Making Friends with the successful Steelhead Fishers of Washington State, USA

Since my first outing to the Reiter Road fishery on the Skykomish I have been lured back by the memory of the large steelheads I saw caught.  This time I went with a pal from church called Jason, he is recovering from leukemia and a bone marrow transplant so he was glad to get out fishing.  Now let me make it clear from the start that neither of us landed a steelhead but we did see them caught and we did learn how to do it.  What really impressed me was:-

1. All the guys there were very friendly and helpful.
2. Although they fish around 12 yards apart, and cast upstream and drift downstream in front of each other it is not so-called "combat fishing" but more synchronized casting! If there is an occasional hook up of two lines both parties apologize and the nearest sorts it out. 
3. When someone got a fish on frequently a helpful fisher would produce a large landing net and help secure the fish from amongst the myriad of boulders in the river.
4. I got some good advice.
5. I saw some big fish caught.

 The river just down-stream of the hatchery

 Rory, a guide on his day off with a beaut of a fish caught downstream in the fast water.

 I didn't have the right kind of float but Rory kindly gave me the right kind of weighted lure made by himself.

My pal Jason before he fell in, something that is easily done!

 A bunch of really friendly guys who chatted to me and shared advice and tips.

 Dan who had just landed that fish a few yards from me.

 Dan's float rig with pencil weight underneath and a bead to protect the knot on the swivel.

 A slightly out-of-focus view of Dan's very effective lure.

 

One skillful fisher!

Danger on the river and a friendly Sheriff

Now that I knew there were plenty of large aggressive steelhead in the Skykomish I resolved to have another attempt at catching one. As it was the 4th July and for some strange historical reason my American friends make it a holiday I decided not to try spinning or plunking under the hatchery as I was sure the guys would be there in large numbers.  Standing shoulder to shoulder, crossing lines and getting tangled up with another chap's tackle is known as "combat fishing" and it is not my idea of a pleasant time by the water.  So I thought I would fish further down stream and try to see if by learning from the last time in that location I could over-come some of the obstacles.  So this time I had a home-made wading stick, wore a personal flotation device and used a full sinking line.  Anyway the net result was that in spite of carefully wading quite deep my 9 foot 8 weight rod was still not getting me to where I thought the fish would be, so after an hour of trying I quit and walked back to the car,  As I had come 40 miles to fish I had a go spinning etc just down from the Big Eddie boat launch ramp.  By this time several lovely families had arrived and I watched in horror as a couple of dads launched themselves in a very small, beat up, row boat into the Big Eddie.  They didn't row it but used the oars as paddles. They were not wearing PFD's and only just made it to the bank just upstream of some fairly serious rapids. 

The picture makes it look safer than it was, they were wobbling like crazy!

They then proceeded to fool around and several times had to paddle flat out to avoid being swept downstream.  This was all done in front of their wives and children none of whom seemed aware of the potential danger.  As I walked back to the car I said to the wives that I hoped their husbands had plenty of life insurance! 

Whilst getting in the car I noticed that the Sheriff had arrived so being inquisitive when he walked back from the river I wandered over, introduced myself and asked him if he could explain the difference between the roles of the Sheriff and the police. 

He was very friendly and explained that he was a deputy and that the Sheriff was elected by the community and that they worked closely with the police but did not do detective work.  I said I was concerned about these dads downstream with their little boat.  He said that he had come down because he had a call saying that there was some dangerous activity on the boat ramp.  I told him where the dads were now and he said that 2 days ago he had pulled the body of an 18 year old out of the river. Then he went off to warn the Dads and I jumped in the car for the cruise back to my holiday home and a rest as that afternoon we had been invited to a 4th July party on the lake!  On this holiday it's all go!!!

