AP,

I guess my point is that you don't hook 40 fish unless there are at least 40 fish around. Most of the places I'm familiar with don't have 40 fish in the entire river reach over two days, which is why I asked. Hatchery steelhead generally aren't too abundant these days except at select hatchery blood holes on the coast. I know a lot of good anglers who don't catch that many fish, mainly because there aren't that many fish around, in which case it doesn't matter who you are or how well you can fish.

I understand that nymphing can be as productive as gear fishing, because in a lot of circumstances it is gear fishing. 40 fish over 2 days is damn good fishing on any kind of sports tackle. Hell, I've seen a lot of gill nets that don't catch 40 steelhead in two days.

Rossiman,

Are you saying that a steelhead will pass up one bead and take another? I have never tried beads for steelhead, but the most selective steelhead I've ever fished are inland fall steelhead that are experiencing heavy fishing pressure. And then I'd call them mildly selective at most. I can understand AK trout, grayling, and char that feed extensively on loose salmon eggs becoming keyed in to a specific size and color, but it would be a new day for me to see steelhead, you know, that pea-brained sea run rainbow that will hit anything properly placed in front of it, to refuse one bead and strike another.

Are you referring to the late season SF Clearwater "boot" fishery? I've read that nymphing beads is popular and productive there. I presume it's because of all the hatchery steelhead that spawn there, causing a "hatch" to be matched that attracts the other steelhead. I've only fished the lower CW in ID in Sept./Oct. and never seen anyone nymph there.

Coley,

Is the difference because bead fishing in AK is essentially "matching the hatch?" In WA steelhead tend to be more opportunistic than deliberate feeders, so I think there is less incentive to engage in "hatch-matching" effort. When there are good numbers of early steelhead in the Grande Ronde and grasshoppers still around, that is about as close to matching the hatch steelhead fly fishing I've ever heard of. I suppose some bead selectivity might occur like right now on the Salmon where QIN hatchery coho and chinook are actively spawning and shedding enough loose eggs for the hatchery steelhead to take an interest and maybe even key in on them. I don't think I've ever been there when that might be going on, so I've never seen it.

I think there is a bit of a loyalty over effectiveness preference that appears to be age-distributed. Those who fly fished for steelhead in WA when the regulations didn't allow lead, either on the fly or as split shot on the leader, tend to fish swung flies exclusively or nearly so. My philosophy has long been that anyone who needs to catch a steelhead ought not to fly fish for them. It looks to me that younger fly fishermen who have come to steelheading through trout fishing, that wasn't constrained by the no-lead rule, and that included nymph fishing, are more open to nymphing for steelhead with fly gear instead of using a spinning rod which is far better suited to the technique. A lot of old school steelheaders used to put their fly rods away in the winter and take up drift rods simply because lead is better suited to the deep deliveries necessary to take winter steelhead with any consistency.

I keep hearing about some OR fly guys who are totally into nymphing for winter steelhead because apparently most of the OR N. coast rivers have an incised stream channel morphology that is best suited to nymphing and is nigh on impossible to swing. I don't know if they're into beads specifically, but they catch as many winter steelhead as their spin fishing counterparts, which I guess pencils out since they're essentially fishing the same way.

So is there a 3/4" diameter bead for dirty water? The Queets often runs with about 10" visibility, and 6 to 8" streamers seem to be in order. What bead or bead combination would be appropriate for that fishery? Or is that outside the bounds of suitable bead fishing?

How's that AK winter treating you?

Sg