Sinktips for steelhead, the swing is the
thing
Mike & I have had the opportunity to teach literally
thousands of anglers the art of steelhead sinktip fly fishing. Twenty seven
years on the water will do that.
I certainly do not profess to know the
only way to sinktip, but I am pretty comfortable in my approach, so if you are
not catching steelhead on the swing, and want to...... read on.
My
premise: Steelhead are interested in taking the fly on the bottom or at the
surface. Today we will explore fishing the river's bottom. (Flylines catch
fish) goes into more depth. Sorry, Poor pun.
You might as well fish where
the steelhead are: The steelhead swing presentation really begins in the wade.
Many guides fishing bobbers & such, fish from a boat. I have swung flies
from a boat, but mostly, it's done from wading. Some rivers wade easy, and
others wade so poorly , you are taking your life in your hands each time you
walk into the water.
I could probably write an entire article on where and
how to find steelhead in the river.....which is the goal of wading but that
lead us into the topic of reading water, and that is coming up.
Suffice it
to say, traveling steelhead orientate their upstream migration by following
current seams as they work their way up the river. For the sake of argument,
lets discuss a popular scenario, the pool along a gravel bar. As steelhead
migrate up these current edges, how close they travel near shore can depend on
water and lighting conditions. If the water runs dirty, like glacial til
filled waters of the Queets, steelhead will often hold in really shallow
waters with soft currents. Water clarity, day lighting, fishing pressure,
substrate (rocks logs and ledges) will all effect where steelhead hold &
where they migrate.
When I wade into a pool, I always ask myself the
question, "So where will the steelhead be under these conditions"?
I
prefer to wade out just deep enough into the river, to be standing in water I
can say,” There are no resting steelhead between me and my shore. When the
water is high and dirty or first/last light, that can be pretty shallow
(providing the substrate is there to hold them) But if the day is bright,
especially when the water is clear, and or guys have already fished the pool,
I am expecting the steelhead, particularly the large ones, to be holding
farther out in the deeper faster river.
My objective is simple. I want to
be standing in the river as shallow as conditions permit that will hold a
resting steelhead, and still be able to cast into the river, as far and deep
as I suspect the steelhead will hold comfortably in the river flows.
A
rule of thumb:" Steelhead tend to lay in water, I can't quite see in." In
example, at first light, there is very little light penetration. Steelhead
should be lying in close to shore. By contrast, If the water visibility is say
5 feet at full daylight, I will assume the steelhead will be laying in or
around 6 feet of depth, particularly if the best bottom substrate is in this
same region.
The presentation:
I am trying to accomplish several
things in my initial approach so this is how I start. After wading into
position lets say, at the head of the run. [ A steelhead is always facing
upstream so he can breathe, so the fly must pass in front of him.] A big
mistake I often observe, is anglers casting as far as they can as soon as they
can. Joe angler wades out "into position" and starting peeling all the line
off his reel. He cranks up his rod and sends his fly somewhere well out in the
currents. Oops.
Presentation is all about covering the water: I call it
"working the grid". It is important to realize that a steelhead is pointing
upstream. His only goal in life now, is to swim upstream and spawn. In low
light (or dirty water conditions) this may find him holding in the riffley
soft water at the very head of the pool. Wading Joe often starts too far down
the run (especially for summer steelhead looking for well oxygenated water)
and casts too far to start his fishing. I may be wrong here, but the best fly
in the world isn't going to attract a steelhead that swings in a path twenty
feet below the holding steelhead. As I often see clients makes this big cast,
I will wade out and ask, "Now you just casted 70' feet away. Are you
comfortable that there are no resting steelhead between your rod tip and 70'
away? Let’s try it this way."
Rule number one: Fish to the fish. One of
the reasons bobber fishing can be more effective, is simply because the angler
knows exactly where his fly is all the time. It's under the bobber. Swinging
sink-tips...not so much.
A better approach in swing fishing, is to
wade out into position, start your presentation by casting a very short line,
let the fly swing in the currents down below you, pull out three more feet of
line and do it again. Repeat the process of cast swing, cast swing each time
lengthening the fly line, until you are fishing a fly line all the way out to
your comfortable distance of cast. Only then do we start stepping downstream.
If we can mentally visualize painting the bottom in a series of sweeps, its
this "graphing the pool or working the grid", that which allows the fly to
methodically cover all the holding water.