 

STEELHEAD ACTION ON THE SKYKOMISH

With the decorating nearly complete and already two thirds of the way through my six weeks here in WA, USA I was starting to get desperate to catch something worth boasting about, so I decided to have a go for summer steelhead.  Lonnie had shown me the car park by (the) Big Eddy just up the Reiter Road Junction on State Route 2.  So I paid a visit on the 2^nd July with my fly rod.  Near the road bridge the water was ripping through and the Big Eddy was in full swing.  I followed Lonnie’s advice and walked up river pass the following sign and along the bolder-strewn beach, close to the water.

I think I had read somewhere that if you were in the water you weren’t trespassing!

 

 

 There was a lot of water coming down and I wished I had checked the river flows web site before I drove the forty miles!  So I moved upstream and when I got above the white water I waded out and had a few casts.  It immediately became clear that:-

1.       My nine foot eight weight rod was not really man enough for the job of launching a sink tip and a steelhead fly as far as I wanted it to go.

2.       I really needed a wading stick.

3.       I should probably have a pfd (personal floatation device) on.

4.       I had forgotten anything I ever knew about spey casting (and all the American derivatives, snap T, circle C etc).

I was also concerned that I was not getting the fly deep enough, but I had no idea of what deep enough was.   Anyway after an hour or so I chickened out and went exploring.

I decided to try and find the steelhead hatchery which I had been told was just upstream of where I was fishing (and confirmed the night before using good old Goggle Earth).

So I drove up Reiter Road and just as I was about to give up I came across all these vehicles parked up at the gate of the hatchery.   I walked through the gates and there was one of the amazing phenomena of fishing in the US a sign inviting you to fish at the hatchery where all the returning fish congregate!

 

 

I walked the bank, spoke to a few friendly guys and checked out their techniques.  They were all gear fishermen spinning, float fishing and plunking! I watched for an hour, apparently some fish had been caught earlier but now things seemed to have gone quiet.

 

That night I dug out an old telescopic spinning rod and some spinners and resolved to join them.  So this morning having woken at 6am I hit the road arriving at 7.30 to find fourteen vehicles outside the gate.  As I was walking in a chap called Brian had just wrestled a steelhead on to the bank and he kindly let me take his picture.

 

I found a spot between two nice guys and commenced fishing a rooster spinner under a float.  Avoiding hooking up is a bit challenging as everyone is using different methods and trying to avoid casting across each other.  This is made more difficult because the float men like to let their lines drift as far as possible.  Anyway I only got caught up with others twice and everyone was very amenable.

Then I got to see some action, I had a fish on but he came off so I had to make do with videoing others in action.  In a way it was good preparation for me because the steelhead I saw caught went absolutely ballistic when hooked.  Also the river is a minefield of obstructions and potential snags. The following video clips try to capture the drama of having a fish on!

 

The next clip shows how feisty the fish is when it is netted.

 

And here is the end product and a very happy man with a big fish!

 

 

So now I am convinced they are there I just have to try harder!!!!

Fly Fishing Afternoon on the South Fork of the Skykomish

Well I met up with Lonnie at the Sultan "Park and Ride" and I parked and together we rode up towards Money Creek.  It was great seeing him again and catching up on what we have both been doing over the last 8 months.  He said we were targeting rainbows this afternoon.

We could not get into our usual roadside trail because a rail track maintenance crew were very much in evidence so we parked at the camp ground in pouring rain and walked in.  Conditions could have been depressing as it was cool, wet and very cloudy, so the bugs were all staying un-hatched!  Also the water was at least a foot higher than we would have liked but it was crystal clear.  However, we were glad to be there.

 Lonnie geared up and ready to fish.

 Yours truly enjoying the moment.

 

We fished nymphs under strike indicators through all the likely fish holding spots.

Having not had a touch we cut our loses and moved down river to a spot where you have to be quite brave just to get to the water.  No, it is not a rocky climb down but a struggle through thick jungle on an almost invisible trail.  On the way in Lonnie very kindly let me lead!

 

Well we tried real hard here fishing the seams and the mid river rocky structure with nymphs and strike indicators and then streamers to no avail. 

 

 On the way out I let Lonnie lead and he nearly led us astray in the jungle!

