Fall Steelheading

Two shirts under the flannel shirt and two fleece jackets over the flannel; that's because it was 28 degrees out when we stepped out of the truck.  Add some wind and the Simms fleece hat was no longer just a fashion statement; it helped keep me warm too.   It's Steelheading weather. That's probably not exactly true; it was too nice to be "real" Steelheading weather.  There could have been snow, ice, and hard wind.  We were fortunate; snow was not forecast for a few more days.  Clear sky and striking fall colors made for a beautiful setting.

There was a point in time when wading across a challenging or even dangerous section of river would give me kind of a rush.  Those days are long gone.  Now, wading in dangerous water just scares me.  I still love being in the water;  I love the feel of my feet and ankles solidly clamped into my boots, the feel of the cobbles beneath my cleats, and the feel of the river (lightly) pushing on my legs.

The summer is my favorite time to fish but the fall is just plain my favorite time of year.  In the fall the sparrows, wrens, and juncos flit around with an increasing sense of urgency as if they have heard the weather forecast and  know that snow will drop in just a few days. Long, dark, cold, wet days are coming; the trees shout it out with their last gasps of color. The sweet, fermenting smell of leaves beginning to decay is the smell of fall to me.  That smell is another herald of coming winter, the season I like the least.  Still, I love the smell and I paused on the trail to the river to savor some slow and deliberate breaths.

Swinging flies works sometimes in this river.  It works best when the fish are more "grabby".  I don't care much for grabby people but I sure like grabby fish!  When the Steelhead are not grabby then the fishing gets more technical and one needs to nymph.  Dead drifting a nymph in current is challenging.  It's indicator fishing with a heavy top fly and a dropper beneath it.  All that stuff on the leader is not exactly an aid to smooth, easy casting.  Not every tailout or drift is the same.  Sometimes we had to mend the line, sometimes we had to throw an upstream curve in the line (it's different than mending), sometimes we had to stack the line, sometimes we had to high stick the rod to lift the belly of the line over slower current than the fly is moving through.  Good grief; we just wanted to catch some Steelhead!  I swear at least half the time my line bellied in the current ahead of the indicator.  The indicator has to lead the line downstream.  Once the line bellied and started to pull the indicator downstream the flies lifted up and I was not fishing.

Add to that, the wading was difficult.  The rocks in much of the river are boulders.  Both Gary and I wore PFD's while we were wading.

The Methow is small river.  Most years the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife opens it up to Steelhead fishing for about 6 weeks in the fall.  The determination is made on a yearly basis and is dependent on the number of returning fish.  It has some unusual regulations in that you cannot remove a native fish from the water and you must remove and kill a hatchery fish.  The hatchery fish have clipped adipose fins.  These anadromous fish enter the river in the fall but don't spawn until the spring.  The WDFW allows this fishery because they are in a manner of speaking using the fisherman to help reduce the number of hatchery fish that spawn.  A "cookie cutter" Steelhead on the Methow is 22-24 inches.  There are some that will get up over 30 inches but that is not the norm.


Gary and I each brought a typical Methow River Steelhead to the net on Wednesday.  Gary's was a hatchery fish so it had to be bonked and brought back to the truck.  Mine was a native.  I lost a toad early in the day and lost a smaller fish just before we finished up.  We fished again on Thursday and both got blanked.

 Gary fishing a great drift

 Gary with a fish on

Me with a fish on.  Like I said the Simms fleece hat was more than just a trendy fashion statement.  

 My Steelhead was an adipose present fish so his head and tail are still in the water for the picture.  

The Methow is a beautiful river.