North 40 Fly Shop eMagazine October 2017 | Page 26

INLAND
STEELHEAD
SETTING UP FOR
EARLY SEASON
BY DYLAN MCGREGOR
Since July 1, about 1,800 steelhead have swam
over Washington’s Lower Granite Dam on their
way to upstream tributaries, including the Grande
Ronde, Salmon, Imnaha and Clearwater rivers.
This low fish count is extremely concerning,
but that doesn’t mean you don’t have a chance
to catch a steelhead this season. And that in-
cludes early season options.
Fishing a floating line is my preferred meth-
od for steelhead; why give up the opportunity to
watch a fish explode near the surface? Fortu-
nately, the early season is the best time to catch
steelhead with floating lines and surface flies, or
small wet flies, because the water temperatures
are warm and the fish are active. Common wis-
dom says steelhead chase flies at the surface
most consistently when the water temperature
ranges between 50 and 60 degrees, which is ex-
actly what we find on our local rivers in Septem-
ber through early- to mid-October.
When going after these aggressive, early sea-
son fish my new-found favorite setup is an Echo
DHII 7130-4, lined with a 480-grain Scandi com-
pact head, and a 10-foot long polyleader with a
five-foot long tippet. I prefer 12-pound test Max-
ima for tippet because it gives me the strength
I need to land fish as fast as possible, which is
even more critical this year than it has ever been
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