Cold Steel
by Doug Rose
THE EXPLOSIVE GROWTH in winter-steelhead fly fishing over the last 20 years has resulted in dramatically increased pressure on productive, accessible water. Unfortunately, fish that see a lot of fly lines every day don’t remain responsive very long. Many anglers have responded to the decline in quality at popular waters by setting off in drift boats, pontoon boats, and rafts. Other steelheaders simply hike to cover more water. The goal of these anglers is the same: Fish as much of the river as possible in the course of a day.
As a strategy, that is certainly logical. However, many of these increasingly mobile steelheaders forget a critical fact. Those crowded pools earned their reputations because they contain features that attract and hold steelhead.
All steelhead swim every mile of a river between tidewater and their spawning bed, and bait and gear anglers regularly take moving fish. But in nearly every case, the best fly water is holding water — the slower, softer stretches where fish rest between faster reaches. On even the most celebrated streams, the vast majority of water is simply a migratory corridor, and only a small portion of the remaining water is suited to fly fishing. Casting to every tailout, slot, and pool is an inefficient approach.
A more productive strategy is to concentrate on a handful of proven pools and to fish them as hard as you can. It takes experience to identify potentially productive water, and it also takes time and energy to accumulate a handful of sweet spots, because not all promising water is actually productive. But you will catch these elusive winter fish more frequently by figuring out where they hold.
Steelhead Stream Types
Before attempting to identify the areas steelhead favor, you must first analyze the nature of the rivers that support them. Every steelhead stream is unique, but it is possible to separate them into three broad categories. The first is made up of large systems, such as Washington’s Skagit River, that flow out of mountains and often have a glacial component. Then there are modest-size rivers, such as California’s Smith and Oregon’s Siletz, which are fed by rainfall and snowmelt. Smaller creeks and tributaries to major rivers make up the third category.
Each type of river tends to be most productive under different conditions, and their fish often respond to different presentations. In areas where steelhead rivers are concentrated — such as the Klamath Mountain Province on the Oregon-California border, the Olympic Peninsula, Northern Puget Sound, and the lower Columbia River — the decision about where you fish on a winter morning often determines whether you feel a tug on the end of your leader that day.
When they are in good shape, large glacial rivers offer a classic steelheading experience. Expansive gravel bars provide plenty of casting room, and the broad water is ideal for swinging a wet fly. In winter, glacial rivers are usually at their best during cold, dry spells, when smaller rivers may be too low and clear. This is when the glacial pulse of the river maintains the translucent shade of green that steelheaders call “color,” which usually signals good fishing.
The downside of glacial rivers and large, rain-forest rivers is their tendency to “blow out,” to be too high and muddy after major storms. When this happens, it can take more than a week for the river to “come in” again. High water on big rivers can also fill in holes and carve new channels overnight. In recent seasons, I have lost several beloved pools and tailouts on the Hoh and Queets Rivers — spots I had fished for 15 years.
Medium-size rivers, such as Washington’s Kalama and Oregon’s Chetco, display in-river architecture similar to freestone trout streams. For anglers with more trout-stream time than steelheading experience, these rivers are much easier to read. Their channels are well-defined, and they usually exhibit more of the classic riffle-pool-tailout sequences. They also run clearer than glacial systems and clean up much quicker after rain, a trait that allows you to fish many more days each winter.
However, casting and presentation may actually be more difficult because trees and brush often grow along the bank, and it may be too deep to wade near shore. When it hasn’t rained for a while, the upper reaches can be too low and clear for productive angling and their exposed rock gardens too shallow for boats. These rivers are usually best during warming rains or when they are moderately rising or falling.
Creeks drain small, independent basins between the major rivers in many areas. Most are only a cast or so wide and are full of snags, root wads, and sweepers. Nonetheless, they can produce excellent steelheading and surprisingly large fish. Small-stream steelhead tend to arrive in waves as the water rises after storms. Fishing will be good for several days until the steelhead filter into the headwaters. Most creek anglers wade downstream and cover all the likely-looking water with tight, downstream roll casts. If you don’t like to compete with boats, guides, and crowds, small streams can be a godsend.
Identifying Sweet Spots
My favorite winter-steelhead water is a medium-size, non-glacial stream that I can almost cast across with a single-handed rod. Steep, braided rapids extend several hundred yards upstream and downstream. Three wind-blown alders tilt at a 45 degree angle above the head of the pool, and at typical winter flows, when visibility is about four feet or so, the water shimmers lime green. The pool is about 6 feet deep but extends roughly 60 feet from its head to the tailout. The deepest part of the pool, the part beneath the trees, is level, and its bottom is fine gravel. There are rocky shelves and emergent boulders at the edge of the tailout. A major spawning tributary flows into the river a quarter-mile upstream.
Over the last 15 years, I have taken more winter steelhead from that one isolated pool and tailout than my next half-dozen favorite spots combined. It is productive because it contains all of the ingredients that make for good steelhead-holding water.
Jonathan Milo illustration
The pool and tailout provide critical resting water between the rapids. The fish favor the deep water at the head of the pool at lower flows because it offers security, and the current is softer along the bottom. At high water, the fish fan out in the slots and around the rocks of the tailout. The streamside alders provide the overhanging security that juvenile steelhead instinctively seek and that even adult fish seem to find comforting. The spawning tributary upstream means that fish often stack up in the pool, waiting for the right combination of flow, temperature, and ripeness to pull them upstream.
