Northwest Steelheading

Wild Wenatchee Steelhead - November 2007

 

I moved to Washington in 1990 with dreams of steelhead.  Having taken one steelhead trip to Michigan while in the Midwest the steelhead had a mystique about it and I yearned to catch one of these ocean going rainbows in one of the great Northwest steelhead rivers.  Unfortunately, I moved to the Northwest about the time steelhead were in decline and I spent a few years trying to catch one with no luck.  After leaving work in 2000 I started steelheading again and in 2002 finally succeeded in landing 4 steelhead in about an hour on the famous Deschutes River in Central Oregon.  Since that time I spend some time on steelhead waters each year depending on how the runs are going.  The Deschutes has become an annual trip now, I fish the Snoqualmie summer runs before work, and try to get to one of the other desert rivers each season.

Steelhead Rivers

Steelhead Flies

I have caught all my steelhead on basically 2 patterns with several colors in the one pattern. 

Streetwalker

The Streetwalker was responsible for my first Deschutes fish on a spey rod and has since caught several other Deschutes fish plus most of my Snoqualmie fish.

Painted Lady

The Painted Lady is a creation of Jay Paulson of AmazingFlies.com and has worked in every color and every river we've tried it in.     The Wenatchee fish above was taken on a 1.5 Black Painted Lady.

Steelheading Trips