Watch your hands:
I am going
to break tradition here, but I will explain to you why. It seems the dude
thing to do when swinging tips for steelhead, is to hold a loop of line under
your finger, while swimming the fly. I would never advocate this and here is
why.
We have gone to great lengths talking about improving our fishing by
methodically working the grid. When you are holding a bunch of extra line in
your hands while swinging the fly, its hard to remember just how much fly line
you are actually fishing. One cast you may not make a great cast, so you
gather up the extra line, and swing with what you have on the water. The next
cast you really find the sweet spot in the cast, and sail the whole line to
the other side of the river. Where it might feel good to really crank one out
there, what about the grid? The first cast was fishing the fly, in pretty
short, but the next cast was way out there. Your graph is left with a pretty
big gap in it. Lets look at it another way. The only fly Mr. steelhead is
really interested in, is the one that swings out in front of his face. Maybe
your short cast wasn't exactly on him yet, but at least it was out in front.
Your next cast traveled a lot farther, but likely well downstream of the
holding steelhead. Not good. Our goal is to systematically cover all the water
in a series of sweeps thus allowing any holding steelhead a chance at the fly.
Working the grid: The better approach is to work your line out, 3 feet at
a time, and then keep that distance as you step your way down the pool. I
don’t care how far you throw, just do it consistently. You are now working the
grid.
Reason # 2
I know there is something romantic about feeling the
take of a steelhead, dumping the line into the grab, and coming back into the
fish. Unfortunately, what often happens is this: Joe Angler isn't used to the
take of a steelhead on a swung fly. He is probably used to trout fishing, and
having to "catch him at it". Hence a hair trigger as he sets the hook.
Steelhead grabs the fly on a tight line, feels the hook and bolts for the
other side of the river. Bites come in all forms from the trout nibble to the
body slam, but one thing is in common, when he feels the hook, he will bolt,
they always do.
This is where this dumpage is suppose to happen, and I
will admit some guys get really good at. Excuse me , but I am not talking to
you. I am talking to the guy that is new or relatively new. Mr. new guy feels
the jolt of the steelhead, and clamps down on the rod, pinning the flyline to
the cork. Line doesn't move, reel doesn't turn, and just like that, the leader
snaps and off goes the steelhead.
Here is a much better approach to
hook-set for Joe. First, you need a quality reel with a decent drag set. Screw
the drag setting down to where the line pulls off the reel smoothly, but a
little reluctantly. (The drag set must be less than the tinsel strength of the
tippet.) Some guys try to get around this fish breakage thing by telling
themselves steelhead are not tippet shy and fish short fat leaders. The
heavier the leader strength, the fewer steelhead get broken off.
Unfortunately, these fatter leaders also Funny, these are the same guys that
swear steelhead won't bite when the light is on the water, How convenient?
Anyway, if Joe angler sets his drag, keeps his hands off the line, he will
not only graph a better presentation, but fight a lot more steelhead, because
the steelhead will naturally hook himself, as he turns to run away. Try it, it
really works.
Ok, so now, you have waded into position, reel drag is set
and you are extending your cast. The next item is "establishing your depth."
There isn't a magic potion for this next part. I wrote an entire article
on fishing the right fly line for the water condition. [Fly lines catch fish]
Establishing Depth: is a marriage of choosing the right fly, and sinking
line for the pool in front of you. If you were to make a golf analogy, it
would be picking up the right club to make the right shot.
First lets
analyze what it is we are trying to accomplish. Steelhead are generally
migrate along the river bottom. Logic would tell us that the closer we can
bring our offering (the fly) to the steelhead, the more likely he is to whack
at it. Many small fish and bugs in the river environment live around the
bottom. Some migrate to the surface, but we for now we will focus on the
bottom.
What you need to know is this. Just as there are not many critters
that spend life on mid water ranges in lakes, neither do they in rivers.
Steelhead know this. Establishing bottom for bobber fishing is a matter of
weight and leader length. Establishing bottom in sinktip fishing comes down to
the sinking line, leader length, and fly density. Where do most river anglers
swim their fly? Mid-water. Not good.
If I were sinktip fishing in low
light conditions, in a shallow but cobbly run, I would suspect a steelhead to
be holding in pretty soft water. I would probably start out with light sinktip
and an unweighted fly. In this particular circumstance, I am litteraly trying
to coast my streamer by the steelhead without hanging up my fly on every cast.
