I haven't been able to verify this, but I have heard that there were no smolts planted two years ago, which would mean that the only hatchery steelhead coming back this year would be three-salt fish. I thought that there was a reduced number planted that year due to the shaky funding situation at Reiter, where the fish that are reared at Whitehorse originate. Either way, unless there was extraordinarily good survival at sea, there won't be many fish coming back. It's been pretty dry, so maybe the claybank at Steelhead Haven won't keep the lower part of the river too dirty to fish and we'll have a chance to fish over the wild Deer Creek fish before August. After all that gloomy talk, in the low water conditions that will probably prevail this summer I've always favored two patterns: Haig-Brown's Silver Brown and the Spade. I always tie my Spades with a dubbed butt of orange, fluorescent green or kingfisher blue just to add a spot of color. I tie both on #8 or #6 light wire hooks and fish them on a floating line and in sort of a half-assed greased line style.