Steelhead Fishing
Monday, August 18th, 2008Steelhead fishing in Oregon, Washington and Idaho has some of the finest steelhead fishing found anywhere in the world. The abundant rivers and rainfall that frequent the Pacific Northwest coast provides for ideal steelhead and salmon fishing opportunities. Just about any time of year, a steelhead angler can find an opportunity to pursue steelhead. Idaho thanks to the Snake, Clearwater, and Salmon Rivers offers the angler fishing opportunities from August through the end of April.
Steelheads are the most sought after game fish here in the Northwest and possibly the world. There are some excellent runs of native fish that angler can fish for along the coastline. These native fish are on a catch and release basis only however.
Most rivers in Oregon and Washington have both Summer Steelhead and Winter Steelhead. The summer run fish begin arriving in the spring and stay in the rivers until the next winter when they spawn and head back to the ocean. These summer fish are very aggressive and will take lures, flies, bait and most anything, that is presented to them. The summer steelhead when they come back into the rivers are aggressive feeders and they actually revert back to the behaviors of a big rainbow trout as they live in the rivers for many months before actually spawning.
Fishing for these fish can be very exciting as they are very acrobatic and jump frequently and are very strong fighting fish. The summer fish are a very colorful fish with similar markings to a trout. One exception is the metallic looking head and the big red stripe down the side. Steelheads are also much bigger than a trout. Winter Steelhead begin coming into the rivers in the late fall usually with the first good rainfall. The first to arrive are the hatchery fish, which traditionally begin to show around thanksgiving on some rivers with the bulk of the runs occurring from Christmas to mid January.
The native fish usually come in later beginning in February and continuing until April or so. These winter fish are chrome bright as they enter the rivers and will be a dark blue on the back with bright silver white sides.
The winter steelheads are not as aggressive biters as the summer fish and can be quite challenging to catch. These fish are coming in to spawn and they usually do this quickly after entering the fresh water. Because they do begin to discolor quickly and begin there spawning activity almost immediately after entering there home rivers it is very important to be on the river in the right spot at the right time with the right river conditions to be able to catch a beautiful chrome bright winter steelhead. It is a very good idea to go with someone that knows the river well or hire a guide if you wish to have good success on the winter fish.
Idaho anglers are somewhat limited as compared to the opportunities of the coastal fisheries. However, Idaho does provide some great steelhead fishing. The Clearwater River is world renowned for its B-Run steelhead, which are some of the largest fish found any where in the world. Thanks to the efforts off the national fisheries service and hatcheries one the Clearwater there are plenty of fish for the angler to search out.
The Steelhead is one of the most popular game fish in the world and for that reason when the fishing is good expect some company while fishing for them.
Native steelhead can get quite large with fish in the 20-pound or larger being common. On occasion, the angler will catch a 30 pound plus fish as well. The Northwest has many hatchery steelhead programs designed to allow the angler to catch and keep some of these fine eating fish as well. The hatchery fish usually do not get as large as the natives do. However, it still is common for an angler to hook into a 20 plus pound hatchery steelhead.
There are many organizations dedicated to improving salmon, trout and steelhead habitat through out the Northwest. These organizations are working to improve the fishing publics’ opportunity to catch them. As a steelhead angler, it would be in your best interest to support these local organizations. They do some fine work protecting and preserving this fabulous resource for all of us to enjoy.
Oregon and Washington have several “Brood stock Programs” in progress which are designed to allow the Steelhead in there native river to pass on there genes to the hatchery programs. These are very good programs and allow the native fish of a particular river to remain genetically pure without the influence of hatchery fish from another river to interbreed with them. This allows the steelhead angler to keep a hatchery fish that is actually from wild stock. I encourage you to support any and all of these efforts to preserve this very important fishing resource.
