RT, Flyfishing?

[Jeremy]

rt, saw in a post you were fly fishing the upper wilson, did you do any good, what were you targeting. Also know any other good spots to hit with the fly this time of year, and to use? Thanks for the info

[Deleted User]

Hi Jeremy.

I did not hook any of the summer steelhead we targeted on the Wilson River a week ago (Tue. 3rd). We did have a very good morning hooking and landing fresh 'Nooks on the lower river with conventional gear though. - I use a floating line and a variety of flies for real low clear water steelhead flyfishing; such as in the Wilson R. on the N. coast or the Washougal R. out of the Cascades in SW Wash. I use a combo of presentations depending on water conditions. They essentially involve casting across or slightly down stream, mending the line periodically to prevent line drag, and letting the fly dead drift for a ways, then letting it swing across the holding spots just in or under the surface film. If the water is in the outside temp ranges above 60 deg. or below 50 deg., or has color to it, I prefer to use a fast sinking tip fly line, and heavier flies if the current is stronger, to do the same type presentations deeper. For the clear water around the upper 50's as we have now, I use some of the most common flies such as a size 4 Green Butt Skunk (I used a black wing version instead of the usual white wing to get skunked on http://www.ifish.net/forum/images/graemlins/smile.gif ), Steelhead Muddler Minnow, Golden Deamon, Purple Peril, Red Ant (brown wing version), and many more of the old standards. I used to buy bright heavyhook winter steelhead flies from fly experts Bill McMillian and Mark Noble from their East Vanc. shop back in the 70's (I think Mark has a shop in Welches now?) to fish occassionally for winter fish (gave that up due to lack of productivity per hour spent - stick to summer steelhead, at least at first). The best steelhead to respond to surface swung wet flies are the Deschutes R. summers! They are aggressive biters, and often take on native rainbow trout characteristics right now during the fall. Get a good steelhead flyfishing book from a tackleshop or www.amatobooks.com (http://www.amatobooks.com) to help you learn a lot more than I can tell you in a post. It's a lot of fun! - RT