Anybody having luck catching steelies in this cold clear water?

I caught two hens today in the cold clear water. plan on catchin one tommorow too,
well hopefully.

Ryan Sedy

I fished Wednesday and Thursday and didnt touch a thing, maybe I should go to hardware?
where did you get your two fish?

I've been having better luck going out later and waiting for the sun to hit the water and warm it a little.

I caught one at 10:30 and it was freezing my hands were numb, and i caught the other right around 3:00, both on eggs, both right next to some ugly chums, i think there sittin behind the chums eatin all the eggs that the lay.
Rich G if you email me i will tell you were you were fishing but i wont post it on this board.

Ryan Sedy

sorry about that last one rich g, i meant tell you were I was fishing

Ryan-
Whats your E-mail address.

Ryan-
never mind I found it.

I think I'll try eggs, sand shrimp and jigs in the morning. Maybe even throw a spinner to wake them up.

Those methods obviouly work; I usually try them first. But does anybody try this cold clear water method? - I use stealth to wade out well above the holding water and slowly work a small size 50 dark green metalic Hot Shot (well tuned, thin line to get it deeper, super sharp hook, and crawfish/anise scent) down thru the fish. If I see fish with with the help of sunglases I will let it hover and pester them for bit. When the water is too slow to get a good back down or hvering action, it will work well casted/drifted to the lower end of a hole and slowly reeled up thru the fish. This little deadly setup (I call it the 'Green Machine') gets them out of their lethergy and on the chew. They don't strike it as hard in water temps down into the 30's, but they do bite it. Try other brands and patterns of small plugs during these conditions. - Steve Hanson (RT)

Been fishin' a river on the peninsula, not in Forks that has been running at 42-43 degrees. No problem hooking winter steelies. Bait, jigs.
Fish-on
greg

Fished the Lewiston ID area this weekend and had some success. Clearwater is 40 degrees even and we hooked and landed a 13 lb. keeper. Fish took a mag wart back trolled VERY slowly. The take was just that, a take. The rod slowly bent back as if snagged on a submerged limb. When the fight began I thought that maybe the fish was a medium sized chinook as it crossed the river and sat on the bottom for a few. Very strange fight for a steelhead, slow and lethargic. Taken at 0830 hrs outside temp of 19 degrees. Second fish was taken on the snake, water temp of 48 degrees, time 1130 hrs. outside temp of nearly 30 degrees. 10 lb native with aggressive strike and good fight. Also hooked on same mag wart(different rod). Fish was much more aggressive and energetic(not all due to native status IMO as it appeared to be an unmarked brat judging by size). The cold, clear water of the Clearwater affected our fishing in my opinion both in number of strikes and quality of fight. Had the pleasure of watching one group alone catch and land three fish in ten minutes drifting shrimp on the snake while we only saw one other fish hooked on the clearwater. The area we fished had lots of fish that normally bite but this weekend they were content to lay around much like the cougars did.

I tried the cold low water Sunday morning around the Calawah and Bogie ponds. No luck but did see a few roll. Got a little bit of rain and warmed up a bit around noon. Probably not the best time to go but it sure is nice to be able to have the river to yourself and be able to get familiar with it in the low water. Did see a couple of other fishermen with one fish.

I finally fished the Grande Rhonde last Sunday and found the water extremely cold. How cold you ask? Well, one fish I caught was in a deep hole that had about a 20 foot opening that you had to cast into to get away from all the ice! When hooked all I could do was to try and get his head over the edge of the ice and try to pull him out over the 20 feet of ice to shore. I'd have to say I got lucky landing this one. I did manage three fish that day but all were hatchery brats with almost no fight what-so-ever (not all that big either).
All three were taken on a jig and bobber drift'n bait shrimp. The takes were very slow and the water is extremely low and very clear for this river. Nobody else appeared to be doing any good. Had a guide boat flow past that ran an overnight trip and got skunked for two day in a row. So I'm feel pretty lucky I did as good as I did.

Duke