On the other hand, if its mid day on the Skagit Mixer and the water is
clear, I suspect the fish have moved out into the heavier water, to avoid the
onslot of anglers parading throught this popular pool.If I were to fish this
pool at all, I would choose a heavy line, heavy fly, because holding steelhead
would be found in the deeper, heavier flows. I need to get the fly down.
A
question I get all the time is, "So what line should I choose for fishing XYZ
river?
This is what I recommend. I would choose a multi head system. I
would want a light, a medium and a heavy sinking tip, all around 15' length.
Flies: I think guys get way to hung up on flies but here is my thoughts on
that
(Flies for steelhead)
I want some unweighted, some lightly
weighted and a few heavily weighted flies for sinktiping. Bugs & fish
found along the bottom all wiggle, so I want my bottom searching flies to have
wiggle, but won't foul.
Back to presentation:
Anytime I am sinktipping
shallow, I generally cast well downstream on a tight line. This will
accomplish two things.
1) I keep my fly off the bottom because the tight
line well downstream does not allow for any extra sink-time.
2) Quartering
my cast well downstream will also pass the fly slowly in front of the resting
steelhead. These are not trout. It has been my experience the longer the fly
stays in Mr. Steelhead's space, the more likely he will be inclined to move it
out of there.
So lets change the scenario. Skagit clear water, big
pressure day.
Now, I choose my heaviest line and heavy fly. I change my
angle of cast across-stream until I am casting nearly perpendicular to the
other shore. Why not just cast farther upstream? Its vitally important the fly
is the first thing the steelhead sees. if I cast the sinking line upstream,
once this line has entered the water, I can't mend it out. I dont care if you
practically bonk the steelhead with your fly in the process, of the first
think he sees is that big thick rope (flyline)coming downstream at him, he is
going to get out of the way. The second thing he is going to do is not bite.
Its just the way it is.
So now that you have casted out and across, but
you realize after a couple casts your fly still isn't reaching the bottom.
What do you do?
In bobber fishing you would do things like, add more
weight, angle farther upstream, maybe even reach or tuck cast. In sinktipping
the answer is the mend. Physics say, if a weighted object in a river flow is
released from tention it will sink. Mending on a slack line, is creating an
organized slack on the water to allow your fly to sink to the bottom. The
longer the fly is allowed to slack line, the farther and faster it will sink.
Back to the fish: We want the fly to come near the bottom holding
steelhead, but not crashing into the rocks. A terminology I often use is,
"tink but don't clank". The ability to fish your fly near the stones but not
lose all your flies is what I call, "Watermanship". I am convinced the reason
more anglers don't fish tips for steelhead is because they have never taken
the time to learn how. In the early days of my youth, guys spent most trout
days fishing wetflies, and dries because they were a bit intiminated by this
nymph fishing stuff. Today the forgotten art of wetfly fishing is just making
a comeback. Sad because its really a fun way to fish.
Ok, we can make a
cast and put the fly down to the stones, how do we know if somewhat is too
much? Easy, you will hang up a few flies. I can always tell when and if an
angler is getting his fly down. I will ask, So are you touching bottom? If he
says," I think so", I know that he is not. If he answers, Yeah, I have had to
resharpen already." I know he is getting down.
Low & slow:
You
will hear lots of talk about an aggessive steelhead plowing after a fly, but
for every kamakazi steelhead who happens to be out there, there is a hundred
who would bite just fine, if you could just bring it in slowly close to him.
The last time I checked, we were still trying to just get this big fish to put
it in his mouth.
So now you have made the cast, made the mend, here is a
trick to slow the fly down even more.
The Walk Down: After you have cast
and mended, the dude thing to do is to simply rotate your rod out on fromt of
you and let the line catch up. A much better approach is to finish your
mend(s) and leave your rod tip high above your head pointing across stream at
the sky. Leave it there. Allow the flyline to slightly pull down with the
currents, then quietly lower the rod in a downward arch, almost like you are
lowering the fly into the swing. This move allows the fly to travel in the
swing as slowly on the origin, as it does as it tails out below.
