[James W.]

Hi Everyone,
I was wondering if any of you have experienced success with fishing dry lines with skaters and waking flies over pressured fish. I spend a good deal of time fishing a river in SW Washington which has a great deal of jet sleds and gear fishermen. I was having a great deal of success this summer using a skagit line w 10' of T8 and small leech patterns and temple dog style flies.
Last week I finally fished w a floating line and a traditional hair wing fly.
My success rate seemed to go down, but I did get one small fish for my effort.
A friend tells me that skating flies is not very effective over these fish that are constantly pounded by jet boats, etc...
I would love to prove him wrong.
What do you all think about the odds of raising a fish to a dry or damp fly in these conditions.
Thanks, James



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[fredaevans]

Clue?

Keep going to smaller and smaller flies. The rest you can't control, the size of your fly you can.

fae

 

[James W.]

Thanks for that nugget!


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[fredaevans]

Thanks for that nugget!


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You are most welcomed. Odd how the same pattern, just going smaller, and get results. Once I went down to 4# leader and a size 12 fly, was 'fish on' .... but not for long.

Ah well that's why they call it 'Fishing ... not catching.'

"The Tug is the Drug" as a far smarter person than me once said.

fae

 

[808steelheader]

My local hatchery steelhead get a fair amount of pressure as well with gear boats and the huge rubber hatch on bright, hot days. I have still exprienced success on skaters even after the rubber flotilla goes by, especially in the evenings. I have had mutiple pleasure boaters in pontoons float through the run I'm fishing and soon after, getting a fish coming to the top for my skater. Just a couple weeks ago, I fished a run near dark, just after multiple rubber duckies went through and hooked a steelhead on a skater in shallow water. In fact that was water my own drift boat floated over!

Just last week, I fished behind my friend and raised and briefly hooked a steelhead on a skater, right alongside a rock that my buddy covered very well with a damp fly. I've hooked/landed steelhead on skaters fishing behind others a couple other times as well. This all proves not that I'm a good fisherman, but that it doesn't take long for steelhead to become rested enough to take a surface fly. It might even demonstrate that all the racket from all the boats and rubber duckies going by might put steelhead in a taking mood after being moved from their lies throughout the day. It may also prove that following your buddy or other fishermen through a pool may not be a great disadvantage. In fact I followed myself down a run a few weeks ago, making a second pass with a skater and got a steelhead that didn't want the skater I used during my first pass.

In short, don't let the pressure discourage you, put on a skater and keep it on there.

Todd

 

[James W.]

I was hoping for these kind of tips!


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[matuka mike]

even more incentive to skate flies everywhere !

 

[roguebum]

Also, there is a theory out there that says jet boats "wake up" steelies that have hunkered down on the river bed. The idea being that the steelhead get whipped into a frenzy when something as loud (and erupting) as a jet boat flies by.

I actually fished with a guide who told me that he would ask the jet boats to do a little 360 over the waters he was fishing when they came through. He felt it made the waters more productive, not less.

 

[James W.]

Wow, I've heard similar stories from Alaska guides! I'm not putting on a sink tip til 11/1.


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[ralfish]

There is a misconception that conditions have to be a certain way in order to bring a steelhead up to a waked bug. Undisturbed, unfished water being one of the conditions. I used to think the same way. I fish behind guys pounding away with sink tips and huge flies, after a jet has blasted through a run throwing smolts up onto the banks etc much more than what I find esthetically pleasing, and all I do 99% of the time is fish a waked bug for summers. I'm not doing it because I'm practising my casting. Go small or go big, fish classic water or fish really odd ball too fast too deep water, figure out your game. The fish will play. Steelhead are like cats and are inquisitive and often tend to be aggressive. Just have the confidence to stick with a method, but be reasonable about it, ie dont fish a huge flashy bug in gin clear really slow water over pounded fish. I regularly fish size 10, usually dark and not much flash if any at all.

 

[808steelheader]

There is a misconception that conditions have to be a certain way in order to bring a steelhead up to a waked bug. Undisturbed, unfished water being one of the conditions. I used to think the same way. I fish behind guys pounding away with sink tips and huge flies, after a jet has blasted through a run throwing smolts up onto the banks etc much more than what I find esthetically pleasing, and all I do 99% of the time is fish a waked bug for summers. I'm not doing it because I'm practising my casting. Go small or go big, fish classic water or fish really odd ball too fast too deep water, figure out your game. The fish will play. Steelhead are like cats and are inquisitive and often tend to be aggressive. Just have the confidence to stick with a method, but be reasonable about it, ie dont fish a huge flashy bug in gin clear really slow water over pounded fish. I regularly fish size 10, usually dark and not much flash if any at all.

Very true. Another perception is that surface steelhead success always depends on a run being in shade or in low light conditions. I've even gotten surface grabs in shallow tailouts with full sun shining right at the fish. I've also had a number of other surface grabs with full sun on the water. Admittedly it seems more difficult to raise steelhead in full sunlight, but it does happen often enough to get out in less than ideal conditions if you just feel like swinging a skater.

 

[Speysowa]

There is a lot of fishing pressure here in Cali and the sun is always too bright. If I waited for optimal conditions I'd never get to fish. I know a lot guys who never fish on top because they are waiting for prefect conditions.

If you want to catch a steel head on top put the fly on and leave it on. After you bring up your first fish to the surface fly you will be addicted and won't care about the wait between fish anymore. I do bring fish up the top but to be honest it can be a long wait but I don't really care anymore. I only fish tips when the water gets really cold anymore. Fishing the dry line is just simpler and more enjoyable to me. You can get a fly deep if you need to with long leader, heavy fly and proper technique.

