Northwest Fishing Reports

I am heading out to some of my favorite waters for some steelheading and I am bringing my 9ft 8wt rod and large arbor fly reel with me. I have been busy tying and have a full arsenal of flys.

What do you think!!

those flies look very good! i hope you rip some lips at the river soon!

You should do well. I'm not sure, but I've heard steelhead like to eat purple articulated egg sucking leeches.
Good Luck,

None on the fly... but my dad got one off bait and I got a cutt of bait and one on the fly. About 12lbs hen my dad c&R.
about 15in cutt, off bait my dad has the pic of the one off the fly By the way it was a bleeder.

sorry you could not get one on the fly! but looks like tons of fun. i wish i could hook up with a winter runner but the river i fish has been way to high lately and the fishing has been pretty bad.

Yikes Derrick I don't mean to rip on you but that native has a lot of sand on them which is no good to drag em up on the shore if its a native you are releasing.. Usually you aren't even allowed to take natives out of the water in many systems...

Sure is a nice fish though. What was he using? Drifting eggs perhaps?

Nice Cutthroat, Derrick!
Do the regulators make you toss the cutts back, too?

fishing with your dad...priceless

Sam Kafelafish wrote:Yikes Derrick I don't mean to rip on you but that native has a lot of sand on them which is no good to drag em up on the shore if its a native you are releasing.. Usually you aren't even allowed to take natives out of the water in many systems...

We usually don't de that, but we had to to get the hook out because it swallowed it after we released it we saw it swim further upstream so I think it will be ok.

lskiles wrote:Nice Cutthroat, Derrick!
Do the regulators make you toss the cutts back, too?

fishing with your dad...priceless

Nope cutts were legal, but we only kept that one because it was a bleeder.

LayneS wrote:Sure is a nice fish though. What was he using? Drifting eggs perhaps?

Drifting eggs got most of the fish but 1 cutt was caught off of a pink bunny leech

yea i think that will work fine. i often use flies while i am fishing for trout with my spinning gear. its a easy and affective way to use flies. i am sure you could hook a couple drifting flies with a none fly rod

If I where to use my normal gear i'd just as soon use bait when allowed, but in tiny creeks with no casting space or if you cant afford the ridiculous prices for fly rods then that sounds like a good idea.

yea i was once up real high in the lewis river system and i found a nice little spot were i could drop a wet fly down and catch wild rainbows one after the other, and i was just using my regular spin cast set-up.

and i know those fly rods are way to expensive!

How high were you on the lewis? I live on the River up by Sunset falls? That far up or below?

it was a long time ago, perhaps as much as 5 or 6 years. i was at the camp sites that are way up past sunset i think. i have been fishing lucia falls for steelhead lately with no success.

Derrick-k wrote:None on the fly... but my dad got one off bait and I got a cutt of bait and one on the fly. About 12lbs hen my dad c&R.
about 15in cutt, off bait my dad has the pic of the one off the fly By the way it was a bleeder.

That one cutt looks really unhealthy. I know they come skinny sometimes, but that is borderline unhealthy for where you caught it.

Those are some nice flys you tied Derrick. If you wouldnt have said anything I would have thought they came from the store. I tied up some jigs when I went to Rufus (didnt look that good though), its always better to catch them on hand made lures. They didnt work that time, but they dont go bad. Dont worry about it, those flys have steelhead written all over them. Salmon too, dont be afraid to throw them at those big trout at your secret lake too when it opens back up.

The cutt was a searun after they spawn they get really skinny, but no worries it had red meat and tasted great!

I have always like making flys, and actually now that I have tried it I prefer fishing flys on streams, I will have to do it some more in February.