NorCal Steelhead
California steelhead are rare, beautiful creatures that can strip your reel to the backing and make leaps that freeze both your heart and gravity. In the winter, the frigid, fog-shrouded mornings and raw, rain-soaked afternoons can be brutal, but if you are willing to pay your dues, the wait is more than worthwhile.
California is the southernmost bastion of steelhead in North America. Historically, they spawned in streams as far south as San Diego. Though a few meager runs of these magnificent fish remain south of San Francisco, dedicated steelhead anglers focus on territory north of the Golden Gate.
Historic rivers with legendary names like the Smith, Klamath, Trinity, Mad, and Eel are some of the finest in California today, but they are greatly reduced from a century ago. By the middle of the 20th century, dams, water degradation, and the wholesale diversion of water to arid Southern California, decimated steelhead runs. In the past 20 years, better laws, litigation, and stringent monitoring by watchdog conservation groups are slowly bringing steelhead back from the dead, so to speak.
Renewed interest in these giants has also spawned new techniques and tackle. Successful trout techniques, such as indicator nymphing, and the popularity of two-handed rods, are taking steelhead fly fishing into a new era.
And while the old adage that steelhead will eat nearly anything (or nothing at all) is still true, new flies such as Mercer’s Psycho Prince, Fox’s Sleech, MC Redd Reaper, and Bead-butt Golden Stone give steelheaders something new to tie when the rivers are blown. [For details on these new patterns, search “California Steelhead” at flyfisherman.com. The Editor.]
Indicator Revolution
Every old-school steelheader from Washington’s Skagit River to Oregon’s North Umpqua is cringing right now at the mere mention of indicators in the same sentence as steelhead, but the reality is that indicator nymphing for steelhead is firmly embedded in the sport, and California anglers and guides have laid much of its West Coast foundation.
Why did indicators rapidly gain such popularity? Tradition and purity aside, the effectiveness is undeniable.
By suspending weighted nymphs such as Bead-butt Golden Stones and Psycho Princes, or egg flies such as MC Redd Reapers under an indicator, and adding split-shot to the leader, anglers can present flies slowly along the bottom in the steelhead feeding zone. Cast upstream and across, mend upstream, and allow the flies to drop near the streambed, then dead-drift through likely holding water.
Winter water temperatures on many steelhead rivers range from 38 to 45 degrees, and cold-blooded fish are not likely to chase a swinging fly in these conditions. If you can dangle dinner right in front of their faces, there’s a good chance of getting them to take.
You can adequately handle any indicator nymphing situation with a 7- or 8-weight, single-handed fly rod from 9 to 11 feet long. A salmon- or steelhead-taper floating line is ideal for indicator nymphing, as the long belly section makes it easier to throw big mends for long, drag-free drifts.
To rig up, add a leader butt section of 2 or 3 feet of 30- or 40-pound mono to the end of the fly line. Attach your indicator directly to the butt section, using either a clinch knot or a nonslip mono loop.
Use any indicator style you prefer, but make sure it’s large enough to suspend heavily weighted flies and split-shot. Two of the most popular for steelheading are the Boles Float Rite and the Thingamabobber.
Loop a level leader of 0X to 2X to the leader butt, about 1½ times the expected water depth, to create a right-angle connection. Add 12 to 16 inches of 2X or 3X fluorocarbon tippet material.
Place your split-shot (AB or heavier) above the tippet knot. Remember that the whole point is to get your flies down to bottom-hugging steelhead that are reluctant to move, so make sure you use enough weight to hold your flies in the strike zone.
Secure your first fly to the tippet. Add another 2-foot piece of tippet material and tie your second fly to this end. Egg patterns and rubber-leg stonefly patterns such as the Bead-butt Golden Stone are ideal for this technique.
Still Swinging
Diehard steelheaders choose to sometimes catch fewer fish by employing the most difficult and traditional of methods by casting quartering across and downstream and swinging flies, both wet and dry, on a tight line across the riffles, pools, and tailouts of broad rivers.
The fly swims or skates slowly across the current, and the unexpected jolt of a wild steelhead is one of the finest sensations in the entire sporting world. Nymph takes are often subtle, but a strike instigated by a swung fly is unforgettable.
There are times when swinging flies can be the most productive method for taking steelhead on the fly. When steelhead first enter the river, they are focused on getting upriver. They move through the lowest pools quickly, often covering miles of river in a single day. These fish are generally not feeding but are very aggressive, and are actually less likely to eat a drifting nymph than something like a big Sleech. This is especially true on shorter coastal rivers.
As the steelhead move farther upstream, they often stop for days at a time. Many steelhead, such as the fall run on the Trinity, come upriver in the autumn, hold over all winter, and spawn in the spring. These steelhead sometimes feed on aquatic insects in order to maintain enough energy to spawn.
Copyright © 2012 Intermedia Outdoors
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