Summer steelhead fishing has been awesome. We have been hooking a lot of nice steelhead lately and a few chinook. This low water and hot weather has been really nice, especially with the fish cooperating in the middle of the day. The silvers are showing up in the Sol Duc, but it is getting tough to float. We are doing a lot of dragging the raft through the rapids. But, the low water and light pressure is nice.
We have been picking up a lot of steelhead. Rob and Jim came out for a few days and crushed them. The summer steelhead are here. Mot much else to say. If you can get over to the Olympic Peninsula, I would.
Fishing has been really good lately. David and Angela came out from Chicago to chase some summer steelhead on the Olympic Peninsula. This was actually their first fly fishing trip. They took a 2hr LL Bean casting class in Chicago then decided to skip learning on trout and going straight into steelhead fishing. It was a good plan because the steelhead have been grabby. Learning how to fight a fish on a fly reel takes some time. Learning on a steelhead is like trying to learn to drive a stick in a Porche. They hooked some crazy fish that would have been difficult to land even if they were seasoned steelhead anglers. Landed one and long distance released five others. It was an epic introduction to steelhead fishing and fly fishing in general.
Frank and Nick came out for some summer fishing. The steelhead were tough to convince to bite in the morning. The water bumped a lot over night. We landed a small on before lunch, then found a beast in the afternoon on the swing. This was Frank’s biggest steelhead to date, and he got it on the spey rod. It was a big buck in the 16lb range. Then we found a few chinook to cap the day. Awesome weather, great fish, wet wading for steelhead…… I really like summer steelhead fishing on the OP.
Bennet and David were out from North Carolina for a summer steelhead trip. They had only fished for trout and bass on a fly and were looking to chase some steelhead in the Pacific Northwest. They couldn’t have picked a better day. We put the boat in and hooked one in ton the third cast. After they realized that steelhead pull a little different than brook trout in small streams we started getting them to the net. A lot of fish are showing up. I am looking forward to the rest of the summer steelhead season (through early October).
Walt and Patrick came out from FL. They were on a family vacation to the Olympic Peninsula and they were able to sneak out for a day of steelheading. I went kayak fishing with Walt down in Florida in June. Conditions were tough but we found some snook and jacks. Now, I was able to show him my backyard. Chasing steelhead in a river was a new experience for him. The fish cooperated and we found some nice steelhead and large chinook. Here is a link to an article he had published on YakAngler.com. Very cool read with a lot of pics. Thanks Walt. That was a good time.
Steelheading has been going from good to great over the past few weeks. There have been a lot of fish showing up in the late season. March and April on the Olympic Peninsula is usually as consistent as February and late January, but have been hooking a bunch of steelhead lately. There have been some double digits lately. There are some big ones coming in as well.
The water has been really high for the month of March and early February was more of a drought. It is getting ready to come off the big blow out. We are looking forward to more big chromers coming in with this high water. Fishing has been pretty good since January. We have been finding them here and there with the random double digit day. We have been seeing a lot of 3 salt fish this year. For dates still available, we have openings in the April 16-30 range.
