The scenario goes like this: Optimism and high hopes early in the season. A few fish caught on and after Thanksgiving. Declining catches and excuses, such as “the rivers are too low and clear to give a real indication, but we’re hoping a good rain will bring more of ‘em in.” Worries about the strength of the winter run.
Then, finally, resignation. Another bum steelhead season.
The sad and sour scenario seems to happen year after year after year these days, discouraging all but the most avid winter steelheaders. Regardless of whether or not the picture is accurate, regardless of the reasons, it seems to be playing out again this winter. And it really gets old, after a while.
Reports locally have been poor recently, perhaps because the rivers ARE too low and clear, but perhaps because there aren’t many winter steelhead coming. There were at least fair numbers of fish being taken on the Forks-area rivers, the past few weeks, but those streams have become too bony for top action as well. More fish coming over there? Who knows.
Down south, the Cowlitz has offered fair December fishing, but not the bonanza being hyped earlier by state steelhead managers. WDFW biologist Joe Hymer, at the Vancouver office, says, “Cowlitz River steelhead fishing has not lived up to expectations to date. Hopefully things will improve with a good rain.”
Well, maybe they will. But after a while you almost get to the point where you really don’t care any more.
Almost, but not quite.
There are at least a couple of bright spots in an otherwise dreary picture. Guide Sam Ingram of Arlington reports perhaps one of the best days of the season so far at Lagoon Point on the west side of Whidbey Island. “A couple of fishing friends of mine live right there,” Ingram says, “and they said there were eight guys fishing on Tuesday at the tide change, six of them hooked fish, and four were landed. That’s not bad, and they said the fishery has been slowly getting better.”
Sometimes the scale of action on the Whidbey beaches is a predictor of fish heading this way.
Another decent report comes from the North Fork Stillaguamish, where John Martinis, owner of John’s Sporting Goods in Everett, caught two nice fish Tuesday morning. The North Fork is so low and clear, Martinis says, that the secret is to fish below the slide area where visibility is maybe two feet or a little better.
“There was no one else around, and not even any footprints on the beach,” he says. “And the river is full of Dolly Varden, which you have to release, of course.”
With ponds and small lakes in the Columbia Basin now frozen, Wally Hoch of Ducks Inn Guide Service in Ephrata (509-754-9670) says the only consistent shooting he’s been able to find recently has been on the Columbia River around Vantage. Potholes Reservoir isn’t holding many birds, Hoch says. Moses Lake is, but they’re mostly inside city limits.
Hoch says there’s still fair hunting in the Tri-Cities area. On the McNary NWR, try the Peninsula Unit, just across Highway 12 from the refuge and south of the town of Burbank, he says.
“Goose numbers remain high,” he says, “but daily scouting is necessary to locate where they’re feeding. With lower temperatures, both ducks and geese will need to feed twice daily to maintain condition, and geese will become more dependent on corn, versus wheat.”
He’ll throw it for you, if you ask politely.
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