My friends and I are planning our first steelhead fishing trip out to the Forks Washington area on the 8th of March. We will be fishing there for about 5 days. As first timers we are wondering about the recomendation of the local experts as to the use of baitcasting reels vs. the open face spinning reels. Do you feel that one or the other has a bigger advantage over the other? Some of us in the group are also bring our fly rods along on this trip. We have been told that the time that we have picked should be a prime time to be there??? Can any one narrow down what we should bring as far as tackle? Both for the fly rodders and the hardware fishermen. We also are bringing a drift boat with us, so that a few can fish from the boat while the others will fish from the bank. Only a couple of us have fished for steelies before, and that has been in Idaho on the Clearwater and the Salmon. Any and all help is appreciated. Thanks!

Id fish with whatever your most comfortable with. Either spinning or casting reels have thier advantages.

You might as well float fish just no other way to do it this year.

Cant give you any tips on the fly fishin.

Bull, before you finalize your plans and make the long drive to Forks, I suggest you read through some of the posts on this page regarding the Puget Sound area river closures. In summary, many of the rivers in the Seattle / Tacoma area close tomorrow (Mar 1) due our state's knee-jerk reaction to low water & low returns. These closures will result in a traffic jam North on Hwy 101 to Forks. All of us guys who love flogging the local rivers will be making the drive to compete with the peninsula locals for fish and access. I'm sure there is room for all on the Forks' rivers, but rest assured it won't be as good or as tranquil as it has been in the past. You should have better luck since you are planning an extended trip, but I highly recommend you re-visit this board next week, after the reports roll-in from the zoo this weekend. You might be better off saving about 9 hours of drive time and hitting the Snake or Asotin areas. Best of luck - Hawk

Thanks for the replys,