Although winter steelhead seek the same combination of resting water and cover on large rivers, the recipe for good fly water is slightly different from medium rivers. Biologists who snorkel these rivers tell me that winter fish do hold in big pools. But the most pleasant and productive fly fishing usually occurs on the broad flats between riffles and rapids.
Tackle and Flies for Winter Fish
Tiers of the Steelhead Flies Shown:
Two-Tone Marabou (top left): John Alevras
Optimist (top right): John McMillan
Orange Fox Tail Tube (center): John Alevras
Black and Blue Shank Fly (bottom left) : Dave Steinbaugh
Purple Shank Fly (bottom right) : Dave Steinbaugh
David Klausmeyer photo
A generation ago, an 8- or 9-weight single-handed rod between 9 and 10 feet long was the universal winter-steelhead rod south of Canada. Today, 13- to 16-foot two-handed Spey rods have become the norm on larger rivers. In addition to the obvious distance-casting advantages, two-handers offer tremendous line-handling capabilities and can manage heavy sinking-tip lines and flies. For creeks and tighter lies on large rivers, single-handed rods are better with sinking tips. In recent years, mulititip lines — which contain a floating running line and looped floating, intermediate, Type 3 and Type 6 tips — have become very popular.
Marabou Spiders, Bunny Leeches, General Practitioners, traditional upright-winged flies, and Spey flies are the principal winter-steelhead fly choices. Fluorescent colors, black and purple are productive in turbid water with poor visibility. Pink and orange are better in clear, cold water, and red and bright orange are good when the river has a green color. Black Bosses and black Steelhead Woolly Buggers are universal go-to patterns for the winter. Smaller patterns work better when the temperature drops into the 30s, possibly because fish are less aggressive and mobile.
Flies tied on tubes and Waddington shanks are increasingly popular on the Olympic Peninsula. They let you fish a large-profile pattern on a small hook, which results in better holding power. By adjusting the material and size of the tube or shank, it is possible to control the fly’s sink rate.
As on freestone streams, the best areas tend to be level and of relatively uniform depth. The areas downstream of long gravel bars and islands, where two channels come back together and create a softer “gut,” are promising. So are the seams where dimpled water and slicks meet. The presence of feeder creeks and tributaries increases the odds that fish will be present, as it does on smaller rivers. When you find a stretch of any river with two or more of these features — resting water, cover, and feeder streams — learn it as intimately as you know your living room.
Matching Tackle to the River
It may seem counterintuitive, but you can usually fish the broad glacial rivers with lighter sink-tips or heads than you can on smaller rivers. The wide flats and their relatively uniform flows do not require complicated presentations. You cast across or slightly upstream, throw a large upstream mend, wait for the line to straighten, and then follow the fly downstream with the rod tip. The long swing gives the fly time to sink before it reaches the holding water, and you can slow it with additional mends (upstream or downstream depending on the current) or by feeding line into the drift.
Type 3 or 4 sinking-tip lines or 150- to 250-grain heads are usually adequate for this type of water. A Spey rod is a great asset because the mending reach and line control lets you fish large water much more efficiently. Just as important, a beefier rod allows you to throw much larger flies, as long as five inches. You often need big, high-profile patterns on glacial rivers, where two or three feet of visibility is considered clear.
Slightly heavier and shorter shooting heads or sink tips are sometimes more productive on medium-size rivers, especially those that contain a lot of pocket water and broken flows. Holding lies tend to be discrete areas on these waters, containing only a fish or two, and conflicting currents prevent you from setting up a long, deliberate swing. The trick is to get the fly down quickly. For pockets and tailouts, Type 5 or 6 sinking tips in the 10- to 15-foot range accomplish this with fewer mends. Longer and heavier sinking tips or high-density shooting heads get you into deeper pools and heavier flows. Smaller but heavier flies sink better, and a more acute downstream casting angle overcomes conflicting flows in pocket water.
Many anglers prefer to pick pocket water and seams with a floating line. Dry lines are most often associated with creeks, and the conventional approach involves a double-taper line, a leader as long as the rod, a box of nymphs and egg patterns, and a strike indicator.
However, my good friend, John McMillan, fishes the largest rivers with a floating line, no indicator, and both Spey and traditional upright-winged patterns. These include his own Optimist on 3/0 to 5/0 hooks, and a fly created by his father, Bill McMillan, called the Winter’s Hope. John is an expert at reading water, a fearless wader, and often casts well over 100 feet. “I need that much line out for the big mends I need to sink the fly,” he says.
I’ve described the characteristics of steelhead rivers and holding water with broad brush strokes, but remember that streams of all sizes share some characteristics. Even sprawling glacial torrents have pockets and narrow tailouts, especially the farther you travel upstream. And although the dimensions will be less impressive, most smaller rivers have gravel-bar-flanked runs where you can set up a fat, slow swing. Winter-steelhead rivers are incredibly dynamic, rising and falling as storms buffet the coast. When they are high and turbid, sometimes your only chance is at daybreak in the shallows near shore, where the fish have rested overnight.
But anglers who discipline themselves to identify and then focus on the most productive water will always enjoy more success than those who see how much river they can cover during one outing. After all, on a short winter day, you don’t have any time to lose.