I
recommend lowering the rod tip until it is almost at water level as it tracts
the line downstream. Should a steelhead grab, the rod is pointed down the line
and the drag of the reel hooks up. [Cold water takes]
Remember, You are
the pivotal point so how far you are standing out in the stream will determine
how close to shore the fly will tract. Caution: Steelhead love to follow so be
sure to allow the fly line to coast to a stop before lifting the flyline off
the water for another cast. We call this the "hang Down". Up to 90% of my
dirty water steelhead will be hooked in or near the hangdown position.
*Flat to fast
Steelhead holding water: Much has been discussed
about steelhead and where they lay under varying water conditions.
Hotels
& Living rooms: The first thing you have to wrap your head around is
steelhead are not living there. Where a Big Hole river Brown might spend his
whole life around that sunken log, a migrating steelhead is doing just that,
migrating through. Every pool is just a hotel along the way. Your job is to
distinquish between the Four Seasons Hotel and the vagabon Inn.
Holding
water is only relative: Every river has their own character. Some rivers such
as the lower Stilly has a limited amount of rocks. Large woody debris makes up
much of the holding substrate.By contrast, the canyon section of the Olympic
Peninsula's Sol Duc is one big friggin boulder garden. It has so much rock to
it, you better know where the crim-de-crim is or you are going to waste you
time fishing water with no fish, Same with the Grande Ronde river in eastern
Washington. The point: "Holding water is only relative to the water around it.
Never spend your time time fishing water here, when the water over there has
better; rocks, depth and flow. Steelhead find these spots like magnets.
Just when you found all the answers, they change all the questions: Rivers
change. Its a course of life. Some rivers change little. [ I fish some of the
same pools on the Ronde that I have fished for some twenty five years.] Some
rivers change a lot. If you spend your time on the Sauk river, and happen to
stumble upon a sweet spot,you better fish the heck out of it because the next
rain could wash it out, and that is that.
Reading water: In my estimation,
gravel bars read the easiest.
Flat to fast: I look for gravel bar pools
where the water at shore is flat with little to no current. as the river
breaks over the bar it naturally courses along side creating a current seam
where the moving water moves along side the slack water. Hense, flat to fast.
My next observation is is to look at the shoreline itself. If its all sand, I
will assume the pool is too, I don't care how classic it looks. However,
Ocassionally, these sandy pools will have a log buried in them or a rock
ledge, or errant rock. These become steelhead stoppers if there is no better
waters in the vacinity. I like to check them out when the water is low and
clear. Lousy fishing but great for scouting.
Sneeky Me: I used to
manufacture my own pools by deep sixing bigger rocks from my raft, floated in
from upstream. Deadly.
Holding water in rivers that refuse to change is
another breed of cat: The upside is; if you find a sweet spot, it will
probably be a fish holder, until it finally changes. The down side is unless
you know these spots intemently well, they would be easy to pass up. Some of
my favorite lies on the Ronde are no bigger than a card table. It probably
took me 5 years to feel comfortable, I could put Grande Ronde clients
consistently into fish.
[Cold water takes]
Watch your step:
Working the grid: Now you are casting, mending, tracting the fly to the
hangdown. The only thing left is methodically working your way down the pool.
Some guys fish with a wading staff [me] , while others like my son like
studds. The only thing will say on that is whatever you use, wade quietly.
Sound carries 8 times better under water and I want the steelhead to be
focused on my fly not some noise rumbling down their pool.
Fishing strategies
I seldom fish the whole pool. The
better I know the holding water the more likely I am to concentrate on the
sections we have consistently taken fish. Early season on the Ronde, I might
fish most everything. By late season, I will be skipping all the places that
simply have not held fish that year, and focus on the sweet spots we
have.
Just added: full day spey casting class on the Skagit or Queets. We will float, learn, demo, cast, practice and will fish as we play. Skagit Jan 31st, Queets Feb 28th. Lunch, heated boat included. 4 Max per class - $179 pp 8am - 3:30pm email if interested - mike Streamsideflyshop@yahoo.com
I just got back from fishing the Methow river. The weather was not too cold, little wet at times but not as wet as the west side. From just above Carlton the slides have dumped a lot of silt into the river so check the visibility before fishing from there down. It runs from fish-able at 2-3 ft to brown and dirty. I did most of my fishing above there in the clear water but did catch a few fish in the dirty water. We hit rainbows, cutbow, bulltrout, Steelhead..... and whitefish (thanks to Edward :) 
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