Also, if you're going to start fishing the dry line regularly, IMHO, start fishing muddlers. Steel head do not like muddlers. They hate muddlers and try to kill them in the most violent manner. I have never had a gentile take on a muddler. Fish them hitched on the surface or just under the surface. It's probably the best fly to start playing the surace game with.

 

[ralfish]

My last fishing trip, all of my fish were taken in full sun as it was bright and sunny the whole trip. The water conditions varied though, from gin clear to about a couple feet vis. This was on the Dean, so these fish are pretty much un pressured, though there are a number of guiding operations that the fish have to swim past. The last evening of the trip, I decided to fish behind a friend. While I crossed the side channel to get down to where he was fishing, he hooked and landed a nice mid teens fish taken on a small waked bug. I took pics for him. He stepped out but hung around to talk with me as I fished through water he had just fished. So I had taken my last cast and already reeled the line back up, I was done, and was starting to walk out, when a fish rolled in front of us. I quickly stripped line back out and as I did that I retreated a bit upstream. Two casts later, and I was into a decent fish, also in the mid teens. This one took me for several nice long runs. She was airborne a lot and it took a while before I brought her to hand. Last fish of the trip on last cast of the last evening; on a small dark waked caddis. It rreally doesn't get any better.

Very true. Another perception is that surface steelhead success always depends on a run being in shade or in low light conditions. I've even gotten surface grabs in shallow tailouts with full sun shining right at the fish. I've also had a number of other surface grabs with full sun on the water. Admittedly it seems more difficult to raise steelhead in full sunlight, but it does happen often enough to get out in less than ideal conditions if you just feel like swinging a skater.

 

[James W.]

Yesterday at 6 am I was fishing my foam top skater over a side channel where bank anglers on the other side of the channel often fish w gear. I always have the island side to myself, and I've hooked a number of steelhead there this year, including my first on a dry line. The majority I've hooked using a t8 tip. I couldn't quite track my fly, but at the end of a swing, my line went tight-ish. I waited as the fish seemed to shake its head. Seemed like it was churning the water like a jacuzzi jet. I had time to wonder whether or not it was a cutthroat or steelhead. Finally, I gave in and swept my rod towards the bank pulling the fly right out of its mouth. Should I not have set the hook? Was it my first steelhead to a dry? It was definitely bigger than a smolt.
I stuck w the dry line w skaters and wet flies until 11. My casting falls apart when I have to wade in deeper and cast farther on a particular run. I changed to a sink tip from 11-3. The day was hot and clear. I saw some fish in strange places as I floated down the river in my drift boat. Maybe I should have gone to a smaller fly, but I used a 2" leech when I went to the tip.
Any feedback from the experts? I appreciate your previous responses.


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[808steelheader]

It's tough to hook steelhead on the hang down with the fly directly below you. There is no angle on the swing to help pull the fly into the corner of the mouth. There's no guaranteed way to hook steelhead in that position. I would have done what you did, waited for the the fish to turn, keeping tension on the line. Sounds like you had the fish pulling against you as it thrashed around trying to decide what it was going to do. Sometimes you get lucky and the fish turns and the hook ends up lodged solidly, although I've even had some hang down steelhead seemingly overtake the fly and literally swallow the fly, getting hooked deep in the mouth. Most times, the hook pulls out on steelhead that take on the dangle due to the poor hooking angle.

As to whether that fish you encountered was a steelhead, it kind of sounds that it was from the behavior you are describing where you stated "my line went tight-ish. I waited as the fish seemed to shake its head. Seemed like it was churning the water like a jacuzzi jet". But sometimes you never know, I've been fooled by decent sized trout, pikeminnows, and suckers before.

As to changing to the tip later in the day, that's up to you, but as we get into fall, I gain even more confidence in surface fishing. With lower light levels, cooling water temps, reduced fishing pressure, etc., I find steelhead can at times be very active and receptive to surface methods. I also find steelhead in some strange places in fall along with commonly finding them in shallow water, heads of pools, shallow tailouts, etc. Take note of those strange places where you've been spotting steelhead as you drift by and fish them if you can. If you want to get a steelhead on top, fall is prime time and I would suggest taking full advantage of it.

Todd

 

[fish0n4evr]

Those hatchery fish will surprise you often in last light through dusk when they cruise right in close to shore. I have a strong suspicion that chinook this time of year will heard the steelhead into the shallows, specially after the guide-sleds take out for the night. Often the next morning before dusk just as the boats are arriving to the launch, those shallow riffles will hold steelhead clear down to the tail-out 150 + yards down-stream and across to the island. After having stepped in and spooking fish right at my feet I quickly learned to rig a floating tip and a black/purple pattern cast from shore where a sunk fly would foul hook the fish. Some of the gear anglers have figured it out also. The camera flash gives them away lined up clear down below to the cliffs as they charge their phosphorescent corkies. They put a big dent on the run, mostly hatchery fish though. But then you see a lot of dead juveniles hooked in their lost rigs. Wade careful.

 

[beau purvis]

I would have set the hook given your descriptive words.

 

[James W.]

Thanks, everyone. I've become quite good at waiting to set the hook until the fish turns. The dangle has been tricky, however.


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[Bee]

sometimes l think the jet boat in a pool does the job of stirring up the fish that "stoning the pool" produced in the past ( and still does). Seen it too many times to doubt it. Cannot help but relate this story from some years ago on the Dean when Billy Blewett pulled the jet into Parallel and tossed the anchor off the boat stern , and , as l stepped out of the boat to wade downstream a bit to begin he said "stay here and start right here." I said you mean right here where you just dropped the anchor? He said pull off a few feet of line and wake your little killer waker right behind the boat. I think I just dapped the fly towards the mid river and,with rod held high, waked it back with no more than five feet of line out of the rod and a 12 ft leader. You know the rest of the story.