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For putting fresh tracks in snow and stalking the creeks for steelhead! The late fall and early winter fishing has been great for me so far. I’ve been getting out a couple times a week on the creeks for at least the last month or so. There’s plenty of fish throughout the systems with fresh fish trickling in the lower and holdover fish in the upper reaches. I’ve been fishing plugs hard the past couple of weeks. The spinner bite has all but died with the cold water settling in. You might be able to get a fish or two to chase in the warmer water if the ditch, but it’d be a long shot most anywhere else. I have broke down and drifted spawn a couple of hours in the past week with some success. But, for me the tug is the drug and fishing plugs has been very productive. In this cold water all my fish are coming on wide wobbling flatfish or kwikfish type lures. You can basically still fish these baits in the water that’s holding fish right now there’s just enough current to hold them down and make them work. Slowly backing the plug down through the runs and pools will bring some JOLTING strikes even in this cold cold water.

Nice!

Beautiful steelhead S.S. I am envious of your fishing oppurtunities up north, even in the snow. The stream life and cold water seems to make the fish pop with all their natural colors. I would think a brown stream caught now would be just as gorgeous. Excellent pix also.

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Proof positive. Did you keep the fish or did you release them for another day? I guess I need to try this. Is the action pretty fast? Or is just a few bites during your trips. Is there good public access to shore lines or banks if a person wants to try it.

Don, the easy fish are hard to come by, the hard fish easy to get.

Some areas are very accessible and easy to fish. They get fished a lot and the fish either get caught and killed or move through or find a very good place to hide.

Other areas are a tangled maze of brambles and downed trees that are basically like fishing through one of thos military obstacle courses I see in the movies. Imagine belly crawling through barb wire with a fishing pole. The fish in those area are usually very easy to get to bite. Landing them maybe not so much.

I would say 90% of steelhead in the creeks will hit the first thing they see. The tough part is showing them something to hit without spooking them first.

I realease every fish I can. They spend a few months in the creeks and can be caught multiple times and release well in the cold water, and unlike salmon after they spawn they can return out to the lake to do it all again. The ones that are hooked to deep to release I keep, but generally speaking they aren’t all that great eating, especially the longer they are in the river.

The bites usually come quick when you find the right spots, but I rarely catch more than one fish out of a hole without giving it a good break before fishing it again. The more water you cover the more bites you’ll get.

Last day of fall...

This guy was still holding out on the 21st