet fly.......................tied and given to me by Jason Hartwick.

**When you get retired and out on the road with your rig you need to report in to our board weekly so I can live vicariously through your adventures....YOU DOG.

.

[pvsprme]

I agree that it's all about the pull or the take. I propose there's another step, few have reached it, but this man is the best example I know of.
http://www.drakemag.com/back-issues/2014/fall/1313-the-guardian.html

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

I agree that it's all about the pull or the take. I propose there's another step, few have reached it, but this man is the best example I know of.
http://www.drakemag.com/back-issues/2014/fall/1313-the-guardian.html

Robert, Thanks for posting this wonderful article......we all need to read it.

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Is Phase 7 wanting a jet sled so that you can stay down low on the Klamath and hook into fresh fish late Summer and early Fall? I completely enjoy Phase 6. I look forward to January 1 every season, if I could spend three months living on the coast chasing Winter Steelhead I'd do it but I'm not as close to that as Rick J I've got about 12 more years!

Last winter I hooked into an absolute beast of a Winter Steelhead on the Mattole, I could literally see the waves crashing at the mouth from where I was. Needless to say in the celebration of hooking into the fish I let it get into my backing on my Hardy... Fish rolled and came unbuttoned, I was literally shaking after that for a few minutes. That fish was so hot that on this most recent trip on the Klamath my springs busted on my reel, thankfully I brought a second one as a back up.

I'm convinced that Mattole fish ruined the springs on my Hardy... Just ordered some stronger ones from Archuleta up in Grants Pass!

Good stuff Bwag......

About 50 years ago I worked in an old bait-n-tackle shop in West Sacramento. One of the best fly fishers of the Greatest Generation, Jack McGlaughlin, who was a retired Sacramento City Fire Fighter, told me that if I wanted to catch some of the best Steelhead I should fish in the winter on the short coastal streams for wild Steelhead with a fly.

Jack showed me how to tie some of his favorite comet style winter Steelhead flies.

He took me out on the lower American River once and tried to get me straightened out some.

He told me when I hooked a wild fresh run hen Steelhead over 10 pounds I would know what he was talking about.


I was lucky to be able to hook some of those fish with my mentors Joe Shirshac and Al Perryman back in the 1970s.


I only hope that some of you here can hook a good wild hot Fall run Steelhead swinging a fly.

It would be nice to see some of hook some wild winter runs but that is a little tougher, more unpredictable fishing due to the winter weather.

PS: Nothing like using a Hardy click-n-pawl reel on Steelhead........classic.

.