 

 As we were driving back down we could see the steelhead brigade were out in force by the number of pickups parked up by the side of the road.  Lonnie kindly showed me some likely steelhead waters.

Then we popped into the Wallace Hatchery and I saw my first bear trap and the excellent poster display all about salmon and steelheads which I will feature in a later post.

 

Finally I got all stirred up by seeing the huge fish in the pool waiting to be "processed" by the hatchery experts. You can just see a few in the shadow area.  They were huge!

Fishing Excitement on the Snoqualmie, WA, USA

Having got on well with my chores I finally went fishing today,six days after I arrived.  The chaps on the Washington Fly Fishing Forum had given me lots of useful tips on where to fish and I plan to follow that advice as much as I can.  However, I thought I would make today a practice run and fish somewhere familiar to me, so after I had laid some mortar in a remodeled fireplace I headed up to the Snoqualmie. 

 

I found a promising spot and waded out to a gravel bar that had a perfect seam running along it. Second cast and my copper john was hit by an 8 inch little feller, then I realized that not only had I forgotten my hat but I had also left the camera with my wife who was reading on the bank 50 yards away.  Still I thought there are going to be others to photograph so no problem.  So everything was quiet and peaceful and perfect. 

Then it happened, a helicopter suddenly showed up and started circling right above me, making a hell of a racket (sorry of that is swearing, it isn’t in the UK)!  It was so persistent hovering overhead I started to wonder why it was there.  My guesses were as follows:-

·         Someone knew I had arrived and they wanted to film me fishing

·         The pilot had it in for fishers and he was trying to scare the fish and me

·         A rooky pilot was practicing turns

·        Then I noticed someone standing on the under-carriage skid and I thought I was about
          to see a spectacular suicide attempt.

·        The auto pilot was stuck

Anyway after about an hour I was getting a bit fed up with the noise so as the chopper came round again, I put my hands on my hips and scowled at it.  I was rewarded with it flying off to try and land on the face of the adjacent large mountain (Mount Si of Twin Peaks fame)?

Meanwhile having thought my wife was completely safe round the bend sitting on the gravel bank I found her in the company of two charming Park Rangers dressed in attractive orange waistcoats!  She insisted in having her picture taken with them. 

About this time the helicopter reappeared and the Rangers advised that it belonged to the Sherriff and they tactfully pointed out that it said that clearly on the side.   I expect the Sherriff is a charming helpful person but I could not help the words of a song involving a Sherriff and a Deputy running through my mind.

Armed with the knowledge that my wife was safe in the company of Rangers and with the local Sherriff keeping an eye on her from above I wandered upstream to try and find an undisturbed seam.  At a tempting spot I noticed what looked like several brown torpedo shapes in the current.  Weed?  Logs?  Both seemed unlikely given the speed of the current.  They reminded me of what I had seen a few years ago downstream of the Wallace Hatchery.  My fishing buddy had pointed to them and I in my ignorance said ‘“what are they”?  He replied by catching one and it turned out to be a rather large steelhead!   So I decided to wade out towards the torpedo’s because they just couldn’t be big fish.  As I got about six feet from the nearest torpedo it moved sideways further out by a foot or two!   I walked back to the car and tooled up with a small selection of steelhead flies.  I then proceeded to cast my selection of flies at them from all angles other than the optimum one as there was a large tree/bush in the way.  I tried going up stream through the jungle to the other side of the tree/bush but the bank there was steep and straight into what looked like deep water.  I didn’t want my last glimpse of my wife to be as I drifted downstream to the falls!

Eventually feeling rather tired I gave up but it was a hard decision to make.  The questions are:-

1.       Have I gone mad because of the noise of the helicopter?

2.       Did I really see fish?

3.       Were they steels?

4.       If the answer to 3 is Yes, how should I have tried to catch them?

If you have any suggestions they would be gratefully received.

Embarrassing footnote: A real gent on the Washington Fly Fishing Forum has gently suggested that even steelhead would find jumping the Snoqualmie Falls a bit too demanding.  Blogger has egg on face. So what fish were they?