Northwest Fishing Reports

I've been "experiementing" with this for a week now, at least 2 hours everday. But I still can't figure out how to catch little trout, so I guess I need to ask ...

In the Fall City section of Snoqualmie River, there is a stretch where water is very slow and calm. Everday when near dusk, you can see lots of fish risings/jumps, all little guys. At first I didn't care for them much. But after a while, since there is no other bigger fish to catch, I started to target for them. But the problem is: They take my flies alright but they don't get hooked. I can see them come up to the surface and take my (dry) fly down, but no matter if I set hook or not, most of the time they just don't get hooked -- I mean hooked, not landed. The ratio of hooked-to-strikes is too low, 1 hooked out of every 10 strikes, I guess. I've been trying different fly sizes from #16 to #20, which I bought from different places. I even tried world's finest hooks Gamakatsu (with some of my own ingenious modifications to make them look like flies), things are better but not much better. Of the few that I actually landed, they are 4" to 8" rainbows.

I keep going back to the same place everyday, trying different ways that I can think of, still the same. So I can't help but wondering: Are this kind of little fish actually catchable? If not, then why people are selling and buying #20 flies and #24 hooks? If these flies are just for this kind of fish, then what am I missing?

Can anybody please tell me if I'm using the right sizes for the right fish?

Thank you.

I would try faster water, riffles especially...

I would think the "little trout" are steelhead smolts.....

zen leecher aka Bill W wrote:I would think the "little trout" are steelhead smolts.....

Oh yeah that is a problem. I remember the last time i fished at lake steilacoom i thought i was seeing lots of little trout. HUGE schools of them were swimming under the bridge. I couldnt hook any of them. Turns out they were baby chinook. If these are trout you are seeing I would try what crankbait42 said.

"Steelhead smolt"? Oh, I thought at this stage, before they have decided if they want to go to the sea, they are all rainbows. Some of them will become steelhead, some won't. This reminds me something I read somewhere: There is no such thing as homosexual kids (because one's sexual life style can only be chosen after one is sexually mature enough). For little rainbows, they don't know if they will swim to the sea or not, this "choice of life style" depends on many factors. So, maybe there is no such thing as steelhead "smolt" either??? I don't know, I'm just saying.

Anyway, don't worry, there are two kinds of trout. The other kind has bigger spots on the back, I don't know what they are, but not rainbows. Cutthroat? Besides, they are extremely difficult to catch, for me. For a week, I only caught and released about 7.

Like today, I saw a fish rising about 25 or 30 feet away from me. So I cast a few feet upstream of it, let the fly (size #20) drift downstream to the fish. As expected, it came back up and took it, but didn't get hooked. I repeated this 3 more times, that's 4 times in a row, same fish, same place, same technique, same result! He took it every time but never got hooked, 4 times in a row. Totally unbelieveable!!! I start to believe it's not about hook size, but their feeding habit, which makes them hard to get.

Are these fish jumping out of the water or sipping flies from the surface? They may be taking emergers just under the surface film. When a hatch is coming off, the insects will sometimes be suspended on the surface film for several minutes. They are shedding their nymph cases and drying their wings. This is a very vulnerable time for them and the fish know it. Since they are there for several minutes, the fish are not in a big hurry to take the insect before it gets away, so they simply sip them in.

Try fishing a #16-#18 emerger pattern similar to the fly link below, just under the surface.:

http://www.fish4flies.com/Nymphs/Emerge ... is_Emerger

Give it a little action like it is swimming towards the surface. This sometimes triggers a more aggressive strike.

"Sipping"!? Thanks, Mark. You're right, they don't jump out of the water a lot, they mostly sip from under the water. That's a great tip, I'll give it a try and see how it works! Thanks again!

(Someone asked a mountaineer why he'd want to climb Mt. Everest? He said: Because it's there. Sometimes fishing is the same.)

p.t. wrote:"Sipping"!? Thanks, Mark. You're right, they don't jump out of the water a lot, they mostly sip from under the water. That's a great tip, I'll give it a try and see how it works! Thanks again!

(Someone asked a mountaineer why he'd want to climb Mt. Everest? He said: Because it's there. Sometimes fishing is the same.)

[lol] LOL, there is no "Sometimes" about it.

Here is a great article dealing with the subject of Mayfly emergers. Not knowing what is hatching in your stream, this will explain a little more about fly fishing during an emergence. It can be a very frustrating time to fish. However, if you can key in on it, it can be a real party at times.

http://www.flyfisherman.com/content/tra ... fly-nymphs

Some patterns:

http://hipwader.com/flyfishing/oreillys ... -patterns/

How to fish a dropper:

http://www.midcurrent.com/articles/tech ... ouble.aspx

Tenkara

I know the Fall City area well. They most likely are smolts comming out of Tokul Creek. Trout fishing is mainly done on the upper river like the South Fork up near Edgewick Rd Tinkham Rd. ,Asahel Curtis areas. Then you will catch cutties ,bows, and brook trouts.The lower river does have trout but I would bet youre seeing smolt be it steel from Tokul. The other fish you might see surfacing in the water are Whitefish. They are in the below the falls on down river.Id not target the smolt and leave them be JMO.If you want excellent trout fishing go above the Falls. One more thing there is no bait ,scent allowed in the Fall City area of the Snoqualmie river.Not until 1st or second week of December.

Knowing how enforcement can go around here sometimes, you might get into trouble if you continue to target fish you know are under the 14" minimum size.

Jay K wrote:Tenkara

Right on! I tried it. Unforutnately I only have an entry-level Tenkara rod, only 7'. Tankara is for narrow streams, so my 7' Tenkara rod is too short and doesn't do any good there. Snoqualmie River is too wide. My rod can't cover enough area to tell if it's effective or not. I think it would work, but I don't have the right equipment.

p.t. wrote:

Jay K wrote:Tenkara

Right on! I tried it. Unforutnately I only have an entry-level Tenkara rod, only 7'. Tankara is for narrow streams, so my 7' Tenkara rod is too short and doesn't do any good there. Snoqualmie River is too wide. My rod can't cover enough area to tell if it's effective or not. I think it would work, but I don't have the right equipment.

You could try using a long limber fly rod with a tenkara line - the only difference would be that your rod isn't collapsible like a modern/traditional tenkara rod. There are some sellers on eBay who are retailing tenkara rods cheaper than TenkaraUSA. I purchased my Daiwa Tenkara rods in Japan, although mine are only 3.2-3.6m long they collapse down to 41-48cm. I've had some success on lakes with them. If you've seen any of tenkara videos on TenkaraUSA's website or on YouTube, the founder Daniel does some chest deep wading in some huge raging rivers. You're right though that in its purest form, it's meant for backpacking into small stream fishing.

Yeah, as other have said, the best trout fishing on the Sno is above the falls up into the forks. I prefer the middle fork, but I'll also fish the South Fork in several spots off of I-90. I've caught some Brookies in the 12" range up there.

I just had this same problem at the green river today. A lot of little ones that would hit every cast but wouldnt take my fly. Though I was using a size 12 or 14 parachute adams.