Stan Fagerstrom
09-30-2002, 05:10 PM
You've Got To Learn To
Part 1
By Stan Fagerstrom
(This column usually deals with bass & panfish.
This is the first of a three part series dealing with
steelhead fishing.)
You'll never put as many steelhead and salmon on the bank or in the boat until you learn how to "read."
The "reading" I have in mind isn't the kind you have access to in the morning paper, a magazine or at the nearest library. I'm talking about learning how to "read the river." Write about fish and fishermen for half a century, and I have, and sooner or later you're a cinch to hear someone talk about it.
It's easy to recall one such occasion the veteran guide I was with demonstrated what I'm talking about. We were in his boat, but there were lots of anglers casting from shore. The guide kept our boat in close so we could drift under the lines of the fishermen who were casting from the bank. Once we moved past the cluster of bank anglers, the guide had a comment. "Stan," he said, "did you notice how those guys were fishing that drift? Every one of them was throwing clear across the river. What they should be doing is fishing right in close to the bank. Every time you get a situation like we have today, a time when the river is dirty and climbing, the fish run in close to shore. Prospects aren't good even if you fish in tight, but out there in mid-stream where those guys are throwing they are non existent."
That veteran guide was reading the river. If ever there was a time for doing everything you can to tip the odds in your favor, it's when you are after winter steelhead. Reading the water is one way you can do it. It's something the best steelhead fishermen I know build into their approach. And it encompasses a whole lot more than just walking up to the water's edge and eyeballing the water.
I've had the good fortune to fish with some of the top river guides in the Pacific Northwest over the past 50 years. No one is more qualified to tell you how reading a river can help and how to go about it than men who have spent most of a lifetime trying to get clients into fish. I'll never forget what some of those guides have told me.
"The flow is a big factor any time you are after steelhead," I recall one guide saying, "the color of the water is also important. I don't like to fish rising water, but as a guide I don't always have a choice. I regard rising water as the most difficult time to catch steelhead. About the only thing you can do is work close to shore, because fish tend to hang near the bank when the river is coming up."
I've had that made plain in my own fishing on more than one occasion. I recall going plunk fishing on the Cowlitz once not far upstream from the community of Kelso. Rain had fallen steadily all night as it so often does during the soggy Southwest Washington winter. When I got to the river the water visibility was about three feet. It was obvious the situation was going to get worse before it got better.
I rigged up a bait of salmon eggs and attached the 3-ounce sinker I normally used along that stretch of river. As soon as I cast I realized the 3-ounce sinker was too light. The current swept my bait downstream and in a matter of seconds my eggs were almost up against the bank. Instead of reeling in, I stuck the rod in my rod holder and turned to my tackle box to try to find a heavier lead before casting again. I was down on my knees looking through my sinker assortment when my reel started screeching. I jumped up and wheeled around to find the rod almost jerking out of its holder. I didn't manage to catch that dandy winter steelhead, but I did have it on long enough to see it was a slab-sided whopper.
The fish I hooked that morning grabbed my bait of eggs no more than a couple of feet from the bank. Then I remembered what that veteran guide had told me. You'll be wise to do the same. Any time you find the water coming up, fish close to shore. That's where winter steelhead are most likely to be under such conditions. You can go back to fishing farther out once the river starts dropping and clearing.
http://www.ifish.net/sfslist.jpg Being familiar with the water you're fishing is a necessity if you hope to slide many steelhead like this beauty up on the bank.
This column on "river reading" has dealt primarily with rising and discolored water. Next time around we'll take a close look at how the experts deal with water that's dropping and clearing.
Part 1
By Stan Fagerstrom
(This column usually deals with bass & panfish.
This is the first of a three part series dealing with
steelhead fishing.)
You'll never put as many steelhead and salmon on the bank or in the boat until you learn how to "read."
The "reading" I have in mind isn't the kind you have access to in the morning paper, a magazine or at the nearest library. I'm talking about learning how to "read the river." Write about fish and fishermen for half a century, and I have, and sooner or later you're a cinch to hear someone talk about it.
It's easy to recall one such occasion the veteran guide I was with demonstrated what I'm talking about. We were in his boat, but there were lots of anglers casting from shore. The guide kept our boat in close so we could drift under the lines of the fishermen who were casting from the bank. Once we moved past the cluster of bank anglers, the guide had a comment. "Stan," he said, "did you notice how those guys were fishing that drift? Every one of them was throwing clear across the river. What they should be doing is fishing right in close to the bank. Every time you get a situation like we have today, a time when the river is dirty and climbing, the fish run in close to shore. Prospects aren't good even if you fish in tight, but out there in mid-stream where those guys are throwing they are non existent."
That veteran guide was reading the river. If ever there was a time for doing everything you can to tip the odds in your favor, it's when you are after winter steelhead. Reading the water is one way you can do it. It's something the best steelhead fishermen I know build into their approach. And it encompasses a whole lot more than just walking up to the water's edge and eyeballing the water.
I've had the good fortune to fish with some of the top river guides in the Pacific Northwest over the past 50 years. No one is more qualified to tell you how reading a river can help and how to go about it than men who have spent most of a lifetime trying to get clients into fish. I'll never forget what some of those guides have told me.
"The flow is a big factor any time you are after steelhead," I recall one guide saying, "the color of the water is also important. I don't like to fish rising water, but as a guide I don't always have a choice. I regard rising water as the most difficult time to catch steelhead. About the only thing you can do is work close to shore, because fish tend to hang near the bank when the river is coming up."
I've had that made plain in my own fishing on more than one occasion. I recall going plunk fishing on the Cowlitz once not far upstream from the community of Kelso. Rain had fallen steadily all night as it so often does during the soggy Southwest Washington winter. When I got to the river the water visibility was about three feet. It was obvious the situation was going to get worse before it got better.
I rigged up a bait of salmon eggs and attached the 3-ounce sinker I normally used along that stretch of river. As soon as I cast I realized the 3-ounce sinker was too light. The current swept my bait downstream and in a matter of seconds my eggs were almost up against the bank. Instead of reeling in, I stuck the rod in my rod holder and turned to my tackle box to try to find a heavier lead before casting again. I was down on my knees looking through my sinker assortment when my reel started screeching. I jumped up and wheeled around to find the rod almost jerking out of its holder. I didn't manage to catch that dandy winter steelhead, but I did have it on long enough to see it was a slab-sided whopper.
The fish I hooked that morning grabbed my bait of eggs no more than a couple of feet from the bank. Then I remembered what that veteran guide had told me. You'll be wise to do the same. Any time you find the water coming up, fish close to shore. That's where winter steelhead are most likely to be under such conditions. You can go back to fishing farther out once the river starts dropping and clearing.
http://www.ifish.net/sfslist.jpg Being familiar with the water you're fishing is a necessity if you hope to slide many steelhead like this beauty up on the bank.
This column on "river reading" has dealt primarily with rising and discolored water. Next time around we'll take a close look at how the experts deal with water that's dropping and clearing.