Washougal River Revisited !

Today I made what amounted to some sort of a trip back to Mecca for me. The Washougal R. and it's renowned genetically strong Skamania summer steelhead is where I learned to flyfish for them back thru the 70's. Caught my first one, then my first limit of steelies on a fly there. It is a beautiful place. It has a lot of intricate boulder strewn water, similar in that respect to the N.F. Nehalem. Always been an inconsistent river, even by steelheading standards. By the late 80's, after my last foot surgery, I gave up wading to flyfish. New medical technologies for arthritis the last couple of years has allowed me to hike to close by holes and do some wading again; as well as rowing too. I am kind of exhilerated right now because today I caught my first flyrod & fly caught steelhead since that last foot surgery years ago. I don't know how to describe the feelings I experienced this evening (I fished from mid-afternoon 'till almost dark), except to say it was really moving for me for a lot of reasons. And fun! I had one hard take down on a sparsely tied size 4 Red Ant at the upper end of the Big Eddy hole but it didn't get enough of the hook. Later I got my fish on my fav size 6 Steelhead Muddler Minnow on a floating line, a little further up river in shallow riffles. I released her. Muds still work! -- Like many inland rivers, the hot fishing that had been going on there earlier has slowed down according to some fishers I talked to and the guys at the tackle counter at the 10 mile store. By the sounds of things I heard in June & early July I think there must be a few thousand fish milling around in the huge long deep reservoir like hole below the falls, and on up above. The river is closed above the Salmon Falls bridge, which is below that big hole and where so many fish are by now. There is still fishable numbers thru the river system but you have to work harder for them now. Using a light spinning rod and line, then drifting small egg clusters with little or no lead was said to be the best producer. One disappointment was that the great holes in the Laurel Lane stretch are completely tied up and posted off limits by all the landowners there, and I'm sure that many fish have also moved up into that area too. - Please excuse my posting about your river Bob D., Jerry S., and you "Shou" guys, but the peak is over there now. The memories never will be. - Steve

[Okiedrifter]

thanks steve , for sharing your memories with us , i truly enjoy these kind of threads... i to dream of a small little feeder stream a little farther south, that i will revisit soon...

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okiedrifter

Your post about the Washougal brings back memories for me too! It was in the Laurel Lane hole that I caught my first steelhead on a fly. The renowned flyfisherman Bill McMillen fished that area alot and I struck up a semi-friendship with him he gave some valuable tips on flyfishing that particular stretch that eventually led to my success. The funny thing is about a week before I caught that first steelhead I was attempting to wade to that island that is just above the bridge when I fell in losing my newly built rod,reel and camera. Undaunted I built another rod,an orvis split cane from a kit so I was real careful where I waded, and went back. I was rewarded with a 13lb. summer buck that took my stonefly nymph. The steelhead stack up in that area below the falls sometimes you could count up to 50 of them in that one hole at any given time. The Washougal has been good to me over the years and it still remains one of my favorite rivers. I've heard that McMillen no longer lives in the area but he has to be one of the best and most knowledgable steelhead flyfishermen the northwest has ever known. He was especially unhappy when Jim Teeny brought his entourage and film crew to that portion of the river to make a movie to sell his fly. Apparently they didn't exactly act like sportsmen from what Bill told me. Anyway RT I enjoyed reading about your Washougal memories.

[This message has been edited by bigstew (edited 08-11-2000).]

[Scarecrow]

RT - Enjoyed your pilgrimage to mecca! Brings back boyhood memories. Sad to say that some of my favorite fishing holes of the past are gone or changed so much. Triva Question: How long has the Muddler Minnow been around? (I don't have the answer).

Bob G.

[First Bite]

Steve
That is such a cool story. It makes me want to take up fly fishing for Steelhead. Thanks for sharing your experience.
Mark

[dawhunt]

Hi steve, you can come fish our river anytime you want.I wish you would have let me know,i would have told you about a couple other spots to try.I'm glad you caught your fish.Good fishing
Bob D.

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Bob Dawson

Thanks guys. Would enjoy hearing other such stories from members. - B'Stew, I used to talk with and watch Bill McM. (he wrote a book on steelhead flyfishing), often in the Laurel Lane area, and learned a lot from him. He used a lot of unusual little dearhair flies, and often the Steelhead Caddis fly (similar color and shape to the St. Mud. Minnow. He was superb at throwing the gentle or intricate mends during his presentations. I use that type of mending because of him. I also learned a few things from his friend and flyshop owner Mark Noble. That was a great era! I think I will try to relive it some more. - For another time: My favorite winter steelhead fishing in my life was back when we had real good runs even on the smaller coastal streams. When I could hike all day, I loved to fish the beautiful upper stretches of these gems catching and releasing multiple fish so often. I'm going to try to relive that too with the help of my new cataraft. And an upswing in fish returns too! - Steve

I used that method he prescribed to although not to the degree of success he had. I used a DT dry line with hand tied leader and fairly large atlantic salmon hooks for the flies I tied. I tied a brown wool yarn body incorporating pheasant tail feathers as a wing case and hackle. They were pretty easy to tie and worked really well. To fish the Laurel Lane area you had to have a pretty good roll cast if I remember correctly.