Winter Steelhead

Winter Steelhead

David Sparks Ph.D.
David Sparks Ph.D.
Fall and winter steelhead fishing. Around this time of year our flyfishing expert Josh Mills has advice. "As steelhead season progresses into late fall and winter, these fish that hit the Columbia River anywhere between May and August, kind of go into, I don't want to say dormancy, but they are not as active because they spawn in March and April of next year. But these fish winter in the rivers whereas in early-season when the temperature of the water was about 45° in the river, you had a pretty good opportunity to get the fish to come up and eat on the surface or potentially on a dry line meaning only a couple of inches below the top of the surface. This is the time of year to break out the sink tips with big bushier flies, intruders, pick your pockets and things like that, because these fish are not going to move as much but as long as the water temperature is above 38°, you can swing some flies across in front of their face and get them to bite. Also as the water temperature drops it is not a bad option to continue to vertically present flies and egg patterns via nymphing. That is a controlled drift in front of their face using a bobber. Once again as the temperatures decrease their metabolism drops but you can still get them to eat all the way through.
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