With the holiday season slowly coming to a close, and the steelhead season beginning to take hold, now is the time to break out all of our new toys and hit the rivers! These coming weeks look to be fantastic conditions for winter steelhead action across the NW. Whether you are fishing the coast, Valley, Olympic Peninsula or SW Washington streams, the steelhead bite should be productive!
As the snow begins to melt, the water will cool, but remain the nice steelhead green color that we all dream of. However, with the cooler water temperatures, expect the fish to become quite lethargic. If conditions prevail as forecasted, the steelhead will be holding in the secondary seams, tailouts and slower waters. We are also far enough into the season for the fish to be spread throughout every system. This should hopefully spread out the anglers as well.
As for techniques; drift fishing, bobber and jig, bead fishing, or swinging a spoon will be great options. If fishing from a boat, side drifting will be your go-to technique just because it covers so much water quickly. But once you have patterned the fish, and where they are holding, switch it up to smaller presentations (like bead fishing) to hit similar water. This will increase your overall success rate. Don’t forget about back trolling either! Many anglers have gone away from this technique in favor of others, but not many presentations can beat a slowly presented sandshrimp and spin glo or a small metallic plug in these water conditions.
Good luck to everyone out there on the water over the coming weeks! Send us your pictures of the fish you catch at: outdoorgps@csnnw.com
On the show this weekend, We will be honored to have Scott Haugen of Trijicon’s the Hunt! Scott is a local NW legend who has taken his capabilities beyond the rivers and streams of Oregon/Washington/Idaho and has traveled the world in search of amazing hunting and fishing opportunities. Scott and his wife Tiffany have written multiple books not only on how to become more successful in the field, but also how to prepare and cook your harvest to share and enjoy with your loved ones! So don’t miss the show this Thursday night at 6pm on Comcast Sportsnet NW!
Saturday’s show will be designed around fine tuning your steelhead techniques for the conditions forecasted over the weekend and into the new year. Bethy from Adrenaline Hunter will also be joining us to share a new recipe!
On Sunday, it will be the viewer show once again! Taking your phone calls, answering questions, hearing your reports from the weekend and showing viewer pics all hour long.
Happy Holidays everyone and we will see you Live on Comcast Sportsnet NW, Thursday at 6pm, Saturday and Sunday at 8am!
Cody Herman
Outdoor GPS Host